Assignment #4: Environmental Issue The Dead Zone By: Joelle Williams The Dead Zone The Dead Zone is an area in the ocean that cannot support life. The natural ocean ecosystem of interdependent living and non-living organisms that balance and stabilize the ecological community is abolished. The dead zone is a low-oxygen area referred to as hypoxic. This means these zones of ocean are depleted of oxygen to the point that it is detrimental to the aquatic life that inhabits it. The dead zone is littered with the carcasses of dead sea animals.
Elevated pH can in turn ‘blind' organisms that rely on perception of dissolved chemical cues for their survival by impairing their chemosensory abilities (Figure 3) (Turner & Chislock 2010). When these dense algal blooms eventually die, microbial decomposition severely depletes dissolved oxygen, creating a hypoxic or anoxic ‘dead zone' lacking sufficient oxygen to support most organisms. Dead zones are found in many freshwater lakes including the Laurentian Great Lakes (e.g., central basin of Lake Erie; Arend et al. 2011) during the summer. Furthermore, such hypoxic events are particularly common in marine coastal environments surrounding large, nutrient-rich rivers (e.g., Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico; Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay) and have been shown to affect more than 245,000 square kilometers in over 400 near-shore systems (Diaz & Rosenberg 2008).
As a result of gas station paying more for their gasoline, this will increase the amount the customer will have to pay for gasoline. According to the Federal Trade Commission, The storm “affected 19% of the United States oil production. Hurricanes Katrina (and a smaller previous Hurricane Rita) destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled nearly as much oil as the Exxon Valdez oil disaster”. This caused oil prices to increase by $3 a barrel, and gas prices to nearly reach $5 a gallon. Because of the devastation of hurricane Katrina many of the United States oil refineries were damaged, causing a decrease in gas supply.
Today, as in the past, oceans are being treated as giant disposal areas for all types of refuse (plastics, tins, bottles etc.) with the belief that the enormous size of the oceans would be enough to dilute and break-down any materials we put into them. Most of the waste we produce on land eventually, in one way or another, reaches our oceans, either through deliberate dumping or from run-off through drains and rivers. But, sadly, now we have to reap the ramifications of our choices. With an average of 6.3 million kilograms of trash being pumped into our oceans every year, it won't be very long until they reach breaking point.
With the vessels having foreign aquatic life attached to the bottom of the ship and also leaking fluids into the lake while passing through. Also for these sources of pollution cause beach closing and a decrease in aquatic
Environmental Hazards a. In the St. Lawrence River, lots of industry has resulted in high levels of toxic chemical such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and heavy metals. b. Because these toxins affect not only one specie but also all of species that are interconnected by food chain. c. These pollution decline beluga’s immune system, get disease easily that linked to low birth rates of belugas which have lived in the St. Lawrence River.
With the climate changes many plants and animals are having to relocate or are dying because they are not fit for the changes in their surroundings. We created the Clean Air Act mandating cleaner gasoline for cars and trucks and stricter rules on power plant emissions. Thanks to this act the amount of mercury emitted into the air has been greatly reduced from 246 tons in 1990 to 61 tons in 2008. In the 1990s, the amount of NOx emissions into the atmosphere declined from 26 million tons in 1990 to about 17 million tons in 2008. The SO2 reductions during that time went from 23 million tons to 10 million tons a year.
Unlike dry deposition, winds can blow wet deposition hundreds of miles away from the source of emission, making it an issue for everyone. Natural, unpolluted rainwater is slightly acidic, with a pH of around 5.6 due to a natural occurrence of CO2, NO and SO2 substances. Therefore a pH value less than 5.0 is considered to be acid rain. In certain areas of the United States, the pH of rainwater has been measured
"More than 60 percent of the original African rain forest is gone." (Pulsipher) As well as depleting their rain forest Africans are cutting down their dry forests as well to make way for farmland and fuel wood and other settlements. Not only are they clearing their lands but they are grossly depleting the fish populations off of their coasts. THe wildlife which provides the protein, medications for the prevention of diseases, and revenue from tourism are becoming severely threatened by habitat loss. Desertification is spreading and water supplies are decreasing at an a rate faster than nature can replace it.
There are five main things that affect the ocean and harm it, Whaling, overfishing, factory fishing, global warming, and pollution. Every year the Japanese government kills mink whales. They kill at least eight hundred fifty of these whales. Factory fishing is also a major harm to the ocean. Factories create equipment that destroys species in the ocean.