'The dead zones, linked to global warming'
LOL - how about agricultural runoff? What other ills of man kind can be blamed on GW?
msnbc.msn.com
150 'dead zones' counted in oceans
U.N. report warns of nitrogen runoff killing fisheries
Threats to our oceans
Oceans may look pristine but experts warn that life below the sea could collapse. Click through this slideshow to see the threats listed in a 2003 report by experts with the Pew Oceans Commission.
Ocean 'dead zones' growing, study says
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 2:12 p.m. ET, Mon., March. 29, 2004
The number of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" in the world's oceans has been increasing since the 1970s and is now nearly 150, threatening fisheries as well as humans who depend on fish, the U.N. Environment Program announced Monday in unveiling its first-ever Global Environment Outlook Year Book.
These "dead zones" are caused by an excess of nitrogen from farm fertilizers, sewage and emissions from vehicles and factories. In what experts call a “nitrogen cascade,” the chemical flows untreated into oceans and triggers the proliferation of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen in the water.
While fish might flee this suffocation, slow moving, bottom-dwelling creatures like clams, lobsters and oysters are less able to escape |
