Research Paper Step 5 FINAL

The overabundant use of nitrogen in commercial fertilizers and lack of concern for wastewater runoff concentrations of nitrogen are leading our nation into a desperate struggle to keep our summertime ocean ecosystems and shorelines alive. A chain reaction is taking place right under our noses, which is changing the way our rivers and oceans interact with one another and the biodiversity they can support. The impact of this reaction is being felt in small doses around the world, but its significance grows larger every year. Each summer, more and larger areas of river estuaries and deltas, along with the ocean itself become inhospitable, lifeless dead zones. Our practices in modern agriculture and industry are directly related to this increase, and it is our responsibility to correct the path before we can no longer control the outcome. Although they are not widely acknowledged or publicised in the United States, ocean dead zones present huge challenges for the future in agricultural practice and water management, because they are affecting our fisheries and the biodiversity of our coastal areas.

According to Barbara Juncosa, dead zones are not a new thing; they form seasonally in economically viral ecoystems worldwide, including, but not limited to the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay. Agricultural runoff sparks many of these die-offs; increased use of nitrogen fertilizers has doubled the number of lifeless pockets every decade since the 1960s, resulting in 405 dead zones now dotting coastlines globally (1) One area of major concern in the United States is the Mississippi River Basin. Due to the fact that it drains nearly 40% of the entire United States and is in the center of the largest area of cropland in the nation puts it right inline for big ecological problems. The use of monoculture crop raising in this region is particularly dangerous. Soybeans and corn have become the two major crops and dominate the landscape in this area. Fertilizers are the most abundant source of nutrients for crops like soybeans and corn which generally cannot sustain themselves in the same ground two years in a row without the aid of nutrients. "Agricultural inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus are the largest source of nutrients in most affected areas." (Cleaner Production and Environmentally Sound 4) This area of the country is also a large producer of grains grown for domestic livestock feed and that production is fueled with fertilizer as well. In Simon D. Donner's article "Surf and Turf" he cites that the data shows that corn and soybeans are the predominant feed crops in the Mississippi Basin, comprising 94% of the total production. Corn alone receives the majority of the nitrogen (73%), phosphorus (62%), potash (64%) and herbicide (62%) because of the extensive cultivation and typically high application rates (2). This relationship with the earth is having profound impacts that can't be seen from the places that they start. A bit more agricultural runoff in Missouri might be a mere annoyance to a farmer there, but that same runoff could be adding more and more nitrogen into the ocean at the outlet of the Mississippi River, devastating the plants and animals of the delta and further on out into the Gulf of Mexico. As stated by Goolsby, Battaglin, Aulenbach, and Hooper the direct relationship between concentration and streamflow indicates that most of the nitrate in streams studied in their paper is from non-point sources. If the nitrate was predominantly from point sources, concentrations would decrease as streamflow increased due to dilution. Instead nitrate concentrations in streams increase in response to rainfall or snowmelt that leaches nitrate that has accumulated in the soil (5).

Our relationship with nature has changed in the last 50 years in quite a drastic way in the United States. We have moved from a family farm producer society to a city dwelling mega farm production society. This has had many benefits and many costs as well. One of the major costs to the environment from this mega farming production system is the clearing of huge areas of land for raising crops and consequently the massive amount of water runoff that this cleared land produces. Major water runoff is a problem on its own, producing large quantities of topsoil erosion and runoff into waterways that become choked with sediment. More importantly though, this runoff oftentimes carries with it the chemicals and bi-products of our massive scale crop production.
Heller and Keoleian cite that commercially manufactured chemical fertilizers are the major source of plant nutrients in the US. Fertilizer accounted for 6.4% of total farm production expenses in 1997, and was applied to 25% of the total farmland (total farmland includes pastureland, rangeland, etc., which typically receives little to no fertilizer) (3) Fertilizers are used to enhance the viability of soil that has been farmed too extensively, or in soil that is of the wrong composition for specific target crops that a farmer is planting. These fertilizers are used in heavier concentrations in conjunction with the spring and summer growing seasons, which is the time of the largest mass of dead zones.
In the Mississippi River Basin in particular, Turner, Rabalais and Justic cite that the increased production of corn has come at the expense of cotton, the conservation reserve program, and soybean acreage, which is a crop more efficient in retaining nitrogen once applied (2323). Our addiction to cheap corn sweeteners and the rise of use of ethanol based bio-fuels has only spurred more growth in this sector of the agricultural industry.

