Growing Low-Oxygen Zones in Oceans Worry Scientists

Growing Low-Oxygen Zones in Oceans Worry Scientists

www.truthout.org

In some spots off Washington state and Oregon, the almost complete absence of oxygen has left piles of Dungeness crab carcasses littering the ocean floor, killed off 25-year-old sea stars, crippled colonies of sea anemones and produced mats of potentially noxious bacteria that thrive in such conditions.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.sevensidedcube.net
themoderatevoice.com
www.oceanconserve.org
www.oceanconserve.org

Recently, several submissions spoke of hundreds of thousands of fish washing ashore. This is something a little different - not to mention potentially quite alarming. I didn’t see it posted, so if it has already been, I apologize.

Suppose this is part of the reason for the large die-offs. Suppose the oxygen levels in the ocean continue decreasing significantly. Obviously, it would affect our children directly. I can't imagine the ramifications upon the land dwellers as a whole - nor do I want to imagine it.

Although this is a recent article, it appears this serious topic has been written about quite a bit before.

What, other than STOP POLLUTING THE OCEANS, THE LANDS, ETC. can we really do?

Is this just another weather anomaly?


www.truthout.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Gutterpus






Dead zones are caused by phytoplankton...ultimately its pollution + heat = massive phytoplankton blooming

reply to post by Gutterpus


From the article.

Previous studies have found that the oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

"If the Earth continues to warm, the expectation is we will have lower and lower oxygen levels," said Francis Chan, a marine researcher at Oregon State.

As ocean temperatures rise, the warmer water on the surface acts as a cap, which interferes with the natural circulation that normally allows deeper waters that are already oxygen-depleted to reach the surface. It's on the surface where ocean waters are recharged with oxygen from the air.

Commonly, ocean "dead zones" have been linked to agricultural runoff and other pollution coming down major rivers such as the Mississippi or the Columbia. One of the largest of the 400 or so ocean dead zones is in the Gulf of Mexico, near the mouth of the Mississippi.

However, scientists now say that some of these areas, including those off the Northwest, apparently are linked to broader changes in ocean oxygen levels.

The fresh water ice caps have been melting into the oceans, which lowers the salinity levels and in turn slows down the currents of the oceans. I find it kind of weird that the ocean can have low oxygen levels, since it consists mainly of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom...

As to what we could do besides ending the pollution of our rivers and oceans? Maybe we could help algae and other sea plants grow near the dead zones in the oceans. Their photosynthesis would create more oxygen.

We could also pump oxygen into the dead zones similar to pumping oxygen into a fish tank. Although, oxygen is probably more important for us to breathe, so we need to plant more trees before we start pumping tons of our air into the ocean.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by tooo many pills]

reply to post by tooo many pills


none of that will work (and the algae thing would make it worse actually).

The solution will need to be a technological one...What got us into this mess will be the thing that gets us out of this mess...aka, progress.

No new measures will help, no full banning of anything will reverse the course...we need to now look at genetically creating something that will feed off of the plankton and in itself not end up just as bad...a decomposition material of oxygen would be ideal, but unlikely...alot of thought would need to go into such a new species to counter the effect to make sure it doesn't throw the ecosystem out of wack (worse than it is already)

Solution: GM scavenger fish that eat the carcass of the plankton

We could just leave it alone. It probably isn't the first time this has happened and probably won't be the last. When you have cycles that last hundreds of years and we have only had the capability to measure those cycles for about 100 years, we don't have enough of a baseline to tell what effects we might be having versus natural events. If we try to do something, we usually end up making the problem worse.

Originally posted by SaturnFX
reply to post by tooo many pills

 

The solution will need to be a technological one...What got us into this mess will be the thing that gets us out of this mess...aka, progress.

I always have trouble in these threads, so I am hoping that someone can explain this to me:

The Earth, and life, has been around for millions of years. What makes you think that suddenly it needs human interference?

Now, if your entire argument is based on: Humans created global warming -- then I don't know what to say other than the Earth has gone through several periods of warming - ice age - warming - ice age. etc., before humans were even here. So while I don't argue that we have contributed something to the problem, it is quite obvious that it would have happened eventually anyway -- since it has before. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and the Earth has warmed before.

It just makes me really uncomfortable to think that we are heading into an age where we literally try to control the entire planet. Modifying weather, changing ocean temperatures, injecting oxygen, blasting the moon....not to mention chemically-produced food and animals and such.

reply to post by SaturnFX


I don't understand how algae could make it worse, nor do I understand how it is the fault of Phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are at the bottom of the food chain and the key food item to many marine animals. They create loads of oxygen while they are alive then use up some as they drift to the bottom of the ocean decaying.

Phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth. Thus phytoplankton are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere – half of the total amount produced by all plant life.

en.wikipedia.org...

When they die are they sucking up more oxygen than they produced? Because that doesn't see right to me? Is all of the oxygen they create leaving the water? Then when they die they suck the O's from the H2O's?

It seems like the nutrient rich, low-oxygen water from the bottom of the ocean gets upwelled and causes the problem. That water is nutrient rich from everything dispersing to the bottom, which includes nitrogen, other minerals, decaying fish, and phytoplankton.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by tooo many pills]

What about these experiments where they were purposefully injecting CO2 into the oceans to spur PhytoPlankton to help combat global warming? Any connections?

What about that eerie Blob along the coast of Alaska earlier last year?

What about the increased volcanic and tectonic activity? Releasing Oxygen-eating chemicals at the ocean floor maybe?

One thing for sure . . . . . LEAVE IT THE H*LL ALONE!! Don't let our arrogant modern know-it-all scientists try to "fix" something that they don't even understand!

reply to post by lpowell0627

I always have trouble in these threads, so I am hoping that someone can explain this to me:

The Earth, and life, has been around for millions of years. What makes you think that suddenly it needs human interference?

Now, if your entire argument is based on: Humans created global warming -- then I don't know what to say other than the Earth has gone through several periods of warming - ice age - warming - ice age. etc., before humans were even here. So while I don't argue that we have contributed something to the problem, it is quite obvious that it would have happened eventually anyway -- since it has before. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and the Earth has warmed before.

The Earth and life have been around for billions of years.

Yes, the warming cycle would have happened anyway, but not as quickly as it is now because of all the carbon dioxide we've release from the ground into the atmosphere the past few centuries. That carbon dioxide disperses throughout the atmosphere and absorbs/traps the heat from the sun. This has never happened so quickly to the Earth before. Yes, the Earth normally goes in natural cycles of warming and cooling, but now it is in an unnatural cycle caused by us. You don't think we should use our intelligence to counteract the problem we caused?

[edit on 8-3-2010 by tooo many pills]

reply to post by lpowell0627


In theory, I agree with you. I have my doubts, though, that a lot - not all - but a lot of what our beautiful earth is suffering from has happened before. There is no doubt however that humans have been and are the major catalyst for all kinds of damage. Some damage from which we may be able to recover and other damage from which we won’t or no longer are able to.

Sure, the climate has changed eons ago and will always change. That is the only absolute – change. Sure, weather anomalies have caused the oceans and rivers to alter their courses. Sure the ice has melted and re-iced over millions of years.

My perplexing issue is the fact that we, as humans, have done so much damage, that we have no idea what kind of injury we have caused or what is the natural cycle for mother earth. Moreover, as far as the damage we have caused, how can we change it? I know each in our own little way can affect a small amount of change, but this is global and we need global solutions – at least for the harm the humans have caused mother earth.
I also have a feeling that no matter what we do “now,” the point has been tipped.

There's been a lof of suggested "solutions" to this, yet the one I believe is most obvious hasn't been mentioned.

Reduce Pollution!

I don't know a lot about these oceanic die offs. But what I have seen first hand is the effects of excessive run-off on lakes around the area I used to live. Rotorua, New Zealand.

An excess of nitrates from farm fertilization leeched into the waterways, and then accumulated in the lakes. This caused a huge burst in algae growth causing toxic blooms.

. There are eleven major lakes around Rotorua. Several of the lakes have suffered water quality problems for decades and the situation appears to be getting worse. The fundamental problem is excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) stimulating algal growth, cyanobacteria blooms and weed growth. Concerns grew when Lake Rotoiti, one of the major trout fishing and recreational lakes in the North Island, was entirely closed last summer for swimming. The severe cyanobacteria blooms on Lakes Rotoiti and Rotorua have received considerable media attention. There are concerns that Lake Rotoiti will become anoxic (lose its remaining oxygen) in the next year or two and that all life in the lake will die.

Report to the Minister for the Environment on Lake Rotoiti and other Rotorua lakes

One of the problems was that Lake Rotorua flowed into Lake Rotoiti, meaning even more accumulation of pollution. However there has been a construction project designed to limit this, by building a wall to divert water from Lake Rotorua, straight into an outlowing river. This appears to be working now. You can read more about this if your interested in this PDF.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I think this example from my home has similarities to the OP's die offs.

I recently posted a thread that detailed a number of issues now threatening the Earth as well as interfering with the operative values of the rest of this solar system's planets, which includes our host star known as the Sun.

