1148 / 2024-09-20 15:06:49

New approaches to reduce the extent of hypoxic areas in marine waters

hypoxia,climate change,eutrophication,reoxygenation

Human activities are a major cause of oxygen decline in marine waters. Climate change, discharges from agriculture and human waste are the major causes. To reverse this trend and support global efforts to reduce eutrophication and climate change innovative technologies introducing oxygen to hypoxic areas are being developed. However, the understanding about these emerging marine reoxygenation techniques, their feasibility, and their environmental effects is limited. The Global Ocean Oxygen Network convened a group of international experts to develop a set of guiding questions for consideration before, during, and after research and deployment of reoxygenation field studies and particularly of reoxygenation interventions. Looking forward, it is important to recognize that every site considered for such an intervention, will require interdisciplinary, multistakeholder dialogues considering ethical, environmental impacts as well as a sustainable blue economy.