Studies Find “Corn Belt” Agriculture Increases Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Friday, February 1st, 2008(Beyond Pesticides, February 1, 2008) Two studies of nutrient levels in the Gulf of Mexico, one by the United States Geological Survey and the other by Yale and Louisiana State University researchers, have recently been published. Both reveal that nutrient levels in the Mississippi watershed have risen significantly, and that the growing “dead zone” in the Gulf can largely be attributed to changes in agricultural practices in the last half-century. The first report, entitled “Differences in Phosphorus and Nitrogen Delivery to The Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin,” modeled nutrient delivery to the gulf in order to determine the watershed management practices required to reduce nitrogen discharge by 30 to 45 percent, and the size of the dead zone in half, by 2015. 13 states in the midwest contributed the overwhelming majority of inputs to the watershed. The largest contributor to nitrogen pollution of the watershed came from corn and soybean production, which also contributed to a quarter of the total phosphorus runoff into the Gulf. The researchers concluded that future management strategies must “include recognition of important differences in the agricultural sources of N[itrogen] and P[hosphorus] . . . and better control of both N and P […]