The process by which high concentrations of nitrogen are turned into a dead zone is a cycle of boom and bust. When the large concentrations of nitrogen enter the warmer estuary waters of a delta or gulf they cause an algae bloom. The life cycle of these algae blooms includes sinking to the bottom of the body of water to decompose with the aid of bacteria. This process consumes oxygen though, and in the massive scale that is required for breaking down these super algae blooms, it is faster than it can be naturally replaced in the water. This process depletes the water of life giving oxygen and creates what we call a dead zone. Booth and Campbell point out that the natural stratification of the Gulf, whereby lighter river water overlies heavier salt water, impedes overturn and oxygen recharge at depth (5410). These dead zones are called hypoxic zones which means low oxygen. When oxygen concentrations in a body of water reach down to 2 parts per million, an area is considered to be hypoxic. To sum up this idea as described by ScienceDaily dead zones are caused by farm fertilizers and other chemicals, and their runoff into rivers creating a large amount of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen as it sinks down into the water. Without sufficient oxygen, marine life on and close to sediment dies (2),

Effects from hypoxia on fisheries is huge, fish that are able to will leave an area will, but many more get trapped by expanding pockets of hypoxic water and have mass die offs. Some other creatures like shellfish and crustaceans aren't able to move as quickly and can not get out of the hypoxic area in time and have die offs as well. This is pushing fisheries farther off shore and leaving large portions of ocean barren of life.

Solutions to this problem are needed, and fast. With alarming news of global climate change and precipitation, evapo-transpiration and runoff expected to increase globally, and hydrologic extremes such as floods and droughts becoming more common and more intense (Coupling Between Climate 1) we need to decide on a decisive way to approach this issue. While there are no silver bullets that would knock out dead zones completely, industry will have to settle with some terms on fertilizer use eventually and a managed approach to dealing with wastewater. The reintroduction of sustainable farming practices would be a good start for limiting nitrogen release and runoff into waterways. In Russia, harmful algae blooms declined in the 1990s coinciding with a decrease in nutrient loading. This was due to reduced fertilizer usage following the breakup of the former Soviet Union and termination of its agricultural subsidies (Harmful Algal Blooms 4). Conventional wisdom has led us astray in the type of agriculture that we have been practicing. As we become more and more dependant on fertilizers to keep up our production of crops like corn, we are destroying ecosystems that we cant even see. Replanting riparian ecosystems, or even just allowing them to regrow could make a huge impact on this problem by allowing the ground to absorb more of the runoff water that would be drained right away without it. In the subject of wastewater runoff, treatment has begun in some parts of the world to remove the high levels of nitrogen, Olguin, Sanchez and Mercado state that high-rate anaerobic treatment for industrial wastewater was first applied on a large commercial scale in the Mexican sugar industry in the mid 1970s. This has a wide ranging potential in developing countries since most current mainstream technologies for wastewater treatment (e.g., activated sludge) are too costly and time-consuming (5). This brings with it hope that at some point there will be a time when it is recognized that biological treatment of high nitrate wastewater is a cost effective solution to keep larger problems at bay.

In conclusion, ocean dead zones are an ecological nightmare that are slowing destroying our oceans ability to support life in certain areas. Without action, these dead zones will only increase in size and volume.



Works Cited

Anderson, Donald M., et al., "Harmful Algal Blooms And Eutrophication: Examining Linkages From Selected Coastal Regions of the United States", Harmful AlgaeIn Press, 6 September 2008.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.hal.2008.08.017

Booth, M.S. and Campbell, C. "Spring Nitrate Flux in the Mississippi River Basin: A Landscape Model with Conservation Applications" Environmental Science Technology, 41, 15, 5410 - 5418, 2007, 10.1021/es070179e
Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070179e

Justic, Dubravkom, Rabalais, Nancy N. , Turner, R. Eugene "Coupling Between Climate Variability and Coastal Eutrophication: Evidence and Outlook for the Northern Gulf of Mexico", Journal of Sea Research Volume 54, Issue 1, , Contrasting Approaches to Understanding Eutrophication Effects on Phytoplankton, July 2005, Pages 25-35.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.seares.2005.02.008

