Dead Zones on a Clock

Models 40 years of Gulf of Mexico hypoxic dead zone data, tracing the causal chain from Midwest agriculture to ocean oxygen collapse.

data engineeringmachine learningresearch

Overview

Combines annual NOAA cruise measurements, USGS river nutrient loading, and sea surface temperature into a Random Forest regression model predicting annual dead zone size. Spring nitrogen load accounts for 80% of model decisions. Identifies anomalous years driven by hurricanes and droughts, and visualizes the dead zone pulsing across four decades with animated charts.