“Dead zone” in the Indian ocean has alarmed scientists – Moskovsky Komsomolets

the Area of the detected area is approximately 60 thousand square kilometers.

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Experts from Denmark, Germany and India found in the Indian ocean, the so-called “dead zone”. It is located at the Bay of Bengal, its area is 60 thousand square kilometers and the depth is from 100 to 400 meters at different sites. At these areas contains very little oxygen and are believed, they upset the balance in the ocean other key for living organisms element nitrogen.

photo: pixabay.com

the Data obtained using the latest equipment, show that the oxygen is not completely absent in the “dead zone”, but his number can be called insignificant — it is ten thousand times smaller than in water layers in the ocean surface. Previously, such areas had already been discovered in different parts of the world ocean: off the Northern coast of North and South America, not far from Namibia and the West coast of India in the Arabian sea.

Despite the name, for some, very few forms of life “dead zone” in the market. We are talking about some of the microorganisms that are consuming and processing nitrogen. These creatures pose an indirect threat to all marine life, because of their nitrogen — a key to life in General element in the ocean, according to some, have less. While this process is happening very slowly, but scientists assume that future climate change will provoke the emergence of new “dead zones” and the expansion of existing ones. Also, experts fear that the microorganisms begin to consume nitrogen more actively, if “dead zone” will disappear, even those “remnants” of oxygen, which are observed in it today.

researchers from the University of southern Denmark, Institute of marine Microbiology max Planck and isiscolo National Institute of Oceanography believe that their work makes actively seek the answer to the question, what role in formation of oceanic “dead zones” plays human activities.

the Results of their study, the researchers presented on the pages of the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.