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 tipped the scales slightly and wreaked havoc on the environment. This has been observed to happen since the 1950s and continues. The reason this dead zone occurs is due to a phenomenon known as eutrophication. Eutrophication occurs when there is an excessive amount of nutrients in a body of water and it causes an abundance of plants to grow. In this case, neighboring farms were using nitrogen in their fertilizers. Nitrogen was carried into the ocean by rain and other forms of water. Nitrogen is an important element for plant growth and its lack is normally what prevents plants from growing in excessive amounts. Because it is primarily used by farmers, the dead zone decreases significantly in size during the winter season while it increases in size during warm seasons. Eutrophication usually leads to another phenomenon called hypoxia, which is the state of water when it lacks oxygen. Having too much nitrogen leads to hypoxia, because there is an algae bloom. The bacteria in the water then eat the algae and thus use up all the oxygen. 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 to 7,000 square miles, but varies seasonally (source 23879482371) (see Fig. 1).Fig. 1 Size of the dead zoneThe environmental problems associated with this are that a huge marine ecosystem has been devastated. Hundreds and thousands of marine species have been killed, and the destruction... middle of paper ... has become too great for anyone to do anything. Solutions So far, the solutions proposed by people and scientists The goals are to get farmers to use less fertilizer, use your fertilizer and control waste. Using less fertilizer and controlling waste are the most obvious solutions, as they would directly prevent nitrogen and nitrates from ending up in the water. However, these are the most difficult to make because farmers need them to grow their plants. The other thing is knowing when you use your fertilizers. This is to avoid adding too much fertilizer during the rainy season, as the water would run off and flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Bibliography: Bruckner, Monica. “The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone.” The dead zone of the Gulf of Mexico. Np, and Web. November 14. 2013. .