OCEAN FISH IN HOT WATER

Breathing Room
Like their above-water brethren, fish need oxygen, which is dissolved in the water.
Big, predatory fish, such as the blue marlin, need more dissolved oxygen than most, because
they require lots of energy to grow and survive. Without sufficient oxygen, they’ll suffocate.
The level of oxygen in the water thus partly delineates fish habitat boundaries. Dead zones
often draw these borders.
Technically known as oxygen minimum zones, dead zones are actually a natural
occurrence. Found at depths of between 200 and 1000 meters, they are caused partly by
seawater circulation and partly by the decomposition of organic matter, namely deceased
sea critters that sink from surface waters. As aerobic bacteria nosh on the organic matter,
they use up the oxygen in the water. Eventually, hypoxia happens—the water becomes so
depleted of oxygen that many creatures can’t survive. Since deep-sea dead zones are
insulated from the ocean’s surface, where the water borrows oxygen from the atmosphere,
they can only reload with oxygen if currents make a long-distance delivery. Deep-sea dead
zones are different from their coastal cousins like the one in the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal dead
zones form due to a build-up of agricultural fertilizer that rivers, such as the Mississippi,
collect and then flush out to sea, causing abnormal blooms of plant life.
Jenny Seifert : Ocean Fish in Hot Water
http://whyfiles.org/2012/ ocean-fish-in-hot-water/
Notes
Dead zones : areas of the deep ocean with little dissolved oxygen

Exercise 1
Instructions:
• Read your article.
• List the adjectives/ noun/ verb.
• Complete the table.
Adjectives noun Verb

1. significant significance signify

2. survivable survival survive

3. sufficient sufficiency suffice

4. naturalize natural nature

5. agricultural agriculture agriculturize

6. circulatory circulation circulate

7. deadly dead death

8. insulated insularity insulate

9. coastal coast coasted

10. depletory depletion deplete

 11. minimize minimal minimum