Listen to the full story.
Lake Erie s dead zone blankets several thousand square miles of the lake s bottom. It is oxygen-starved and phosphorus-infused, reducing habitat for fish and other organisms. A new study marks the first time the process to be so closely monitored. Hannah Anderson of the U of M s Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research says this study provides important new evidence. The phosphorus that is being dredged up yearly by the dead zones is a result of the legacy of the impacts of our land use as humans.
Until now, no evidence existed to pinpoint when and where this phenomenon occurs in Lake Erie.