Olguin, Eugenia J., Sanchez, Gloria, Mercado, Gabriel "Cleaner Production and Environmentally Sound Biotechnology for the Prevention of Upstream Nutrient Pollution in the Mexican Coast of The Gulf of Mexico", Ocean & Coastal Management Volume 47, Issues 11-12, , Integrated Coastal Management in the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem, 2004, Pages 641-670.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2004.12.006

Goolsby, Donald A., Battaglin, William A., Aulenbach, Brent T., Hooper, Richard P., "Nitrogen Flux and Sources in the Mississippi River Basin", the Science of the Total Environment Volume 248, Issues 2-3, Pages 75-86, 5 April 2000
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/S0048-9697(99)00532-X

Juncosa, Barbara. "Suffocating Seas." Scientific American 299.4 (Oct. 2008): 20-22. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008
http://libapps.uaf.edu:2059/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=13&sid=5f8bbecf-6dcb-4329-ac6a-54ac2bae1066%40SRCSM2&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=34236087

Heller, Martin C., Keoleian, Gregory A. "Assessing the Sustainability of the US Food System: A Life Cycle Perspective", Agricultural Systems Volume 76, Issue 3, , June 2003, Pages 1007-1041.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/S0308-521X(02)00027-6

Donner, Simon D. "Surf Or Turf: a Shift From Feed to Food Cultivation Could Reduce Nutrient Flux to the Gulf of Mexico," Global Environmental Change Volume 17, Issue 1, Pages 105-113, February 2007,
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.04.005

Texas A&M University. "Into the Dead Zone: Galveston Researcher Examines Loss of Marine Life."
ScienceDaily 7 May 2004. 28 October 2008
http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2004/05/040507082408.htm

Turner, R. Eugene, Rabalais, Nancy N., and Justic, Dubravko. "Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia: Alternate States and a Legacy" Environmental Science Technology, 10.1021/es071617k: 42, 7, 2323 - 2327,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es071617k

Evaluation Essay : Essay number 1

Although farm animals raised commercially for meat have added generously to our options for quality foods, wild game is a superior choice because of its quality, its value, and its overall health benefits. While many people who live and work in large cities never get to experience the amazing quality and overall satisfaction felt by harvesting and consuming wild game, we here in Alaska have ample opportunities to. The majority of our meat in the state is still bought from groceries and similar stores, much of it coming from factory farms and large scale livestock feedlots. We do however have a significant population that chooses to harvest their own meat and provide for themselves in this state.

Modern agriculture, in its efforts to become more efficient and streamlined has generally turned to a monoculture style of raising meat producing animals. Huge feedlots with thousands of cows, gigantic warehouses filled with chickens in tight cages and barns filled with pigs that are so sensitive to airborne parasites that they have to be kept in purified air behind a sterile barrier from the outside world. Instead of a working relationship with farm animals, these industries have turned to an approach of controlling all aspects of the livestock animals as demand for cheap meat has gone up. Feed for these animals has beenhomogenized and mainly consists of grains and corn. These are not the healthy nourishing foods that they would be eating in a wild setting and they are lacking in much diversity of menu as well. Mainly these foods are to produce fatter, meatier and faster growing animals. Many animals have been bred to produce more and more meat on their bodies while retaining less and less of their genetic components that allow them to survive on their own, things like hair, warm feathers, flight and mobility. While this has allowed modern man and woman to keep up with the supply side of the food chain that we eat from, the toll of such actions can be seen in many other ways. The widespread use of steroids and antibiotics that run rampant in this industry are a sign that we are on a troubling course. Many of these animals need these doses of "medicine" to stay alive in the settings that they are raised in.
Wild game, however is free of any unnatural hormones, steroids or "medicine" of any unnatural type. There are no confinement issues with wild game, a free life of roaming and foraging makes for a good relationship between animal and nature that goes far beyond just the obvious. A wild animal eats a wild diet that generally is much more balanced than that of a captive one. Animals, just like humans generally know instinctively when something is missing from their diet and willsupplement to find what they need.