One of the items the website detailed was the increased depletion of Oxygen from Earths atmospheric levels. Here's the details:

Critical Depletion of Planetary Oxygen Levels ( Oct 2, 2004 )

www.truehealth.org... --- "Since we have begun to measure in 1989, there has been a steady decline of free oxygen in our atmosphere. And while this is nothing more than expected, since every molecule of additional carbon dioxide locks up two oxygen atoms, the free oxygen decline is greater than the carbon dioxide lock-up. The greater than expected overall free oxygen decline is proof that the Earth's photosynthetic capacity has declined. And since there has been no measurable decline in plankton, and consequently, in marine photo synthesis, as long expected and measured due to the increase of hard UV-B radiation at surface level, the decline points straight at the only other source of free oxygen - the forests and green cover of the continents."

www.health-2001.org... --- "The decline of atmospheric free oxygen will become progressively more noticeable, human habitation at high altitudes will become untenable, while Life at low altitudes will first take on the aerobic characteristics of high altitude living, and then too becomes progressively more untenable."

www.truehealth.org... --- "Scientists were stunned recently when it was revealed that air bubbles trapped in fossilized amber had been analyzed and found to contain oxygen levels of 38%. Yet today it is well known that the average content of the air is only 19% to 21%. It appears that since the early history of our earth there has been a stunning decrease of 50% in the average oxygen content of the air we breathe. Worse yet, analysis of the air in various parts of the world today reveals the frightening fact that the oxygen content continues to decline. In fact in some of the larger and therefore more polluted cities the oxygen levels have been measured at a disturbing level of 12 to 15%. Scientists claim that anything under 7% oxygen content in the air is too low to support human life, even for short periods."

www.harmonicsinternational.com... --- "Air as described in the American Heritage dictionary in 1982 states: A colorless, odorless, tasteless, gaseous mixture, mainly nitrogen (approximately 78 percent) and oxygen (approximately 21 percent) with lesser amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon, helium, and other gases. Since 1990 it has averaged between 17 and18 percent and recently dropped as low as 15 percent. At 15 percent you begin to suffocate."

www.cmnh.org... --- "(Atmospheric Oxygen, Giant Paleozoic Insects and the Evolution of Aerial Locomotor Performance, R. Dudley, JExB), and Dudley shows a high of about 35% just before the beginning of the Permian, with a rapid decline to a low of about 13-14% near the beginning of the Triassic, then a small spike at about 17% in mid Triassic, another drop to about 14-15% early in the Jurassic, a sudden climb to about 21% by mid-Jurassic, then a gentle climb to about 26% early in the Tertiary, and a rather constant, steady decline to the present "20.9%."


carecure.rutgers.edu... --- "Normal air has about 16% oxygen." Note: "science" usually quotes the O2 content as 20-21%, as if it will 'never change' - that's a misconception - the level varies with time. If 16% is 'normal' and we start to suffer hypoxia beginning at 15%, the writing is on the wall.

www.columbia.edu... --- "Between 1989 and 1994 the O2 content of the atmosphere decreased at an average annual rate of 2 parts per million ... Just how O2 came into being remains a mystery"

www.drrhondahenry.com... --- "Scientists have determined that the oxygen content in our atmosphere is being reduced at an alarming rate - about 0.85% approximately every 15 years. Since the United States became a nation in 1776, it is estimated that our planet has seen a decline of almost 11% of its available oxygen. At this rate, considering the destruction of the rain forests and increased pollution, the future decline in oxygen may be even more alarming."

www.inspiredinside.com... --- "By analyzing air bubbles trapped in fossils, scientists have recently proven that the earth's atmosphere used to have 40% oxygen. By comparison, today's air only contains 16% to 19% oxygen. This is one half of what your body was designed for! Even more startling, analysis of the air in different parts of the world shows that this number is continuing to decline and many large cities now have oxygen levels as low as 12%. Medical researchers say that if falls below 7% the human race will perish. In 1905, virtually no one had cancer. the oxygen level at that time has been estimated to have been at 30%. In the 1940's the oxygen in the atmosphere measured 25% and one out of twenty Americans had cancer. Today, one third of Americans now have cancer and within the next five years it has been estimated that half of the American population will have some form of cancer. There appears to be a clear relevance with the decrease in atmospheric oxygen and the increase in cancer."

While not specifically mentioned within the posts, I'm almost positive that the depletion of Atmospheric O2 levels could also include the hydrosphere.

Great find!

Originally posted by lpowell0627

Originally posted by SaturnFX
reply to post by tooo many pills

 

The solution will need to be a technological one...What got us into this mess will be the thing that gets us out of this mess...aka, progress.

