University of Michigan
The Mississippi River near Vicksburg, looking Northeast at the Interstate 20 bridge, the confluence of the Yazoo River is in the foreground. The photo was taken by a drone flown by Jim Alvis and Mike Manning of the U.S. Geological Survey in the summer of 2016. Image credit: USGS
A team of scientists including a University of Michigan aquatic ecologist is forecasting this summer’s Gulf of Mexico hypoxic area or “dead zone,” an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life, to be approximately 4,880 square miles, a bit smaller than the state of Connecticut.