A Chemical Fix For Aquatic Dead Zones

摘要

For years scientists have known that nitrogen and phosphorus, which commonly enter freshwater lakes in chemical fertilizers, play a role in eutrophication-the process by which algal blooms, turbidity, and oxygen deficiencies turn a lake into a dead zone, largely devoid of animal life. A recent paper, published in August in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, presents a more nuanced picture. In a 37-year experiment with a lake in northern Ontario, scientists demonstrated that controlling phosphorus in particular is the key to reversing eutrophication.