Lesly Quezada Enriching the Sea to Death Author: Scott W.

Nixon Main Points An excess of nutrients flowing from the land into the sea has created serious environmental problems in many coastal waters. Only recently have measures been taken to forestall the worst effects. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the essential ingredients of plant fertilizers. North Americans pour nutrients into bays and estuaries at alarming rates. Phytoplankton floating near the surface of nutrient-rich lakes fare better in the O2 equation. Where nutrients are scarce, phytoplankton are sparse and the water is usually crystal clear. various methods failed to extract the elements nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients indispensable to human life and abundant in human waste. Complex aquatic food chains may be broken apart.

Authors Main Points: Oceans are getting over fertilized to death. A large amount of nutrients flowing from the land into the sea has created serious environmental problems in many coastal waters. The oceans are gaining way too much nutrients, causing them to intoxicate the ocean and its marine animals. These entire nutrients create an algae bloom & also create a huge bloom of phytoplankton. All of these dissolved nutrients brought from land cause the growth of such blooms, which can deprive life at a lower depth of light and oxygen.

There are parts of the ocean that are not receiving enough nutrients and due to low nutrients parts of the ocean are becoming a dead zone. Dead zones which are low in nutrients and Oxygen cause all of the marine life to die. There is no life in dead zones because life is unsustainable. MY Thoughts It is amazingly sad the fact that some parts of the ocean have a lot of nutrients and other parts of the ocean have none at all. Too many nutrients is bad a bad thing for the ocean and marine life, but also having no nutrients in the ocean is very bad because having no nutrients at all causes the dead zones. This is a really bad thing for the oceans including the animals living there because they are the ones mainly being affected by all of these problems of agriculture, mainly caused by humans. We can make a difference by improving agriculture solutions that wont harm the ocean as much. Also we should improve factories to make them become eco-friendly, if we don't do this there will be less Oxygen, and more Carbon Dioxide, which will then cause more dead zones around the ocean. We can make a change and help our oceans and marine life.

So What?
So if we dont make a difference Dead Zones will continue Spreading throughout the ocean causing all Marine Life to Die. We can make a difference by making people aware if these issues.

Says Who?
Scott W. Nixon, Scientists, environmentalists, and people who really care about the oceans life and want to make a difference for the ocean to stay alive.

What If?
If we let the whole ocean become a Dead Zone? What if we can actually stop this from happening but decide to do nothing at all? Well if have to be aware that the ocean provides more than 50% of our oxygen, and life for the marine animals.

What Does This Remind Me Of?

This is similar to the Ocean Acidification Lab we did because both have to do with how Carbon Dioxide affecting the ocean and marine life.