Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 4 August 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5480, p. 723
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5480.723d
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Random Samples

The Gulf of Mexico's dead zone shrank this year. New data released last week show that the sea area off Louisiana's Mississippi River delta containing low or no oxygen covered just 4400 square kilometers in July, down from 1999's record-breaking 20,000 square kilometers (see map below). The zone, within which fish, shrimp, and other animals suffocate if they can't flee, has averaged about 16,000 square kilometers since 1993, notes dead zone mapper Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The shrinkage this year is due to spring drought conditions in the Mississippi Basin, which reduced the nutrient flows that fuel algal blooms in the Gulf. The news comes as government officials put the final touches on a plan to choke off the dead zone by reducing fertilizer runoff and other pollutants along the Mississippi (www.epa.gov/msbasin/fr-actionplan.html).

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)