Great Lakes dead zone a mystery
Read the full story in the Michigan Messenger.
In the wake of a report in Science two weeks ago that concluded that the number of dead zones — areas of low oxygen that choke off life — in the ocean are doubling every 10 years, renewed attention may be focused on a major dead zone in one of the Great Lakes that continues to be a mystery.
Dead zones do not happen only in the oceans; they happen in freshwater lakes of sufficient depth as well. Lake Erie has had a large dead zone for decades, one that covers almost the entire central basin of the lake (Sandusky, Ohio, divides the western basin from the central; Erie, Penn., divides the eastern basin from the central basin; everything in between is the central basin, the bulk of the lake’s area and volume), but for a time it was getting better.