2 / 2 pts

Question 1

Why do farmers apply nitrogen to their fields in the spring and fall?

Correct!
Nitrogen provides nutrients to the plants for the coming growing season.

Nitrogen is depleted through the use of pesticides on fields.

Nitrogen is used to eradicate weeds and other plants that will compete with
crops for soil nutrients.

Nitrogen prices are cheapest in spring and fall.

Nitrogen is used to eradicate insects that will consume crop seedlings.

2 / 2 pts
Question 2

From where do the majority of the nutrients found in the northern Gulf of
Mexico originate?

Fertilizer manufacturing plants in Florida and Alabama

Factories located along rivers in the Mississippi River system

Correct! Farms located in the American Midwest

Farms in northern Mexico

Farms in the southeastern United States

2 / 2 pts
Question 3
 Why is the northern Gulf of Mexico described as a “dead zone”?

The dead zone in the northern Gulf is nothing more than the expansion of
an existing dead zone in the southern Gulf

Nutrient enrichment makes ocean water less acidic and more difficult for
aquatic life to survive in.

Correct!
Nutrient enrichment starts a chain of events that depletes the water of
oxygen, making it difficult for aquatic life to survive.

Overfishing has disrupted the food chain in the Gulf, resulting in a cascade
of localized extinctions

Increased levels of nutrients are poisonous to fish and have resulted in

Gulf-wide fish kills.

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Question 4

Why have local nutrient reduction strategies been slow to be

implemented?

Midwestern states will not adopt reduction strategies unless they are
applied nationally.

The Environmental Protection Agency has implemented federal water

quality standards rather than local reduction standards.
 Land in the Midwestern United States is unable to support agriculture
without large quantities of fertilizer.

The impact of nutrient runoff is merely speculation and not supported by

research.

Correct!
Farming is a business and nutrient reduction likely will not occur unless
there is a clear economic benefit to doing so.

2 / 2 pts
Question 5

Why are researchers exploring the use of the radish as a cover crop?

Global consumption of radishes has increased dramatically in recent

years.

Radishes can eliminate the need for fertilizers during the spring and fall.

Radishes are increasingly being used as a biofuel.

Correct!
It may be able to conserve most fall-applied nitrogen on the same fields
where it is applied, thus preventing nutrient runoff.

Radishes are ground up and used as fertilizer.

Quiz Score: 10 out of 10