{"id":6789,"date":"2026-05-15T21:31:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6789"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:31:49","slug":"scientists-find-climate-change-is-reducing-oxygen-in-rivers-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6789","title":{"rendered":"Scientists find climate change is reducing oxygen in rivers worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

By SETH BORENSTEIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Global warming is causing rivers to slowly lose oxygen, threatening fish and other lives in the waterways, a new study shows.<\/p>

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Researchers in China used satellites and artificial intelligence to track and analyze oxygen levels in more than 21,000 rivers across the globe since 1985. They found oxygen levels have dropped an average of 2.1% since 1985, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances. That doesn\u2019t seem like much but it adds up and if it continues or accelerates, rivers in the Eastern United States, India and across the tropics could lose enough oxygen by the end of the century to suffocate some fish and create dead zones, the study said.<\/p>\n

Basic chemistry and physics dictate that warmer water holds less oxygen, scientists said. Warmer water, which happens with human-caused climate change, releases more oxygen into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

If the oxygen loss rate continues at the current pace, the world\u2019s rivers on average will lose an additional 4% of their oxygen by the end of the century, and in some cases close to 5%, the study found. That\u2019s when oxygen loss \u2014 called deoxygenation \u2014 becomes problematic for fish and people who rely on rivers, according to the study\u2019s lead author Qi Guan, an environmental scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing.<\/p>\n

More dead zones appear<\/h4>\n

Scientists worry that oxygen levels in rivers could fall so low that dead zones appear, as they have in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie. Those are areas where fish struggle to breathe and die.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeoxygenation is a very slow process. If we have a long period, the negative impact will attack the river ecosystems,\u201d Guan said. \u201cThe low level of oxygen can cause a series of ecological crises such as biodiversity decline, water quality degradation and maybe some fish will die.\u201d<\/p>\n

University of Arizona geoscientist Karl Flessa, who wasn\u2019t part of the study, said in an email that losing oxygen in rivers means \u201ca future of more stinky dead zones (hypoxia), especially during heat waves.\u201d<\/p>

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Some rivers are in such bad shape that \u201ca small change can tip them into the danger zone,\u201d Flessa said. \u201cif your favorite fishing hole gets too warm, oxygen levels will go down and there won\u2019t be any fish to catch.\u201d<\/p>

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