"The dead zone occurs when nitrogen-based fertilizer washes from Corn Belt farms into the Mississippi River and winds its way south into the Gulf, providing nutrients for a bloom of algae. When the bloom dies, it leaves oxygen-depleted water where other marine life can’t survive.
An indirect link was established between the dead zone and U.S. ethanol production when, in 2012, the dead zone contracted dramatically after an extreme drought damaged corn crops."
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