There is a sense of responsibility and accomplishment that come with hunting for and providing your own food that can not be said for the common trip to the grocery store. This is a hard idea to explain to someone who has not experienced such a thing, but there is truth here. Buying your food, prepackaged and ready to go from someone else allows us to loose some of the responsibility in our lives that have kept us alive for thousands of years. By doing this, we allow a part of ourselves to fade away. This is not to say that buying prepared or packaged food is a bad thing, but more pointing out that providing meat on your own table, for yourself is a more connected and sound practice. The health benefits of eating wild game range far and wide, but the main advantage is the lack of unnatural hormones and steroids.

The value and quality of wild game is all in the control of the hunter. A choice can be made about whether or not to butcher the meat yourself, a big cost. This allows one to have a control over how much work they want to do versus how much they want to spend for meat. The quality of the meat harvested is also in the hands of the hunter. How the meat is handled and transported and then how it is butchered is all part of how high the quality is. The control is back in the hands of the consumer in this scenario. Wild game is and always has been the superior choice over large scale farmed meat, and these are just a few of the reasons.

Essay 3 Cause Effect

Although they aren't always the most exciting choices, eating healthy foods causes a positive shift in self image and worth because they make a person feel better, look better, and have more energy. According to the WebMD article "Healthy Eating for Weight Loss", the basic elements of a healthy diet consist of Protein (found in fish, meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, nuts, and beans), Fat (found in animal and dairy products, nuts, and oils), Carbohydrates (found in fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, grains, beans and other legumes, and sweets), Vitamins (such as vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K), Minerals (such as calcium, potassium, and iron) and Water. (1)

Self image is based on how one see's themselves in the world. What one eats is directly connected to how they view themselves in the world and how other people generally view them. There are exceptions to this rule, but generally it stands true. If someone has a very unhealthy diet and consistently takes in more energy than they output, they gain weight and their health will generally fall. This has a large effect on self image and can have a snowballing effect in some people as they see themselves slipping into a bad habit, and rather than correct the situation, live in denial of it or ignore it until the habit has gotten out of control. This is when food choices have a huge impact on mental health. If a person has avoided a healthy balanced diet in exchange for foods that are high in saturated fat and sugars they are much more at risk for all sorts of health problems, both mental and physical. As stated by Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at the University of California in "Eat your way to a better brain", "appropriate changes to a person’s diet can enhance his cognitive abilities, protect his brain from damage and counteract the effects of ageing." (1)

The mental health benefits of making good food choices are very clear to see, as is pointed out in the Economist's July 2008 issue's article"Eat your way to a better brain" certain foods "are like pharmaceutical compounds; their effects are so profound that the mental health of entire countries may be linked to them." (1) In America today, we have an on-the-go lifestyle that stresses food qualities like cost and portability over things like health value and compatibility to lifestyle. Cheaply produced foods that can be prepared with little effort in little time but are tasty are by far the most popular kinds. This plays right into poor eating habits, because generally these types of foods are either lacking in nutritional quality are generally not the healthiest foods, but are almost always the least expensive and most available. A large part of the problem with this scenario is societal, in that we are living in a world of rushes. Rushing from one thing to the next and only thinking of food as a requirement to get by through the day. This has become a product of the 21st century that we don't really even think about any more. This is one of the true hurdles to overcome with healthy eating and a changing self image of our nation. The bodies ability to produce energy from poor quality foods is low, and in the case of poor quality foods, the quantity of bad ingredients in them far outweighs the good. This equation has negative effects when we try and use this sort of food as a good source of energy as we eat more to gain more. What is left in the end is more fat, more cholesterol and less energy.

Depression can have strong food ties, and some foods can act as an anti depressant all on their own. As stated by "Eat your way to a better brain" there is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression. On the Japanese island of Okinawa, for example, people have a strikingly low rate of mental disorder—and Okinawans are notable fish eaters, even by the standards of a piscivorous country like Japan. In contrast, many studies suggest that diets which are rich in trans- and saturated fatty acids, such as those containing a lot of deep-fried foods and butter, have bad effects on cognition. (1) The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish are also common in certain fruits and nuts such as kiwis or walnuts.


In conclusion, we make our food choices oftentimes based on factors other than health and/or health benefits. This is a negative practice that can have major implications on our own self image and worth. If this practice is changed, the benefits are wide ranging and can have drastic effects on ones own view of themselves.


