To address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, the enormous amounts of nutrients entering the water body via the Mississippi River must be reduced. Achieving this goal will require an array of actions and strategies across a broad swath of America's heartland. Despite their enormous financial and technical challenges, these activities are also likely to generate environmental benefits extending well beyond the Gulf itself. The Gulf of Mexico's immense "Dead Zone"-an annually recurring phenomenon characterized by hypoxia, or low levels of dissolved oxygen-illustrates the extent to which land uses, in some cases thousands of miles away, can affect one of the world's largest bodies of water. Nutrients released from farm fields or urban areas throughout much of the United States travel via the Mississippi River downstream to the Gulf, creating a zone of hypoxia larger than some small states. Although the problem has been recognized for more than two decades, solutions have been slow in coming. Today, an awareness of the myriad efforts that will be needed to halt hypoxia in the Gulf is beginning to take shape. But will this awareness turn into action anytime soon?
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