A 150-acre portion of the Florida Gulf Coast is being described as a “dead zone” by scientists after thousands of birds mysteriously abandoned their typical nesting grounds on the federally protected landscape. The most surprising is that there isn’t just one species of bird that has disappeared – it is virtually all of them, including blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans... 

Example of an ocean eddy (not from the study) as seen from space. A team of German and Canadian marine biologists have for the first time ever witnessed so-called ‘dead zones’ in the Atlantic Ocean, places where no life can thrive, owing to there being almost no dissolved oxygen in the water. Zones depleted of oxygen do exist in nature and have previously been discovered along populated coastal...