{"id":17190,"date":"2019-07-13T17:14:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T17:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17190"},"modified":"2019-07-14T11:59:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T11:59:01","slug":"how-your-diet-contributes-to-nutrient-pollution-and-dead-zones-in-lakes-and-bays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-your-diet-contributes-to-nutrient-pollution-and-dead-zones-in-lakes-and-bays\/","title":{"rendered":"How your diet contributes to nutrient pollution and dead zones in lakes and bays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Scavia<\/a>, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Every year in early summer, scientists at universities, research institutions and federal agencies release forecasts for the formation of \u201cdead zones\u201d and harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. This year the outlook is not good<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The dead zone that forms annually in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to approach, if not surpass, record size at roughly 7,250 square miles. Another dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay is projected to be within the top 20% recorded over the past 20 years \u2013 about 2.1 cubic miles, equivalent to over 3.5 million Olympic-size swimming pools. And Lake Erie is also projected to set records, with almost 50,000 tons of potentially toxic algae.<\/p>\n

The key factor driving these forecasts is winter and spring rainfall considerably above normal across the central U.S. The winter of 2018-2019 was the wettest on record<\/a> across the nation, and May was the second-wettest month on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Predicting the results isn\u2019t rocket science. More rain means more flooding and more runoff from farmlands. These waters carry heavy loads of nutrients, mainly from fertilizer, that fuel algal blooms. The end results include fish kills, closed beaches, possible drinking water alerts and loss of coastal property value<\/a>.<\/p>\n