😆 Ah, yes, the riveting #investigation into "dead" zones that might hold clues to early life, brought to you by a website that can't manage to load without #JavaScript and cookies enabled. 🕵️♂️🔍 Because surely, the secrets of primordial ooze are best unveiled through a browser error message. 🌊🔒
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002570 #deadzones #earlylife #browsererror #primordialooze #HackerNews #ngated
#deadzones — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #deadzones, aggregated by home.social.
-
-
Oxygen-deprived underwater zones may not be "dead zones" but clue to early life
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026AV002570
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49925742
#HackerNews #OxygenDeprivation #EarlyLife #UnderwaterResearch #MarineBiology #DeadZones
-
NOT so harmless...
Excerpt: "Introducing #KareniaMikimotoi
"The species responsible for recent events in #SouthAustralia beaches, #KMikimotoi, causes harmful #algal blooms in #Asia, #Europe, #SouthAfrica and #SouthAmerica, as well as #Australia and #NewZealand. These blooms all caused fish deaths, and some also caused #breathing difficulties among local #beachgoers.
"The most drastic of these K. mikimotoi blooms have occurred in China over the past two decades. In 2012, more than 300 square kilometres of abalone farms were affected, causing about A$525 million in lost production.
Explaining the toxic effects
"Microalgae can damage the gills of fish and shellfish, preventing them from breathing. This is the main cause of death. But some studies have also found damage to the gastrointestinal tracts and livers of fish.
"Tests using fish gill cells clearly show the dramatic toxic effect of K. mikimotoi. When the fish gill cells were exposed to intact K. mikimotoi cells, after 3.5 hours more than 80% of the fish cells had died.
"Fortunately, the toxin does not persist in the environment after the K. mikimotoi cells are dead. So once the bloom is over, the marine environment can recover relatively quickly.
"Its toxicity is partly due to the algae’s production of 'reactive oxygen species', reactive forms of oxygen molecules which can cause the deaths of cells in high doses. K. mikimotoi cells may also produce lipid (fat) molecules that cause some toxic effects.
"Finally, a very dense bloom of microalgae can sometimes reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water column, which means there is less oxygen for other marine life.
"The human health effects are not very well known but probably relate to the reactive oxygen species being an irritant.
"K. mikimitoi cells can also produce 'mucilage', a type of thick, gluey substance made of complex sugars, which can accumulate #bacteria inside it. This can cause 'sea foam', which was evident on beaches last week.
"A question for many people is whether increasing water temperatures make blooms of K. mikimotoi more likely.
"Another concern is whether nutrient runoff from farms, cities and #aquaculture could cause more harmful algal blooms.
"Unfortunately, for Australia at least, the answer to these questions is we don’t know yet. While we know some harmful algal blooms do increase when nutrient runoff is higher, others actually prefer fewer nutrients or colder temperatures.
"We do know warmer water species seem to be moving further south along the Australian coastline, changing #phytoplankton species abundance and distribution.
"While some microalgal blooms can cause bioluminescence that is beautiful to watch, others such as K. mikimotoi can cause skin and respiratory irritations.
If you notice discoloured water, fish deaths or excessive sea foam along the coast or in an estuary, avoid fishing or swimming in the area and notify local primary industry or environmental authorities in your state."
#OceanHealth #Beaches Algae #SeaFoam #HABs #HarmfulAlgaeBlooms #KareniaMikimotoi #WarmingOceans #Radioactivity #NutrientRunoff #OceansAreLife #ROS #SkinIrritations #RespiratoryIrration #ReactiveOxygenSpecies #DeadZones
-
Amsterdam just banned ads for #meat and #FossilFuels. Who’s next? This topic intersects #animals, #deforestation, #FreshWater overuse, #RiverPollution, ocean #DeadZones, #topsoil erosion, #ethics, #wildlife, #biodiversity, #LandUse, #GHGs, #ClimateCrisis & #respect. open.substack.com/pub/veganhor...
