Eutrophication is a limnological term for the process by which a body of water becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients. Water bodies with very low nutrient levels are termed oligotrophic and those with moderate nutrient levels are termed mesotrophic. Eutrophication may also be referred to as dystrophication or hypertrophication.

Prior to human interference, this was, and continues to be, a very slow natural process in which nutrients, especially phosphorus compounds, accumulate in water bodies. These nutrients derive from degradation and solution of minerals in rocks and by the effect of lichens, mosses and fungi actively scavenging nutrients from rocks. Anthropogenic eutrophication is often a much more rapid process in which nutrients are added to a water body from any of a wide variety of polluting inputs including sewage treatment, industrial waste and farming practices. The visible effect of eutrophication is often nuisance algal blooms that can cause substantial ecological degradation in the water body and in the streams flowing from that water body. This process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body after the bacterial degradation of the algae.

Eutrophication is a process of increasing bio-mass generation in a water-body caused by increasing concentrations of plant nutrients, most commonly phosphorus compounds and nitrate, or other nitrogen compounds. Increasing nutrient concentrations leads to increasing fecundity of plants, both macrophytes and in the plankton. As more plant material becomes available as a food resource, there are matching increases in the number of herbivorous animals and also carnivorous animals feeding on them. As the process continues, the bio-mass of the water body increases but biological diversity decreases. In the more severe eutrophication the bacterial degradation of the excess biomass results in oxygen consumption, which can create a state of hypoxia throughout the water body. Hypoxic zones are commonly found in deep water lakes in the summer season due to stratification into the cold oxygen-poor hypolimnion and the warm oxygen-rich epilimnion. Strongly eutrophic freshwaters can become hypoxic throughout their depth following severe algal blooms or macrophyte overgrowths.

Prevention and reversal

Eutrophication poses a problem not only to ecosystems, but to humans as well. Reducing eutrophication should be a key concern when considering future policy, and a sustainable solution for everyone, including farmers and ranchers, seems feasible. While eutrophication does pose problems, humans should be aware that natural runoff (which causes algal blooms in the wild) is common in ecosystems and should thus not reverse nutrient concentrations beyond normal levels.

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Grace

Journal Manager

Journal of Ecosystem and Ecography

Email: ecosystem@emedscholar.com