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Although Dams can be viewed as a positive way to store water for later use it has had negative impacts on the Mississippi River Basin. "As a result of dam construction on the Missouri River, the amount of sediments transported
down the Mississippi River during the 1700s and
1800s has been reduced (Meade, 1995). Now the
sediment inputs from the upper Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers are proportionally greater, and these rivers carry
the largest proportions of a total load of nutrients in
the form of nitrate"(1)

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The Mississippi River Basin is one of the largest in the world. It provides resources for over a million people in and out of the United States. Humans have altered the natural ecosystem in the Mississippi River Basin. The added nutrients from flooding and also from agricultural developments have caused one of the biggest hypoxic water areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Basin also offers many ecosystem services such as fishing, hiking, and fresh water.

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One possible solutions to help with flooding is building levees to help divert the overflow water to other places to avoid over flow into cites. A possible solution for the harmful pesticides and fertilizers being used that impacts the amount of nutrients that enter and harm the water oxygen levels in the Mississippi River Basin is limiting the amount of chemicals being used in these products.

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The Mississippi River drains an area of about 1.2 million square miles including all or parts of 32 states and two Canadian Provinces, about 40% of the continental United States. (5) The water from the Mississippi River drains into the Gulf of Mexico(5).

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The Mississippi touches at least 31 states and in all the states there are numerous tourist opportunities. These included scenic views in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri, fishing, hiking, boating, and hunting. (6)

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With the invention of steamboats, the Mississippi River was used more and more for transporting goods. (2) The river provided new ways to transport goods in a more sufficient way.

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This shows how the excess nitrates entering the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi exceed the baseline(Dark blue line) on a regular basis since 1979 (3)

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The excess nutrients from the Mississippi River drain into the Gulf of Mexico and contribute to the growing hypoxic zone in the gulf. In a study titled Ecosystem Effects in the Lower Mississippi River Basin by D. Phil Turnipseed, Yvonne C. Allen, Brady R. Couvillion, Karen L. McKee, and William C. Vervaecke they write "Nutrient delivery (nitrogen and phosphorous), particularly during the months of April and May, has been identified as one of the primary factors controlling the size of the northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone (Turner and others, 2012), which is the largest hypoxic zone (human-induced) in the western hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. (7) Excess nutrients are a food source for algae. With the extra food they are able to reproduce at a faster rate and use the oxygen faster. With the high food supply and faster reproduction rate the algae use the oxygen up and it creates areas that have low or no oxygen levels.

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Flooding has become a bigger issue in the Mississippi River Basin in more recent years. According to a study titled Ecosystem Effects in the Lower Mississippi River Basin by D. Phil Turnipseed, Yvonne C. Allen, Brady R. Couvillion, Karen L. McKee, and William C. Vervaecke, they determined the excessive flooding was due to excess rain and above-average snowmelt runoff (7). This could be a result of climate change. With the rising temperature due to the greenhouse gasses trapping the heat energy in the atmosphere, it could cause the snow to melt at a faster rate.

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Agricultural developments tend to be a non-point source of pollution for the Mississippi River. In an article titled Quantifying the effect of land-use change on increasing discharge in the Upper Mississippi River by Keith E. Schilling, Kung-Sik Chan, Hair Liu, and You-Kuan Zhang they determined " The number of acres planted in soybean in the UMRB drainage area above Keokuk, Iowa was summed on an annual basis. The area of soybean cultivation increased by more than 1000% from 1938 to 2003... With increased water and nitrogen flux, it was no surprise when a recent assessment suggests that the UMRB now contributes about 43% of total nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico despite representing only about 15% of the land area." (8) In more recent times in a geological survey done by the U.S Department of interior reported "The National Research Council (2008) reported that about 90 percent of the nitrogen load reaching the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River is from nonpoint sources, including about 60 percent from fertilizer and mineralized soil nitrogen (1).

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The Mississippi River is home to numerous species. "The Upper Mississippi River and its floodplain provide habitat for 45 amphibian and reptile species, 57 mammal species, and 37 species of freshwater mussels."(3).

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The Mississippi River is the source of water for all the cities and surrounding states that the river passes through. "Communities up and down the river use the Mississippi to obtain freshwater and to discharge their industrial and municipal waste...A January 2000 Study published by the Upper Mississippi Rivers Conservation Committee states that close to 15 million people rely on the Mississippi River or its tributaries in just the upper half" (5)

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The lower Mississippi River Basin is most often defined by the spatial boundaries of the Ohio Confluence downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. "This 2 million acres of land and water, what locals collectively call the “batture,” ... There are secondary river channels, islands, forests, wetlands, sandbars, sloughs and lakes...The 2-million-acre active floodplain of the lower river, the land and water between the federal levee system often called the “batture,” is the nation’s largest river floodplain (land where the river floods unimpeded). It is nearly 15 miles wide in places. Before major levees were constructed, the river’s unrestricted floodplain was up to 100 or more miles wide."(5)

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The Mississippi River consists of two main parts, one of them being the Upper Mississippi River Basin. "Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, is a small glacial lake, approximately 1.8 square miles (4.7 km) in area...The Upper Mississippi River system is defined as the natural floodplain between the head of navigation at Minneapolis, Minnesota and the confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois" (3).

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(1) Alexander, Wilson, Richard C., Green, W. Reed, Geological Survey , issuing body, & United States. Department of State. (2012). A brief history and summary of the effects of river engineering and dams on the Mississippi River System and Delta. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
(2)“The Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) History.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 2022, https://www.epa.gov/ms-htf/mississippiatchafalaya-river-basin-marb#:~:text=The%20Mississippi%2FAtchafalaya%20River%20Basin%20%28MARB%29%2C%20which%20encompasses%20both,contiguous%20United%20States%20and%2015%25%20of%20North%20America.
(3)Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “Information about the Upper Mississippi River System.” Information about the Upper Mississippi River System | | Wisconsin DNR, 2022, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Watersheds/basins/mississippi/aboutMississippi.html#:~:text=The%20river%20is%20divided%20into%20the%20upper%20Mississippi%2C,approximately%201.8%20square%20miles%20%284.7%20km%29%20in%20area.
(Image 1)"File:Mississippiriver-new-01.png" by Shannon1 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=openverse.
(4)Lower Mississippi River Conservation Commitee. “The River.” Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, 2 Mar. 2022, https://www.lmrcc.org/the-river/.
(5) U.S Department of Interior. “Mississippi River Facts.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2022, https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm.
(Image 2) "Flooding along the Mississippi River" by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.
(6)“River Attractions.” Experience Mississippi River, 22 Apr. 2022, https://experiencemississippiriver.com/river-attractions/.
(7)Turnipseed, D Phil, et al. “Ecosystem Effects in the Lower Mississippi River Basin - USGS.” Ecosystem Effects in the Lower Mississippi River Basin, 2011, https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1798l/pdf/pp1798l.pdf.
(Image 3) The U.S, Department of Interior. “Trends in Annual Water-Quality Loads to the Gulf of Mexico.” NWQN, 2020, https://nrtwq.usgs.gov/nwqn/#/GULF.
(8)Keith E. Schilling, Kung-Sik Chan, Hai Liu, You-Kuan Zhang,
Quantifying the effect of land use land cover change on increasing discharge in the Upper Mississippi River,
Journal of Hydrology,
Volume 387, Issues 3–4, 2010, Pages 343-345, ISSN 0022-1694, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.04.019. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169410002064)
(Image 4)"Muscatine High Bridge, Iowa, Illinois, Steamer, Steamboat, Wake Robin" by photolibrarian is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/?ref=openverse.
(Image 5)"Fishing" by pianowow is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/?ref=openverse.
(Image 6) "Mississippi River Wetlands" by Tom Gill. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/jp/?ref=openverse.
(Image 7) "Liquid fertilizer application" by eutrophication&hypoxia is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.
(Image 8) "Little Falls Dam" by photobunny is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.
(Image 9) "Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico April 29th View" by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

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Prior to the Louisiana Purchase, the Mississippi River acted as a western border of the United States. It would also be used as a way to trade fur pelts with the Indians that were present during the time (2). The name of the river also comes from the tribes that originally resided on the river The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported "Mississippi is an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian word meaning great river or gathering waters..."(3).

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The Mississippi River Basin is one of the largest river systems in the world. The Mississippi River Basin crosses through 31 states in the US and 2 provinces in Canada. Its entry point is located at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and drains into the Gulf of Mexico. The rivers that contribute to the Mississippi River Basin are the Ohio River, the Missouri River, the Arkansas River, and the Red River. (1)