![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081006084108im_/http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov//19761/Mississippi_Sea_2004348_tn.jpg)
Images & Animations
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Credit
NASA image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with ORBIMAGE.
Recent flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries may be linked to a large phytoplankton bloom growing in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi River delta.
- Large Images: <li>Natural Color (3.33 Mb) <li>Chlorophyll Concentrations (3.68 Mb)
In the above images, the Red River twists across southeastern Louisiana from the upper left corner and pours into the Mississippi River beneath the cloud bank. Also concealed by clouds, the Mississipppi drains into the Gulf of Mexico, but just beyond the river’s mouths, the Gulf of Mexico is green with phytoplankton. The lower image shows high chlorophyll concentrations, yellow, corresponding to the green bloom.
Scientists have suspected that phytoplankton blooms such as this one may be connected to agricultural run-off, and a recent study seems to confirm this. Using images from NASA’s SeaWiFS sensor, scientists from Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences compared the timing of irrigation along the west coast of Mexico and phytoplankton blooms in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez (Golfo de California) and found a close correlation. (See press release for more information.) Phytoplankton blooms occurred in the Sea of Cortez shortly after irrigation along the coast carried fertilizers and other agricultural run-off into the sea. The bloom detected in the Gulf of Mexico on December 13 may be similarly linked to agricultural run-off.
Phytoplankton are an important source of food for many marine animals, so waters that are rich in phytoplankton usually support a thriving ecosystem. But in some cases, phytoplankton blooms can be deadly to the very ecosystem they typically support. Some blooms, such as red tide, are toxic and result in wide-spread fish deaths. Large blooms can also create dead zones in the ocean—oxygen-poor regions where fish cannot survive— when the plants die. The bacteria that break down the decaying plants consume all of the oxygen, leaving a dead spot. The Gulf of Mexico is annually plagued with one such dead zone every summer near the location of the current bloom.
Metadata
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Sensor
OrbView-2/SeaWiFS -
Start Date
2004-12-13 -
Event Start Date
2004-12-13 -
NH Image ID
12627 -
NH Event ID
10561 -
NH Posting Date
2004-12-16