I always have trouble in these threads, so I am hoping that someone can explain this to me:

The Earth, and life, has been around for millions of years. What makes you think that suddenly it needs human interference?

Now, if your entire argument is based on: Humans created global warming -- then I don't know what to say other than the Earth has gone through several periods of warming -

Erm...these phytoplankton blooms is from the unnatural pollution due to our cities, our nitrogen rich fertilizers, etc...man did make pollution, pollution does have an effect on the ecosystem. The planet does not go through cycles of mass pollution.

We created the mess, we need to clean it up. we cant wish it away, or ask mother nature to erase it...we need to take action...or not. BUT...if we dont, well, the earths population uses significant amounts of the ocean for food...no life in the ocean, no people eating fish.


As far as us controlling mother nature, that argument holds no weight. The second man started creating farms is the second we started to control mother nature...the second we started selective breeding of animals to create fatter pigs and milkier cows is the second we started playing with the genetics of life.

Originally posted by Gutterpus


What, other than STOP POLLUTING THE OCEANS, THE LANDS, ETC. can we really do?

Is this just another weather anomaly?


www.truthout.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

most are not caused by intentional pollution or global warming.
many are caused by overfishing.
And in many cases is in international waters outside any countries control.

For the most part the asian fishing fleets are the main group doing the overfishing worldwide.
They routinely fish any waters they can any if a country can not or does not Stop them they will fish. Most african countries have no anti fishing laws or patrols..
All four of the
Major Asian distant-water fishing fleets have engaged
in distant-water trawling. Japan and the ROK are the
most active, with significant fleets in the Atlantic,
Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by ANNED]

Originally posted by ANNED

most are not caused by intentional pollution or global warming.
many are caused by overfishing.

Why look at the science when you can just blame asian fishermen.

guess hitting the play button on the two videos I embedded would take time away from typing your theories.

It is referring to dissolved elemental Oxygen (i.e. O2). The stuff that gets absorbed into our blood when we breathe. Yes, it does dissolve in water.

The Earth, and life, has been around for millions of years. What makes you think that suddenly it needs human interference?

You seem to be under the assumption that it is OK for humans to influence the environment in negative ways, but NOT OK for us to attempt to correct any damage we may of done. I feel that if we are influencing the environment, we should take steps to correct any negative impacts we have made. So, if we cut down thousands of square miles of trees, then it makes sense that we plant thousands of square miles of trees. If Oceans are loosing Oxygen content, then it makes sense for us to attempt to correct it, not only for the environment, but to ensure that we can feed people through fishing.

[edit on 9/3/2010 by C0bzz]

The oceans are polluted to put it mildly. I mean my god............look around you people. The world in general is more polluted than its ever been. They've found so far 2 Texas sized collections of plastic in the Pacific and the Atlantic. Look at the deforestation taking place worldwide. Look at how polluted our rivers and lakes are in the USA. Can you imagine how polluted they are in places like China, India, and other areas of the world with massive population.

I love how we as human beings think that technology will save us............ The only thing that is going to save us is curbing our consumermism, wastefulness/throw away lifestyle. Getting back to nature..........living simply..........etc. I mean hell just look at how much pollution and environmental damage the US military has done in our own country. You think all those exploded nuclear weapons they tested out west were benign????? Hell no........we will be dealing with the after health effects for generations to come. Human beings have trashed the Earth. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live as an American Indian 300 years ago on the continent of North America. My god how beautiful and pristine this are of the world must have been. There used to be forests that stretched all the way from the East to the West coast. Most Americans don't know that.

While a lot of ocean life (perhaps most of it) is suffering from the lowering oxygen levels and rising acidity, some are getting an advantage from it, like squid and jellyfish. Interestingly, squid and jellyfish are incredibly ancient things which originally evolved in a similar environment: The low-oxygen, high-acidity oceans of very, very ancient prehistoric Earth. It's almost as if we're pushing our oceanic ecosystem backwards in time, and those few creatures still left over from the dawn of time are the only ones who can thrive in such conditions. We're already seeing a frightening Jellyfish Explosion and Squid Explosion.

Strange things are happening in our oceans.

[P.S. Fixed the links. Sorry about that!]

[edit on 9-3-2010 by Magnus47]

Originally posted by SaturnFX

Originally posted by ANNED

most are not caused by intentional pollution or global warming.
many are caused by overfishing.

Why look at the science when you can just blame asian fishermen.

guess hitting the play button on the two videos I embedded would take time away from typing your theories.

Ocean dead zones caused by overfishing.
www.oceanicfisheries.net...
www.worldandi.com...
forum.richarddawkins.net...
www.oceanactions.com...