David L. Kirchman was Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware before his retirement in 2020. He holds a BA in biology from Lawrence University, an MS in environmental engineering from Harvard University, and a PhD in environmental engineering — with a focus on microbiology — also from Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Francis Alison Award and a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. He is the editor of Microbial Ecology of the Oceans and the author of Processes in Microbial Ecology.

This book weaves a great story about the most insidious form of aquatic pollution, encompassing greed, denial, and stupidity on the one hand, and human ingenuity and the triumph of science on the other. This mixture makes for great reading -- a true detective yarn if you will ... I highly recommend this book to everyone -- ecologists, teachers, monitoring experts, fishers, conservation organizations, policymakers -- in my opinion its even qualifies as a summer beach read for the broader public. A bookshelf must!

• Prologue Chapter 1: The Great StinksChapter 2: Dead Zones Discovered in Coastal WatersChapter 3: Coastal Dead Zones in the PastChapter 4: What Happened in 1950?Chapter 5: Giving the Land a LickChapter 6: Liebig's Law and Haber's TragedyChapter 7: The Case for PhosphorusChapter 8: Fish and FisheriesChapter 9: Dead Zones in the Open OceansChapter 10: Reviving Dead Zones AcknowledgmentsSelected BibliographyIndex

David L. Kirchman was Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware before his retirement in 2020. He holds a BA in biology from Lawrence University, an MS in environmental engineering from Harvard University, and a PhD in environmental engineering — with a focus on microbiology — also from Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Francis Alison Award and a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. He is the editor of Microbial Ecology of the Oceans and the author of Processes in Microbial Ecology.

This book weaves a great story about the most insidious form of aquatic pollution, encompassing greed, denial, and stupidity on the one hand, and human ingenuity and the triumph of science on the other. This mixture makes for great reading -- a true detective yarn if you will ... I highly recommend this book to everyone -- ecologists, teachers, monitoring experts, fishers, conservation organizations, policymakers -- in my opinion its even qualifies as a summer beach read for the broader public. A bookshelf must!

• Prologue Chapter 1: The Great StinksChapter 2: Dead Zones Discovered in Coastal WatersChapter 3: Coastal Dead Zones in the PastChapter 4: What Happened in 1950?Chapter 5: Giving the Land a LickChapter 6: Liebig's Law and Haber's TragedyChapter 7: The Case for PhosphorusChapter 8: Fish and FisheriesChapter 9: Dead Zones in the Open OceansChapter 10: Reviving Dead Zones AcknowledgmentsSelected BibliographyIndex

David L. Kirchman was Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware before his retirement in 2020. He holds a BA in biology from Lawrence University, an MS in environmental engineering from Harvard University, and a PhD in environmental engineering — with a focus on microbiology — also from Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Francis Alison Award and a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. He is the editor of Microbial Ecology of the Oceans and the author of Processes in Microbial Ecology.

This book weaves a great story about the most insidious form of aquatic pollution, encompassing greed, denial, and stupidity on the one hand, and human ingenuity and the triumph of science on the other. This mixture makes for great reading -- a true detective yarn if you will ... I highly recommend this book to everyone -- ecologists, teachers, monitoring experts, fishers, conservation organizations, policymakers -- in my opinion its even qualifies as a summer beach read for the broader public. A bookshelf must!

• Prologue Chapter 1: The Great StinksChapter 2: Dead Zones Discovered in Coastal WatersChapter 3: Coastal Dead Zones in the PastChapter 4: What Happened in 1950?Chapter 5: Giving the Land a LickChapter 6: Liebig's Law and Haber's TragedyChapter 7: The Case for PhosphorusChapter 8: Fish and FisheriesChapter 9: Dead Zones in the Open OceansChapter 10: Reviving Dead Zones AcknowledgmentsSelected BibliographyIndex