"Intelligent Eating, Food For Thought, Eat your way to a better brain" The Economist July 17, 2008
November 12, 2008
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11745528

"Healthy Eating for Weight Loss" WebMD November 12, 2008. Cleveland Clinic.
http://women.webmd.com/guide/nutrition-101-how-to-eat-healthy

Research Paper Draft 2

The Nitrogen Cycle

The overabundant use of nitrogen in commercial fertilizers and lack of concern for wastewater runoff concentrations of nitrogen are leading our nation into a desperate struggle to keep our summertime ocean ecosystems and shorelines alive. A chain reaction is taking place right under our noses, which is changing the way our rivers and oceans interact with one another and the biodiversity they can support. The impact of this reaction is being felt in small doses around the world, but its significance grows larger every year. Each summer, more and larger areas of river estuaries and deltas, along with the ocean itself become inhospitable, lifeless dead zones. Our practices in modern agriculture and industry are directly related to this increase, and it is our responsibility to correct the path before we can no longer control the outcome. Although they are not widely acknowledged or publicised in the United States, ocean dead zones present huge challenges for the future in agricultural practice and water management, because they are affecting our fisheries and the biodiversity of our coastal areas.

According to Barbara Juncosa, "dead zones are not new; they form seasonally in economically viral ecoystems worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay. Agricultural runoff sparks many of these die-offs; increased use of nitrogen fertilizers has doubled the number of lifeless pockets every decade since the 1960s, resulting in 405 dead zones now dotting coastlines globally" (1) One area of major concern in the United States is the Mississippi River Basin. Due to the fact that it drains nearly 40% of the entire United States and is in the center of the largest area of cropland in the nation puts it right inline for big ecological problems. The use of monoculture crop raising in this region is particularly dangerous. Soybeans and corn have become the two major crops and dominate the landscape in this area. Fertilizers are the most abundant source of nutrients for crops like soybeans and corn which generally cannot sustain themselves in the same ground two years in a row without the aid of nutrients. "Agricultural inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus are the largest source of nutrients in most affected areas." (Cleaner production and environmentally sound biotechnology for the prevention of upstream nutrient pollution in the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 4) This area of the country is also a large producer of grains grown for domestic livestock feed and that production is fueled with fertilizer as well. In Simon D. Donner's article "Surf and Turf" he cites that "the data shows that corn and soybeans are the prominent feed crops, comprising 94% of the production of the major feed crops in the Mississippi Basin. Corn alone receives the majority of the nitrogen (73%), phosphorus (62%), potash (64%) and herbicide (62%) applied to the six feed crops, because of the extensive cultivation and typically high application rates." (2) This relationship with the earth is having profound impacts that can't be seen from the places that they start. A bit more agricultural runoff in Missouri might be a mere annoyance to a farmer there, but that same runoff could be adding more and more nitrogen into the ocean at the outlet of the Mississippi River, devastating the plants and animals of the delta and further on out into the Gulf of Mexico. As stated by Goolsby, Battaglin, Aulenbach, and Hooper the direct relationship between concentration and streamflow indicates that most of the nitrate in streams studied in their paper is from non-point sources. If the nitrate was predominantly from point sources, concentrations would decrease as streamflow increased due to dilution. Instead nitrate concentrations in streams increase in response to rainfall or snowmelt that leaches nitrate that has accumulated in the soil. (5)

Our relationship with nature has changed in the last 50 years in quite a drastic way in the United States. We have moved from a family farm producer society to a city dwelling mega farm production society. This has had many benefits and many costs as well. One of the major costs to the environment from this mega farming production system is the clearing of huge areas of land for raising crops and consequently the massive amount of water runoff that this cleared land produces. Major water runoff is a problem on its own, producing large quantities of topsoil erosion and runoff into waterways that become choked with sediment. More importantly though, this runoff oftentimes carries with it the chemicals and bi-products of our massive scale crop production.
Heller and Keoleian cite that "today commercially manufactured chemical fertilizers are by far the major source of applied plant nutrients in the US. Commercial fertilizer accounted for 6.4% of total farm production expenses in 1997, and was applied to 25% of the total farmland (total farmland includes pastureland, rangeland, etc., which typically receives little to no fertilizer)" (3) Fertilizers are used to enhance the viability of soil that has been farmed too extensively, or in soil that is of the wrong composition for specific target crops that a farmer is planting. These fertilizers are used in heavier concentrations in conjunction with the spring and summer growing seasons, which is the time of the largest mass of dead zones.
In the Mississippi River Basin in particular, Turner, Rabalais and Justic cite that the increased production of corn has come at the expense of cotton, the conservation reserve program, and soybean acreage, which is a crop more efficient in retaining nitrogen once applied. (2323) Our addiction to cheap corn sweeteners and the rise of use of ethanol based bio-fuels has only spurred more growth in this sector of the agricultural industry.

