Agricultural Runoff and Fertilisers

Agricultural runoff, dominated by nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilisers, creates over 500 oxygen-depleted dead zones worldwide, each larger than a typical city. The Gulf of Mexico alone hosts a 15,000 square kilometre hypoxic zone where marine life cannot survive, a size 30% greater than the area impacted by #3 Industrial Wastewater discharge. These nutrients trigger algae blooms that collapse ecosystems, killing fish and coral at rates exceeding natural extinction.