Drought Conditions Trigger Smallest Gulf ‘Dead Zone’ in Years

Yale Environment 360: U.S. scientists say the nation's worst drought in five decades has had at least one positive effect: the smallest so-called "dead zone" seen in the Gulf of Mexico in years. In a 1,200-mile research cruise NASA. Algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico conducted in the waters of the gulf this month, scientists from Texas A&M University found only 1,580 square miles of oxygen-depleted, or hypoxic, water in the gulf, compared with 3,400 square miles last August. The hypoxic zone is created when algal blooms,...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/drought_conditions_trigger__smallest_gulf_dead_zone_in_years/3603/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29
Enclosure: http://e360.yale.edu/images/digest/algal_bloom_gulf_mexico_dead_zone.jpg