The process by which high concentrations of nitrogen are turned into a dead zone is a cycle of boom and bust. When the large concentrations of nitrogen enter the warmer estuary waters of a delta or gulf they cause an algae bloom. The life cycle of these algae blooms includes sinking to the bottom of the body of water to decompose with the aid of bacteria. This process consumes oxygen though, and in the massive scale that is required for breaking down these super algae blooms, it is faster than it can be naturally replaced in the water. This process depletes the water of life giving oxygen and creates what we call a dead zone. Booth and Campbell point out that the natural stratification of the Gulf, whereby lighter river water overlies heavier salt water, impedes overturn and oxygen recharge at depth. (5410) These dead zones are called hypoxic zones which means low oxygen. When oxygen concentrations in a body of water reach down to 2 parts per million, an area is considered to be hypoxic. To sum up this idea as described by ScienceDaily dead zones are caused by farm fertilizers and other chemicals, and their runoff into rivers creating a large amount of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen as it sinks down into the water. Without sufficient oxygen, marine life on and close to sediment dies. (2)

Effects from hypoxia on fisheries is huge, fish that are able to will leave an area will, but many more get trapped by expanding pockets of hypoxic water and have mass die offs. Some other creatures like shellfish and crustaceans aren't able to move as quickly and can not get out of the hypoxic area in time and have die offs as well. This is pushing fisheries farther off shore and leaving large portions of ocean barren of life.

Solutions to this problem are needed, and fast. With alarming news of global climate change and precipitation, evapo-transpiration and runoff expected to increase globally, and hydrologic extremes such as floods and droughts becoming more common and more intense (Coupling between climate variability and coastal eutrophication, 1) we need to decide on a decisive way to approach this issue. While there are no silver bullets that would knock out dead zones completely, industry will have to settle with some terms on fertilizer use eventually and a managed approach to dealing with wastewater. The reintroduction of sustainable farming practices would be a good start for limiting nitrogen release and runoff into waterways. In Russia, "harmful algae blooms declined in the 1990s coinciding with a decrease in nutrient loading due to reduced fertilizer usage following the breakup of the former Soviet Union and termination of its agricultural subsidies." (Harmful algal blooms and eutrophication, 4) Conventional wisdom has led us astray in the type of agriculture that we have been practicing. As we become more and more dependant on fertilizers to keep up our production of crops like corn, we are destroying ecosystems that we cant even see. Replanting riparian ecosystems, or even just allowing them to regrow could make a huge impact on this problem by allowing the ground to absorb more of the runoff water that would be drained right away without it. In the subject of wastewater runoff, treatment has begun in some parts of the world to remove the high levels of nitrogen, Olguin, Sanchez and Mercado state that "high-rate anaerobic treatment for industrial wastewater was first applied on a commercial scale in the sugar industry in the mid 1970s, (in Mexico) and has a wide potential in developing countries, since most current mainstream technologies for wastewater treatment (e.g., activated sludge) are too costly and time-consuming" (5) This brings with it hope that at some point there will be a time when it is recognized that biological treatment of high nitrate wastewater is a cost effective solution to keep larger problems at bay.

In conclusion, ocean dead zones are an ecological nightmare that are slowing destroying our oceans ability to support life in certain areas. Without action, these dead zones will only increase in size and volume.



