• Home
  • How We Work
  • Where We Work
  • News Room
  • About Us
  • My Nature Page

The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America

Ecosystem Management in the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico Map, courtesy of NOAA

The Gulf of Mexico Map, courtesy of NOAA

Understanding Sediment Processes in the Mississippi Sound

The Gulf of Mexico coastal region, like many coastal areas, is vulnerable to devastating coastal storm events. In addition to providing coastal habitat for a wide variety of coastal wildlife, marshes, barrier islands and seagrasses provide a proven line of defense from the high energy, high impact storm events like hurricanes. In Mississippi Sound, the Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Initiative along with our Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida state chapters, the Army Corps of Engineers hopes to improve the understanding of the region’s coastal processes, sediment dynamics and environmental resources to improve ecosystem management, regional decision-making in responses to storm events and ensure long term lasting restoration of Gulf of Mexico’s precious coastal habitats.

Sunset at Peach Point, Texas

Sunset at Peach Point, Texas
© Earl Nottingham

Regional Planning in the Gulf of Mexico

Regional, ecosystem-based management is gaining support as an approach to integrated planning and conservation of nearshore marine environments and resources. To accomplish this, the Conservancy uses ecoregional planning and assessment (.pdf, 136 kb, new window) to identify species and ecosystems of conservation concern, establish goals and analyze threats to each, and establish a portfolio of sites where conservation efforts will protect the full marine biodiversity of the area. Gulf of Mexico Initiative is looking forward to updating the Ecoregional Plan for the Northern Gulf of Mexico (2000) (.pdf, 1.5 MB, new window) to include Florida and greater Mexican Gulf coasts as well as collecting available data that identifies the biological resources for Mexico’s National System of Marine Protected Areas.

Reducing Nutrients and Hypoxia

Hypoxia occurs around the world’s oceans; however the second largest zone of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world is off the Louisiana coast. This phenomenon occurs every year but is now believed not to be just a natural phenomenon; rather it has been associated with nutrient over-enrichment from agricultural inputs drained by the Mississippi River. The hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, also known as the “dead zone” because of its effect on marine plants and animals, has more than doubled in size since 1984, reaching a record size of 8,500 square miles in 2002. The Nature Conservancy has identified a set of actions that could contribute to the reduction of the hypoxia zone. By restoring wetlands and riparian systems to capture nutrients and reduce these inputs at the source, the Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Initiative and the Upper and Lower Mississippi River Programs and our partners are aiming to slow or even reduce the growth of this hypoxic zone and its effects throughout the region.