Every spring and summer, fertilizer nutrients from the fields of the Midwest United States run through the Mississippi River and reach the Gulf of Mexico. The nitrogen and phosphorous from these fertilizers spark an algae boom in the Gulf (Wikipedia 2014). This causes an increased population of the phytoplankton and other marine plants. After these plants die, which happens quickly due to their short lifespan, they drift to the bottom and their decomposition requires a lot of oxygen use (Wikipedia 2014). This results in a dead zone, an area in water systems that does not have enough oxygen to sustain life. These dead zones are sometimes as large as the state of Connecticut and are lethal areas for fish and other marine animals (Wikipedia 2014).
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