One World Essay: Dead Zone in the Gulf of MexicoScientific Reasoning:The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a human problem, like most other disasters. This means that the place once thrived and was ecologically balanced, but we have slightly shifted the balance and devastated the environment. It has been noted to occur since the 1950s and is still ongoing. The reason this dead zone occurs is because of a phenomenon known as eutrophication. Eutrophication occurs when there is an excessive amount of nutrients in a body of water and causes an abundance of plants to grow. In this case, nearby farms were using nitrogen in their fertilizers. The nitrogen was transported into the ocean through rain and other forms of water. Nitrogen is an important aspect of plant growth and the lack of it is normally what stops plants from growing in excessive quantities. Since this is mainly used by farmers, the dead zone significantly decreases in size in the winter season while it increases in size during the warm seasons. Eutrophication generally leads to another phenomenon known as hypoxia, which is the state of water in which oxygen is lacking. Having too much nitrogen leads to hypoxia, because there is an algae bloom. The bacteria in the water then eat the algae and use up all the oxygen in the process. Without oxygen in the water, a dead zone forms, an area with little or no life. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is approximately 6,000-7,000 square miles in size, but varies with the seasons (source23879482371) (see Fig. 1).Fig. 1 Size of the dead zone The environmental problems associated with this situation are that a huge marine ecosystem has been devastated. Hundreds and thousands of marine life have been killed, along with the destruction... middle of paper... grown too great for anyone to do anything about it. Solutions So far the solutions that people and scientists have arrived at The goal is to make farmers use less fertilizers, time to use fertilizers and control waste. Using less fertilizer and controlling waste are the most obvious solutions, as they would directly prevent the presence of nitrogen and nitrates in the water. However, they are the most difficult to make because farmers need them to grow their plants. The other thing is the time you use fertilizers. This is to avoid adding too much fertilizer in the rainy seasons because then the water will flow down and end up in the Gulf of Mexico. Bibliography: Bruckner, Monica. "The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone." The dead zone of the Gulf of Mexico. Np, nd Web. November 14. 2013. .