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Aerial photo of Mississippi River winding through farmland

Reducing Nutrient Losses From Cropland in the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin: Cost Efficiency and Regional Distribution

  • by Elizabeth Marshall, Marcel Aillery, Marc Ribaudo, Nigel Key, Stacy Sneeringer, LeRoy Hansen, Scott Malcolm and Anne Riddle
  • 9/26/2018
  • ERR-258

Overview

Every summer, a “hypoxic zone” in the Gulf of Mexico (dissolved oxygen too low for many aquatic species to survive) is fueled by nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) runoff from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB), most of which comes from agriculture. This report assesses the most cost-effective way of achieving a 45-percent reduction in cropland nutrient loads to the Gulf.

See related Amber Waves article: Cost-Effective Strategies for Reducing Cropland Nutrient Deliveries to the Gulf of Mexico.

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