Down the bayou. (cover story)

RABALAIS, Nancy N., 1950-; ENVIRONMENTALISTS; ENVIRONMENTALISM; ENVIRONMENTAL protection; FRESH water

The article presents information on environmentalist Nancy Rabalais. Rabalais led one of six research teams that assembled a substantial body of information for the "Integrated Assessment of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico," published in 2000. Hypoxia arrives in the gulf in the spring, when the sun has begun to heat the Mississippi waters and when the river flow is at its highest. Warmer fresh water covers the cooler, denser, saltier waters of the gulf beneath, restricting convection and thus the re-supply of oxygen to bottom waters. Rabalais is a Texan by birth, born in Wichita Falls. Her dad worked as an engineer in the oil industry. The talents of an eighth-grade teacher inspired her love of biology.