How does the Mississippi river affect the environment?

How does the Mississippi river affect the environment?

The Mississippi River and its tributaries have been plagued by nutrient runoff, specifically excess nitrogen and phosphorous. These nutrients are essential to growing soybeans and corn but are often unintentionally lost to rivers and streams, where they become a pollutant and waste farmers’ money.

Why is the Mississippi river important to the world?

As the nation’s second-longest river, behind only the conjoining Missouri, the Mississippi provides drinking water for millions and supports a $12.6 billion shipping industry, with 35,300 related jobs. It’s one of the greatest water highways on earth, carrying commerce and food for the world.

How did the Mississippi river impact the US?

Why is the Mississippi River important? For centuries, the Mississippi River has been a very important route (path) for trade and travel. Today, it is the cheapest way to travel between the Southeast United States. The Mississippi provides hydroelectric power and water to several states.

How does temperature affect the Mississippi River?

A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor. Recent storms along the Mississippi River have been supercharged by running over a warmer ocean and through an atmosphere made wetter by global warming.

Is the Mississippi River toxic?

The Mississippi River doesn’t have the cleanest reputation. Long treated as a drain for Midwest farms, factories and cities, the river has coursed with a nasty mix of bacteria, lead and toxic chemicals.

How global warming affects Mississippi?

If the oceans and atmosphere continue to warm, sea level along the Mississippi coast is likely to rise between twenty inches and four feet in the next century. Rising sea level submerges wetlands and dry land, erodes beaches, and exacerbates coastal flooding.

How did the Mississippi River affect the environment?

Environmental Factors. The Mississippi was the primary transportation and trade route into and through the central part of the continent. People drank its water and sent their wastes downstream, as they continue to do today. People harvested the plants and animals that were abundant in the river valley.

How much land is lost in the Mississippi River Delta?

The Mississippi River Delta and coastal Louisiana are disappearing at an astonishing rate: a football field of wetlands vanishes into open water every 100 minutes . Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost over 2,000 square miles of land, an area roughly the size of Delaware. Many factors have contributed to this collapse.

What is the average flow rate of the Mississippi River?

At Lake Itasca, the average flow rate is 6 cubic feet per second. At Upper St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the northern most Lock and Dam, the average flow rate is 12,000 cubic feet per second or 89,869 gallons per second. At New Orleans, the average flow rate is 600,000 cubic feet per second.

Is the Mississippi River the largest river in the world?

The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity.