EUTROPHICATION
By Anton Antonio
January 8, 2016
Once in a while we ran into environmental terms that is not
commonly used in our normal communications whether verbal or written. One such word is “eutrophication”.
“Eutrophication” (Greek: eutrophia – healthy, adequate
nutrition, development; German: eutrophie) or more precisely hypertrophication,
is the ecosystem’s response to the addition of artificial or natural nutrients,
mainly phosphates, through detergents, fertilizers, or sewage, to an aquatic
system. One example is the “bloom” or
great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased
levels of nutrients. Negative
environmental effects include hypoxia, the depletion of oxygen in the water,
which may cause death to aquatic animals.
Eutrophication arises from the oversupply of nutrients, which induces
explosive growth of plants and algae which, when such organisms die, they
consume the oxygen in the body of water, thereby creating the state of
hypoxia. According to Ullmann’s
Enclyclopedia, “the primary limiting factor for eutrophication is
phosphate.” The availability of
phosphorus generally promotes excessive plant growth and decay, favouring
simple algae and plankton over other more complicated plants, and causes
reduction in water quality. Phosphorus
is a necessary nutrient for plants to live, and is the limiting factor for
plant growth in many freshwater ecosystems.
Phosphate adheres tightly to soil, so it is mainly transported by erosion. Once translocated to lakes, the extraction of
phosphate into water is slow, hence the difficulty of reversing the effects of
eutrophication. The sources of this
excess phosphate are detergents, industrial/domestic run-off, and
fertilizers. With the phasing out of
phosphate-containing detergents in the 1970s, industrial/domestic run-off and
agriculture have emerged as the dominant contributors to eutrophication.”
(Wikipedia)
The Gothenburg Protocol is a multilateral international
agreement that seeks to address the impacts of eutrophication.
Thoughts to
promote positive action…
(Please
visit, like and share Pro-EARTH Crusaders on Facebook or follow me at http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/
and http://twitter.com/EarthCrusader/)
REFERENCE:
Wikipedia, (2016).
“Eutrophication”. Retrieved on
January 8, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication
No comments:
Post a Comment