Works Cited

Anderson, Donald M., Burkholder, Joann M., Cochlan, William P. , Glibert, Patricia M., Gobler, Christopher J., Heil, Cynthia A., Kudela, Raphael M., Parsons, Michael L., Rensel, J. E. Jack, Townsend, David W., Trainer, Vera L., Vargo, Gabriel A., "Harmful algal blooms and eutrophication: Examining linkages from selected coastal regions of the United States", Harmful AlgaeIn Press, 6 September 2008.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.hal.2008.08.017

Booth, M.S. and Campbell, C. "Spring Nitrate Flux in the Mississippi River Basin: A Landscape Model with Conservation Applications" Environmental Science Technology, 41, 15, 5410 - 5418, 2007, 10.1021/es070179e
Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070179e

Justic, Dubravkom, Rabalais, Nancy N. , Turner, R. Eugene "Coupling between climate variability and coastal eutrophication: Evidence and outlook for the northern Gulf of Mexico", Journal of Sea Research Volume 54, Issue 1, , Contrasting Approaches to Understanding Eutrophication Effects on Phytoplankton, July 2005, Pages 25-35.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.seares.2005.02.008

Olguin, Eugenia J., Sanchez, Gloria, Mercado, Gabriel "Cleaner production and environmentally sound biotechnology for the prevention of upstream nutrient pollution in the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico", Ocean & Coastal Management Volume 47, Issues 11-12, , Integrated Coastal Management in the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem, 2004, Pages 641-670.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2004.12.006

Goolsby, Donald A., Battaglin, William A., Aulenbach, Brent T., Hooper, Richard P., "Nitrogen flux and sources in the Mississippi River Basin", The Science of The Total Environment Volume 248, Issues 2-3, Pages 75-86, 5 April 2000
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/S0048-9697(99)00532-X

Juncosa, Barbara. "Suffocating Seas." Scientific American 299.4 (Oct. 2008): 20-22. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008
http://libapps.uaf.edu:2059/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=13&sid=5f8bbecf-6dcb-4329-ac6a-54ac2bae1066%40SRCSM2&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=34236087

Heller, Martin C., Keoleian, Gregory A. "Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: a life cycle perspective", Agricultural Systems Volume 76, Issue 3, , June 2003, Pages 1007-1041.
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/S0308-521X(02)00027-6

Donner, Simon D. "Surf or turf: A shift from feed to food cultivation could reduce nutrient flux to the Gulf of Mexico," Global Environmental Change Volume 17, Issue 1, Pages 105-113, February 2007,
ScienceDirect University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 28 Oct. 2008 www.sciencedirect.com doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.04.005

Texas A&M University. "Into The Dead Zone: Galveston Researcher Examines Loss Of Marine Life."
ScienceDaily 7 May 2004. 28 October 2008
http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2004/05/040507082408.htm

Turner, R. Eugene, Rabalais, Nancy N., and Justic, Dubravko. "Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia: Alternate States and a Legacy" Environmental Science Technology, 10.1021/es071617k: 42, 7, 2323 - 2327,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es071617k

Reading Response 8, Ziad 990 question 3

Ziad's reference to the historical material that is included in the essay was there to give some insight into the real history of social organization in the middle east. This information was relatively new to me and surprising to see. At the same time though, this lends quite a bit of good insight into the current struggle taking place in that area of the world. I feel like historical information like that that lends some insight into the long term movements and political struggles of the middle east has been obviously absent in journalism and politics here in the United States today as a result of a major political push to change policy and attitudes towards that part of the world.
The United States attitude to this part of the world has been very preemptive and reactionary in the last few presidencies. The absence of this background information in our daily lives and discussions has really opened up a school of thought in the United States that Islam is a terror based religion as a whole. That all terrorists are Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists. This idea that all Muslim nations must be fought by democratic nations because they cant be democratic themselves or are all terrorists has only been perpetuated by a neoconservative government that seems to be pushing its own conservative Christian agenda. If this background information were covered a little bit more in depth by some of our mainstream public media sources, there is a chance that some people might hold a slightly different opinion about how things should be handled in this region of the world. Maybe some insight into why people are angry and unsettled in their lives instead of a general blindness to others struggles and an open mindedness only with how many different ways to use the word "terrorist" in a sentence . I would like to think that things might be different, but given our nations unsettling ability to ignore pertinent news for something juicier, I fear that we would probably still be in the same spot we are.

