Pacific Ocean 'dead zone' in NW may be irreversible

shred_da_gorge · Since 12 Nov 2008 1366 Posts Da Hood & Da Wood XTreme Poster

(Reposted with permission from www.bayareakiteboarding.com)

Oxygen depletion that is killing sea life off Oregon and Washington is probably caused by evolving wind conditions from climate change, rather than pollution, one oceanographer warns.

By Kim Murphy
October 9, 2009

Reporting from Corvallis, Ore. - An oxygen-depleted "dead zone" the size of New Jersey is starving sea life off the coast of Oregon and Washington and will probably appear there each summer as a result of climate change, an Oregon State University researcher said Thursday.

The huge area is one of 400 dead zones around the world, most of them caused by fertilizer and sewage dumped into the oceans in river runoff.

But the dead zone off the Northwest is one of the few in the world -- and possibly the only one in North America -- that could be impossible to reverse. That is because evolving wind conditions likely brought on by a changing climate, rather than pollution, are responsible, said Jack Barth, professor of physical oceanography at OSU.

"I really think we're in a new pattern, a new rhythm, offshore now. And I would expect [the low-oxygen zone] to show up every year now," Barth said at a news conference.

Thursday's briefing coincided with the release of a National Science Foundation multimedia report that said the number of dead zones worldwide was doubling every decade.

In the Pacific Northwest, the report said, the areas of hypoxic, or low-oxygen, water that long have existed far offshore began to appear closer to land in 2002, a phenomenon that may mean they are even deadlier to sea life that exists near the ocean floor.

Low-oxygen zones are created when large blooms of plankton form on the surface of the ocean, then decay and fall to the sea floor, where further decay eats up the oxygen in the water.

"When oxygen gets too low in the ocean, it has a deleterious effect on organisms," Barth said. "They either have to flee the area, or they get stressed or even die off. Those die-off [areas] are dead zones."

The affected waters of the continental shelf in Oregon and Washington for the most part are not inundated with polluted river runoff; the nutrients that feed the plankton blooms here come from natural sources, Barth said. And researchers believe a change in the flushing movement of water along the coastline may be responsible.

The gradual warming of surface waters across the north Pacific, the report funded by the National Science Foundation said, has tended to isolate deep waters far below the surface -- allowing less oxygen penetration.

There also has been a change in wind patterns, encouraging the upwelling of that low-oxygen water and inhibiting the natural flushing action of water.

"What we're seeing is changes in the oxygen content of the water and the winds that drive the ocean and cause that flushing," Barth said, calling it a "double whammy."

Although it is possible that the phenomenon could be related to cyclical ocean currents and temperatures, Barth said that he was more inclined to believe it was a long-term result of climate change. He said that researchers had scanned records going back to the 1950s and had seen nothing similar to what has appeared every year off the Oregon coast since 2002.

The worst year on record was 2006, when the Pacific Northwest zone saw an area of "anoxia," or virtually no oxygen at all.

kim.murphy@latimes.com

pdxmonkeyboy · Tue Oct 20, 09 8:08 am

Anyone see that science channel show where they made this big long static pumps to use wave action to move deeper, oxygen rich water to the surface? They are experimenting on developing this technology as a way to reduce atmospheric carbon levels as plankton fix carbon.

Gman · Since 11 Feb 2006 4911 Posts Portland Unstrapped

Great - now the sharks are going to be really hungry

Blokt · Tue Oct 20, 09 10:41 am

"it is possible that the phenomenon could be related to cyclical ocean currents and temperatures"

But, since we looked back 60 years, that's probably not possible......right?

I guess this world can't last forever. Stuff wears out, man, that's one law of the universe that we can't escape. (Unless you're an evolution believer, where the opposite is true). (I wish evolution would mend my kite strings' molecular structure).

Bringing water from the deep would only speed up the problem, since that's were the oxygen depletion reaches critical mass first.

Looks like were all up the Willamette (shit creek) on this one guys.

But look at the bright side: Sharks can't breath, or eat, there either, so we wouldn't have to worry about getting eaten there.

Is there methane clouds above dead zones? I saw that science report too, but didn't catch that part. If that's the case, I guess we couldn't play there either. Sad

Scribble · Since 18 Nov 2005 636 Posts NoPo Addicted

pdxmonkeyboy · Tue Oct 20, 09 12:53 pm

fokiten · Since 04 Mar 2005 188 Posts Stoked

Well,

That's true enough I suppose (the matter created or destroyed thing) but all the matter there is is in a state of constant flux...

Sometimes you eat the Bear, sometimes the Bear eats you...

Stars have lives, are born and die...black holes evaporate over time or not.

Bottom line?

we're only here for a while, quite a while maybe? but life on Earth has definitely got an expiration date...

The Bard put it quite eloquently...

Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which went before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend...

And so it is, and so shall it be: it's always contentious and attrition is just the mechanism of oblivion....

right-on
Might as well just get on with it
fo

shred_da_gorge · Since 12 Nov 2008 1366 Posts Da Hood & Da Wood XTreme Poster

jasonq · Since 12 Jan 2009 249 Posts hood river Stoked

"Stuff in the universe does not wear out as all matter can neither be created nor destroyed... "

i have to say, i continue to be disappointed by the state of science education.

of coarse matter can be created and destroyed. this is at the core of quantum mechanics and relativity.

