Gulf ‘dead zone’ smaller than expected, more severe

Weather patterns affected size

Wendy Natt, Jul 29, 09.

The Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ that scientists predicted would grow to cover an area of over 7,000 square miles this summer will come nowhere close to those earlier size estimates, but researchers emphasize that this is not an indication that the impacts of the dead zone or the conditions causing it are less severe, according to recent article in the Houston Business Journal.

Recent measurements of the dead zone, located off of the Louisiana and Texas coasts, showed it to cover an area of 3,000 square miles. While much smaller than expected, scientists at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium note that this oxygen-starved, or hypoxic, area of ocean where little life can survive is more severe and extends closer to the surface than usual.

Robert Magnien, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research says that the reason for the area’s smaller than predicted size is “not a reduction in the underlying cause, excessive nutrient runoff,” but “appears to be related to short-term weather patterns.”