EUTROPHICATION

1.What is eutrophication?
2.Brief about eutrophication?
3.Formation of mechanism?
4.Sources of eutrophication?
5.Types of eutrophication?
6.Hypoxic condition?
7.Causes of eutrophication?
8.Effects of eutrophication?
9.Preventive measures?
10. Conclusion
 Brief about eutrophication

The term eutrophication derived from the Greek word “eutrophs” which means
“nourished” or “enriched”

 Eutrophication can be defined as addition of artificial or non- artificial

substances such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage
to a freshwater system.
 It leads to increase in the primary productivity of the water body or
“bloom” of phytoplanktons.
 According to OECD Organization of economic cooperation and
development in the 1970’s.
 “Eutrophication is an enrichment of water by nutrient, salts that causes
structural changes to the ecosystem such as increase production of algae
and aquatic plants, depletion of fish species, general deterioration of
water quality and other effects that use reduce and preclude use”
 This aspect become increasingly important increase in human population
and more extensive development of agriculture and eutrophication now
ranks with other major anthropogenic effects such as, deforestation,
global warming, depletion of ozone layer and large scale environmental
disturbance in relation to its potentially harmful effects on natural
ecosystem.
 According to survey of the world’s lakes, a project promoted by the
international lake environmental committee, eutrophication affects 54%
of Asian lakes, 53% of those in Europe, 48% of those in northern America,
41% of those in sot America and 28% of those in Africa.

 Formation of mechanism

 Eutrophication is characterized by a significant increase of algae

(microscopic to plants) due to greater availability of an or more growth
factor necessary for photosynthesis, such as sunlight carbon dioxide and
nutrients(nitrogen and phosphors)
 When algae start in an uncontrolled manner, and increasingly large biomass
is formed which is destined to degrade
 In deep water a large amount of organic substances accumulates,
represented by the algae having reached the end of their life cycle.
 To destroy all the algae an excessive consumption of oxygen is required in
some cases almost total by micro-organisms.
 An anoxic (oxygen free) environment is thus created on the lakes bottom,
with the growth of organisms capable of living in the absence of oxygen
(anaerobic) responsible for the degradation of the biomass
 The micro-organisms decomposing the organic substances in the absence
of oxygen free compound that are toxic such as ammonia and hydrogen
sulphide.
 The absence of oxygen reduce biodiversity causing in certain cases even the
death of plants and animal species
 All this happens when the rate of degradation of algae by micro-organisms
is greater than that of oxygen regeneration which is summer is already
present in low concentration.
  Fertilizers wash into a lake or river

 Algae grow faster

 Plants shaded by algae

 
Overuse of nitrogenous fertilizers can harm the environment lakes and rivers can suffer from
eutrophication
 Algae die  Plants die


 Dead algae and plants decomposed by microbes



 Microbes respire and use up oxygen



 Dissolved oxygen level fall

 Aquatic animals suffocate and die

 Types of eutrophication

Natural Eutrophication

 Natural eutrophication refers to the excessive enrichment of water bodies

via natural events. For example, the nutrients from the land can be washed
away in a flood and deposited into a lake or a river. These water bodies
become overly enriched with nutrients, enabling the excessive growth of
algae and other simple plant life.
 The process of natural eutrophication is much slower when compared to
the process of anthropogenic eutrophication. This process is also somewhat
dependant on the temperature of the environment. It may even be
complemented by the temperature changes brought on by global warming.

Anthropogenic Eutrophication

 Anthropogenic eutrophication is caused by human activity – Agricultural

farms, golf courses, lawns, etc. are supplied with nutrients by humans in
the form of fertilizers. These fertilizers are washed away by rains and
eventually find their way into water bodies such as lakes and rivers.
 When introduced to an aqueous ecosystem, the fertilizers supply plentiful
nutrients to algae and plankton, resulting in the eutrophication of the
water body.
 Overpopulation places a huge demand on industrial and agricultural
expansion, which in turn leads to deforestation. When this occurs, the soil
erodes more easily, resulting in increased soil deposits in water bodies. If
the soil is rich in phosphorus, it can lead to eutrophication and severely
damage the ecosystem in and around the water body.
 When sewage pipes and industrial wastes are directed to water bodies, the
nutrients present in the sewage and other wastes increase the rate at
which eutrophication occurs.
 Sources of eutrophication
 Point source.
 Point source are directly attributable to one influence
 In point source the nutrient waste travel directly from source to
water
 Point source are relatively easy to regulate
 Waste water effluent (municipal & industrial)
 Runoff and leach ate from waste disposal system
 Runoff and infiltration from animals feedlots
 Run off from mines, oil fields, unsevered industrial sites
 Overflow of combined storm and sanitary severs
 Runoff from construction sites untreated sewage
Non point source
 Non point source pollution is that which comes from diffused
source
 Non point source are difficult to regulate and usually very
spatially and temporally
 Runoff from agriculture /irrigation
 Runoff from pasture and range
 Urban runoff from unswered areas septic tank leach ate
 Runoff from construction sites
 Runoff from abandoned mines
  Atmospheric deposition over a water surface other land activities
generating containments