Amsterdam just banned ads for ... -
Brewing oceans, brewing storms, making a blooming disaster
"Over the past year, Australia’s oceans have been hotter than ever before...The continued burning of fossil fuels has caused our atmosphere to warm by approximately 1.2 degrees C since the pre-industrial era....If you change what happens in the oceans, you start to change the whole system...The problem with climate change is we’re hitting that system incredibly hard with extra energy and we’re putting a lot of pressure on the oceans."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-02/hottest-year-on-record-in-oceans-around-australia/105698530
#FossilFuels #ClimateBreakdown #ocean #FoamAndBlooms #HABs #hypoxia #MarineEcosystems #biodiversity #MassMortalityEvents #GBR #DeadZones #agriculture #RunOff #eutrophication #dumping #pollution #floods #atmosphere #Australia #mobility #cars #acidification -
Global oxygen decline in the ocean
Ocean hypoxia: The science of climate change in the sea"... The field will need to draw on ... advances to meet demands for adaptation solutions to the continued progression of global ocean deoxygenation, particularly in conjunction with ocean acidification and marine heatwaves in a multi-stressor scenario."
Chan, F., Sokolova, I. & Vopel, K. Ocean hypoxia: The science of climate change in the sea. Sci Rep 15, 4260 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86706-4
#climate #ocean #hypoxia #HotOcean #eutrophication #acidification #MarineEcosystems #FoamAndBlooms #FossilFuels #agriculture #MassMortalityEvents #foodwebs #OceanDeoxygenation #DeadZones -
Warming the climate and run off is making harmful algal blooms worse
Turning the ocean into a lifeless 'dead zone'"The scale of each harmful algal bloom event seems to be increasing...We're basically seeing that the warming climate is changing the frequency and length and locations and toxicity of harmful algal blooms...If there isn't something done to mitigate, to reduce climate emissions, warming will continue and these kinds of events will be more and more likely."
>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-28/harmful-algal-blooms-around-the-world/105562252
#FossilFuels #pollution #bushfires #floods #runoff #ocean #MarineHeatwave #HABs #DIYDisaster #Biodiversity #MassMortalityEvents #RiskSociety #DeadZones #climatebreakdown -
Mass mortality events
Dead marine sea life is washing up on the beaches
Mass bird deaths line the beaches"There's a lot of concerning things going on with ocean ecology at the moment, so we are watching events like this with a bit of trepidation."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-22/avian-influenza-not-the-cause-of-coral-bay-bird-deaths/105546660Beaches are littered with fish and marine carcasses
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/20/sas-toxic-algal-bloom-is-twice-the-size-of-the-act-has-killed-12000-animals-and-is-filling-even-the-experts-with-dread“Ocean temperatures are heating up. It’s creating conditions that are conducive to algal blooms all around the world."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/15/deadly-algal-bloom-in-south-australias-coorong-an-environmental-eye-opener-ecologist-says
#FossilFuels #Climate #ClimateBreakdown #MarineHeatwave #AMOC #HABs #pollution #runoff #hypoxia #toxins #marine #biodiversity #FishKill #MassMortalityEvents #MME #Biodiversity #birds #DeadZones #ocean #ecology #Australia #PlanetaryBoundaries -
From 2021: An Ancient Era of #GlobalWarming Could Hint at Our Scorching Future [Bonus -- We're adding #PFAS, #microplastics and #radiation to the mix! Oh boy...!]
Looking back at the strange and sweaty days of the #PETM.
by Riley Black, August 16, 2021
"THERE WAS A TIME when alligators slid through weed-choked swamps near the North Pole. Some 55 million years ago—just around 10 million years after the mass extinction that killed T. rex and most of its kin—the average global temperature sat more than 20°F higher than it does today. Subtropical forests spread to northern latitudes, and mammals thrived in lush new habitats.
"The toasty weather had nothing to do with the event that killed the dinos. The driver for the climatic shift came not from above, but from below—in Earth’s oceans. Paleontologists and geologists suspect that some amount of natural warming that took place during the Paleocene, or the period following the die-off, caused great deposits of crystallized methane to transform into gas. Seabeds belched the excess out into the water and the air, which was bad news for the planet: Methane is a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. The globe rapidly warmed in response—jumping about 10°F in less than 20,000 years—and held steady for some 70,000 more before starting a long and slow recovery.
