Sick water?

Shancho et al , 2010). Dead zones are now thought to affect more than 245 000 km 2 of marine ecosystems, predominantly in the northern hemisphere (Diaz and Rosenberg, 2008), equivalent to the total global area of coral reefs. Toxicity, saphrogens and mutagens A wide range of toxic pollutants from land based sources are found in both fresh and marine waters ranging from agricul- tural and industrial chemicals such as organic compounds, heavy metals to personal-care products and pharmaceuticals. The impacts of these are wide-ranging. In the north east of Australia, run-off of agricultural herbicides caused the loss of 30 km 2 of mangrove between 1999 and 2002. In areas where mangroves were lost, the near shore zone suffered greater tur- bidity, nutrient loading and sediment loading as well as greater

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