Hypoxic condition
 The excessive growth of algae in eutrophic water is accompanied by the
generation of a large biomass of dead algae. These dead algae sink to the
bottom of the water body where they broken down by bacteria which
consume oxygen in the process
 The over consumption of oxygen leads to hypoxic condition (condition in
which the availability of oxygen is low) in the water. The hypoxic conditions
at the level of water body leads to the suffocation and eventual death of
larger life reforms such as fish………
 The department of fisheries and ocean responsible for EIA says, the cut in
the result of necessary funding restrains as its budgets will drop by 5.8 %
by 2015
 ELA supports say the facility’s unique scientific value and relatively small
running cost should be enough reason to save it from the axe reflecting
boarder hostility towards environmental science with the federal
government
 Canada has the most lakes in the world and giving a few over towards
scientific research for the past 44 years has proven invaluable for

environment impact studies, but in may the Canadian government

announced it was cutting funding for the historical experimental lakes area
(ELA) in Ontario leaving the facility scrambling to find a new source funding
or face closure in April 2013.

Causes of eutrophication

 The availability of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus limits

the growth of plants life in an ecosystem
 When water bodies are overly enriched with these nutrients, the
growth of algae, planktons, and other simple plants life is favored
over growth of more complex plant life

o Excessive use of fertilizers

o Concentrated animal feeding operation(CAFOs) are also
a major source of polluting nutrients
o Industrial and domestic waste
o Natural runoff
o Nutrients soil and weathering rocks
o Inorganic fertilizers
 o Manure from from farms
o Erosion
o Discharge of detergents
o Discharge of partially treated or untreated sewage
o Domestic and industrial waste
o Animals waste and sediments entering into water
o Runoff of un organic fertilizers

Effects of eutrophication

1. Algal blooms covers the water bodies like river, lakes, streams or
ocean block light from reading the water which prevents the aquatic
plants from photosynthesizing
2. Lack of photosynthesis cause oxygen deficiency which results in a
decline of marine species
3. Hypoxic condition forms the dead zones which have not only
negative ecological impacts but also economic issues
4. The water can have a bad taste color and odor which has negative
impacts on tourism. Governments have to invest more in waste
water treatments
5. Ecological and economical impacts phytoplankton grows much
faster in such situation. These phytoplankton species are toxic are
inedible gelatinous zooplanktons blooms faster in these water
6. Increase biomass of epiphytic and benthic algae can be observed in
eutrophic waters
7. Significant changes arise in the species composition of macrophytes
and the biomass
8. The water loss its transparency and develops a bad smell and color.
The treatment of this water become difficult depletion of dissolved
oxygen in the water body
 9. Frequent fish kill incident occur and many desirable fish species are
removed from the water body
10.The population of shellfish and harvestable fish are lowered. The
aesthetic value of the water body diminished significantly
Ecological effects of eutrophication

 Decreased in biodiversity
 Increase in water toxicity
 Invasion of new species
Preventive measures

1) Industrial and domestic waste water must be treated before its

discharge into water bodies
2) Reaching of nutrients through harvesting
3) Removal of algal bloom
4) Precipitation like alum, lime, iron, and sodium aluminum may use in
physiological methods can be applied to remove nutrients e.g
phosphorus can be removal by precipitation and nitrogen by
nitrification or denitrification
5) Conventially, there have been some methods to control/reduce
eutrophication via the alternation of excess nutrients, physical mixing
of water application of powerful herbicides and algaecides among
other
6) These methods have proven to be ineffective, expensive and
impractical for large ecosystem
Curative procedures
 Removal and treatment of deep water in contact with the
sediment rich in nutrients
 Drainage of the upper part of sediments subjects to biological
reaction and with high phosphorus concentration
 Oxygenation of water for restoring the ecological condition
  Chemical precipitation of phosphorus by the addition of iron or
aluminum salt or calcium carbonate to water

Conclusion
 Improvement of the water purifying performance of water treatment
plants, installing tertiary treatment system to reduce nutrient
concentration
 Improvement of effective filter ecosystem to remove nitrogen presents in
the runoff water
 Reduction of phosphorus in detergents
 Rationalization of agricultural techniques through proper planning of
fertilizersation and use of reduce fertilizers
 Use of alternatives particles in animal husbandry to limit the production of
waste water.