"Paleontologists call this hot spot the #PaleoceneEoceneThermalMaximum (PETM). It’s a time when subtropical forests spread over the continents and new animals got to stake their claims on the planet, all thanks to an atmosphere and oceans in turmoil. This part of the fossil record is a remnant of the past, but it may also be a preview of our future."
#HungryInsects #DeadZones #LossOfOceanOxygen #ToxicAlgae #RapidEvolution #StrangeNewRains #Extinction #NewLifeForms
-
Approaches to artificial reoxygenation have been studied as possible solutions to coastal oxygen loss, but they come with risks that must be assessed carefully, write @CarolineSlomp and Andreas Oschlies. Read more: https://eos.org/features/could-bubbling-oxygen-revitalize-dying-coastal-seas #deadzones #reoxygenation #science #biology #oceans
-
Cattle, Cowboys & Climate Chaos
https://ethicalrevolution.co.uk/cattle-cowboys-climate-chaos/
In recent decades, scientists have warned that industrial meat production, and beef in particular, fuels climate change and leads to deforestation, soil erosion, species extinction, ocean dead zones and high levels of methane emissions.
Yet today’s average American still eats three hamburgers per week! 🤯 🐮 🤮
The rise of an extensive and powerful American beef industry thanks to the near-elimination of bison across the United States in the 19th century led to beef becoming a marker of American identity.
Over a century later is now the time to forge a new identity?
Certainly if we’re hoping to avoid the impending destruction of society-as-we-know-it a lot of us are going to have to address the cow in the room.
#ClimateChange #ClimateChaos #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #DeadZones #deforestation #emissions #extinction #Methane #PlantBased #SoilErosion #USA #Vegan
-
Through Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Amateur Radio Triumphs When All Else Fails
While some residents in hurricane-impacted areas can’t send texts or make calls, #AmateurRadio enthusiasts are helping communicate requests for help and messages between loved ones.
Wired
9 October"Hurricanes have wreaked havoc on the United States over the past month. More than 200 people have been confirmed dead as a result of #HurricaneHelene and many more have gone missing, making it the most destructive US hurricane since Katrina in 2005. Nearly a week after Helene made landfall, #CellService #DeadZones plagued the Carolinas, leaving thousands of residents unable to reach their friends, families, and even emergency responders. As #HurricaneMilton builds in the Gulf of Mexico this week, radio operators in #Florida are also preparing to launch their net—a group of operators communicating live over the air. Scott Roberts, an amateur radio section manager for northern Florida, said that operators in his area started checking their equipment and making plans to deploy to shelters as of Monday.
"There are more than 1 million licensed radio amateurs in the US like Witherspoon and Roberts, according to a Federal Communications Commission spokesperson who spoke to WIRED last week. Some amateur radio bands are short bands, reaching only small communities of people, while others cover hundreds and even thousands of miles. When #CommunicationInfrastructure fails, like #CellularNetworks during a natural disaster, the FCC allows for amateur radio operators to assist in recovery efforts.
"Gordon Mooneyhan, spokesperson for the American Radio Relay League, said he knows of three main #repeaters being used to convey messages inside the disaster area from Hurricane Helene, including the #MountMitchellRepeater, which is located at the highest point in #NorthCarolina at 6,600 feet and boosts localized radio broadcasts to a wider network. This is where Witherspoon read off supply requests and #RoadClosures."
#HamRadioOperators #AmateurRadio #Disasters #DisasterAssistance #Communication #MutualAid
-
@KeithDJohnson That was an excellent episode. Just finished watching it.