Everybody has heard E=mc^2, describing how much energy results from destroying matter, or conversely how much energy it takes to create it.

Every nuclear bomb and power plant in the world operates by destroying matter. Not too mention all those stars.

We aren't as good at creating matter yet, but we have created both matter and anti-matter in particle colliders, if only for microseconds.

and of coarse for a brief time, the universe was nothing but energy, and no matter, and it may be again.

I expect i'll get flamed now.

fokiten · Since 04 Mar 2005 188 Posts Stoked

just the bother of ants under a billion billion stars...

Tennyson

jcohenx · Since 28 Aug 2007 250 Posts Portland Obsessed

Robert Diaz and Rutger Rosenberg published a paper last year in the journal Science that reviews oceanic dead zones in detail. Their studies demonstrate that steady reduction in nitrate fertilizer runoff from local rivers and sewers greatly reduces the production of algal blooms and the affected areas bounce back nicely after as little as ten years.

Science 15 August 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5891, pp. 926 - 929
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156401

...By the end of the 20th century, oxygen depletion of marine systems had become a major worldwide environmental problem, with only a small fraction (4%) of the 400-plus systems that had developed hypoxia exhibiting any signs of improvement (table S1). These improvements in DO were related to reductions in three factors: organic and nutrient loadings, stratification strength, and freshwater runoff.

From 1973 to 1990, the hypoxic zone on the northwestern continental shelf of the Black Sea had expanded to 40,000 km2; however, since 1989, the loss of fertilizer subsidies from the former Soviet Union reduced nutrient loading by a factor of 2 to 4, with the result that, by 1995, the hypoxic zone had gone (12). As oxygen levels normalized, ecosystem function improved, and the benthic fauna started to recolonize but have not recovered to prehypoxic levels. In the Gulf of Finland, a decrease in water-column stratification occurred between 1987 and 1994, which improved DO conditions and facilitated the return of benthic fauna (7); however, with the return of stratification, conditions have again deteriorated.

In the northern Gulf of Mexico, the occurrence and extent of the dead zone are tightly coupled with freshwater discharge from the Mississippi River, which delivers large quantities of nutrients from U.S. agricultural activities. During years with low river flow, the area of hypoxia shrinks to <5000 km2, only to increase to >15,000 km2 when river flow is high (30)...

The authors continue to state that some areas where nutrient flow has been regulated has not let to a rebound in dissolved oxygen but that other factors may be in play.

C Johnson · Since 17 Apr 2009 854 Posts Seattle Opinionated

it bugs me when scientists try to draw conclusions and facts out of 60 years worth of data. how old is the earth again? oh yeah, we still haven't figured that one out yet.

I think its safe to say that something is going on now that wasn't going on 60 years ago. but it could have been 10 times worse 60 years before that (120 years ago) and we have no idea why its doing what its doing and what the result will be after its done doing that thing. whatever that thing is that its doing. Shocked

My house gets infested with spiders every single summer but at the first frost. they all die off. Some people might be concerned by the giant dead zone that forms from about October to March around here, but for some reason all the little critters come back again the next year in full force.

it just bring me to ask the question. Is there even a problem? Maybe this is normal. Maybe this is just part of another cycle. Perhaps a cycle that is more then 60 years long Wink

regardless of all that though. it would suck to be a fish in that dead zone. poor little guys. talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time

brass · Since 15 Jul 2006 152 Posts Stoked

i have to say, i continue to be disappointed by the state of science education.

of coarse matter can be created and destroyed. this is at the core of quantum mechanics and relativity.

Of course, I have to say I continue to be disappointed by the sate of English education.

"I guess this world can't last forever. Stuff wears out, man, that's one law of the universe that we can't escape. (Unless you're an evolution believer, where the opposite is true). (I wish evolution would mend my kite strings' molecular structure). "

This statement reflects a poor understanding of evolutionary theory. I love that people think that a fish can turn into a reptile over the COURSE of it's lifetime. In fact, evolution requires that mutations occur in an organism and, if they are beneficial, they are selected for by natural forces. Eventually, this mutation becomes prevalent enough in a species that it now is unrecognizable to (cannot be mated with) it's ancestor species. It has nothing to do with the fact that organisms, parts of organisms or inanimate objects wear out over time which clearly they do.

and just for good measure:
"it bugs me when scientists try to draw conclusions and facts out of 60 years worth of data. how old is the earth again? oh yeah, we still haven't figured that one out yet.

t just bring me to ask the question. Is there even a problem? Maybe this is normal. Maybe this is just part of another cycle. Perhaps a cycle that is more then 60 years long"

Climate change is real, it is influenced by the actions of humans, it has many effects not the least of which are changing ocean currents and global wind patterns. While your point is well taken if you look at the trends from the last say million years it is clear that the RATE of climate change documented in the last 100 years is unprecedented and coincides directly with the industrial revolution.

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Stupid scientists! I wish they'd just go back to doing useful stuff like making TVs bigger and curing the gay disease.

pdxmonkeyboy · Thu Oct 22, 09 12:04 pm

Chooch · Thu Oct 22, 09 12:04 pm

tstansbury · Since 06 Jun 2006 649 Posts Rowena and P.C Addicted

I thought 9 out of 10 scientist road straps