Essay #3 Rough Draft

Although they aren't always the most exciting choices, eating healthy foods causes a positive shift in self image and worth because they make a person feel better, look better, and have more energy. Healthy foods are commonly mislabeled as all being "health foods" which can range from pretty normal things to the extreme. According to theWebMD article "Healthy Eating for Weight Loss", the basic elements of a healthy diet consist of Protein (found in fish, meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, nuts, and beans), Fat (found in animal and dairy products, nuts, and oils), Carbohydrates (found in fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, grains, beans and other legumes, and sweets), Vitamins (such as vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K), Minerals (such as calcium, potassium, and iron) and Water. (1)

Self image is based on how one see's themselves in the world. What one eats is directly connected to how they view themselves in the world and how other people generally view them. There are exceptions to this rule, but generally it stands true. If someone has a very unhealthy diet and consistently takes in more energy than they output, they gain weight and generally take on a negative self image. This can have a snowballing effect in some people as they see themselves slipping into a bad habit, and rather than correct the situation, live in denial of it or ignore it until the habit has gotten out of control. This is when food choices have a huge impact on mental health. If a person has avoided a healthy balanced diet in exchange for foods that are high in saturated fat and sugars they are much more at risk for all sorts of health problems, both mental and physical. As stated by Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at the University of California in "Eat your way to a better brain", "appropriate changes to a person’s diet can enhance his cognitive abilities, protect his brain from damage and counteract the effects of ageing." (1)

The mental health benefits of making good food choices are very clear to see, as is pointed out in the Economist's July 2008 issue's article"Eat your way to a better brain" certain foods "are like pharmaceutical compounds; their effects are so profound that the mental health of entire countries may be linked to them." (1) In America today, we have an on the go lifestyle that stresses food qualities like cost and portability over things like real value and health value. Cheaply produced foods that can be prepared with little effort in little time but are tasty are by far the most popular kinds. This plays right into poor eating habits, because generally these types of foods are either lacking in nutritional quality or are generally unhealthy. A large part of the problem with this scenario is societal, in that we are living in a world of rushes. Rushing from one thing to the next hardly slowing down for meals and the like. This has become a product of the 21st century that we don't really even think about any more. This is one of the true hurdles to overcome with healthy eating and a changing self image of our nation.

The bodies ability to produce energy from poor quality foods is low, and in the case of poor quality foods, the quantity of bad ingredients in them far outweighs the good. This equation has negative effects when we try and use this sort of food as a good source of energy as we eat more to gain more. What is left in the end is more fat and less energy.

Depression can have strong food ties, and some foods can act as an anti depressant all on their own. As stated by "Eat your way to a better brain" there is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression. On the Japanese island of Okinawa, for example, people have a strikingly low rate of mental disorder—and Okinawans are notable fish eaters, even by the standards of a piscivorous country like Japan. In contrast, many studies suggest that diets which are rich in trans- and saturated fatty acids, such as those containing a lot of deep-fried foods and butter, have bad effects on cognition. (1) The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish are also common in certain fruits and nuts such as kiwis or walnuts.


In conclusion, we make our food choices oftentimes based on factors other than health and/or health benefits. This is a negative practice that can have major implications on our own self image and worth. If this practice is changed, the benefits are wide ranging and can have drastic effects on ones own view of themselves.


"Intelligent Eating, Food For Thought" The Economist July 17, 2008
November 12, 2008
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11745528

Zelman, Kathleen M. MPH , "Healthy Eating for Weight Loss" WebMD May 20, 2008

November 12, 2008

http://women.webmd.com/guide/nutrition-101-how-to-eat-healthy

Reading Response 7, Bernstein question 4

Question 4

My response to this "view from abroad" is one of agreement. I understand how Europeans would have a hard time feeling much sympathy for a country that touts itself as the leader of the free world, but cant take care of its own poor. I feel like Hurricane Katrina did show a dark underbelly of the deep southern states and how things really operate there. Don't let this detract from the fact that I do think that Hurricane Katrina was a known threat that people ignored the severity of. I think that international media sources are a requirement for an informed mind. I personally get my news from multiple sources from around the nation and the world so that I feel like I am getting an accurate read orgauge on what is really going on. I find stories on a regular basis that run in newspapers like the BBC or the Guardian about the United States that never show up in our own papers. We have an interesting appetite for terrible, self depreciating news here, but sometimes are able to avoid or ignore some of the more important pieces of that type of news. I do think that a portion of American society retrieves its news from abroad so that they can get a more even and balanced view of what is really going on domestically and internationally.