#DeadZones #EnvironmentalPollution #NitrogenPollution #Corn
#CropRotation NOT #monocrops -
Travel down the rab...er...#corn hole with John Oliver as he reveals the financial & environmental [& social] impacts / costs of corn-ication in the U.S. [Probably, elsewhere, too.] https://youtu.be/MI78WOW_u-Q #comedy #pollution #agriculture #heath #CorporateWelfare #ToxicAlgae #inequity #crime #racism #monopoly #monocrop #erosion #AntibioticResistantBacteria #CAFOs #water #DeadZones #anoxia #nitrates #BlueBabies #DustStorms #ClimateChange #BirdFlu
-
Deoxygenization is happening. Dead zones are increasing in number and size.
"Oxygen levels in the world’s oceans have already dropped more than 2 percent between 1960 and 2010, and they are expected to decline up to 7 percent below the 1960 level over the next century."
#Deoxygenation
#DeadZones
#EcoCollapsehttps://e360.yale.edu/features/as-ocean-oxygen-levels-dip-fish-face-an-uncertain-future
-
Union of Concerned Scientists: The Hidden Costs of #IndustrialAgriculture
Published Jul 11, 2008 Updated Aug 24, 2008
Industrial farming is bad for the health of workers, eaters, and downstream neighbors. Here are some of its costly health impacts:
• #Pesticide toxicity. #Herbicides and #insecticides commonly used in agriculture have been associated with both acute poisoning and long-term chronic illness.
• Water #pollution from #fertilizer runoff contaminates downstream drinking water supplies, requiring costly cleanup measures with an annual price tag of nearly $2 billion.
• Loss of mid-sized #farms. Once the backbone of US agriculture, medium-sized farms are a dwindling breed, which means that fewer and fewer people make their living as farmers—a trend that has been bad for the economies of rural communities and farm states.
• Harm to neighboring and downstream economies. Industrial agriculture can pack an economic wallop hundreds of miles from its origin—just ask local governments and utility managers who must install expensive equipment to remove fertilizer by-products from public drinking water supplies. Or ask people who make their living from fisheries or tourism on the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, where "dead zones" and toxic #algae blooms caused by farm runoff do damage with an annual price tag in the billions. CAFOs, too, create pollution problems that reduce livability and depress property values in surrounding communities.
#ClimateCrisis #Pollutants #Pesticides #ClimateChange #RedTide #Sargassum #BigAg #Runoff #WaterIsLife #Biodiversity #RedTide #Sargassum #DeadZones
Read more: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/hidden-costs-industrial-agriculture
-
4. Biochar reduces the very serious problem we have with nutrient run off. #Nitrogen and #Phosphorous are important limited resources that currently leach out with each rain creating oxygen-deprived #DeadZones in streams, rivers, and the ocean along with toxic algae and seaweed blooms like the big one currently headed for Florida. Nutrients are held in biochar so they don’t wash away and less frequent applications are needed - saving farmers $$.
-
"#Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing #DeadZones in our lakes and seas."
#Phosphorus Saved Our Way of Life—and Now Threatens to End It
#AlgalBlooms #HABs #BigAg #Agrochimie #CAFOs #FactoryFarming #WaterPollution #eutrophication
-
Between 2003 - 2020, coastal phytoplankton blooms increased by 13%, covering an additional 4 million square kilometres of the global ocean, the Nature study found. Blooms occurred more often, up by 59% during that period.
Blooms are toxic in large amounts, starving the ocean of oxygen, leading to "dead zones" that wreak chaos on the food chain and fisheries
Toxic run off from human activity
Oceans die;we die.
-
400 dead zones around the planet, where nothing lives
Run off from construction sites, Gas and Oil waste water, agriculture waste and fertilizer run off, plastic waste and production.
We are literally killing the Ocean. Thing is that means we will kill ourselves.
It’s all connected
#oceans
#deadzones
#life
#climatecrisishttps://www.newsweek.com/john-kerrys-dead-zone-warning-1784772
-
"Researchers have created a #map of oceanic " #deadzones " that existed during the #Pliocene epoch, when the Earth's #climate was two to three degrees warmer than it is now. The work could provide a glimpse into the locations and potential impacts of future low oxygen zones in a warmer Earth's oceans."
https://phys.org/news/2023-01-ancient-ocean-dead-zones-future.html#!