Estuarine Pollution in Eutrophicatin

The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. The well-being of the ocean is constantly being threatened and needs to stop. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems suffer and become endangered along with the lives of people and marine life. The importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world 's coasts must be recognized because they are truly irreplaceable. If humans are not educated , and become careless about what is thrown on the ground or sprayed on lawns, disastrous effects follow when it comes to the condition of the ocean’s ecosystems, which can endanger life itself, leading to a problem only we can correct. There is historical evidence of ocean pollution, although the problem still shadows us today.

Eutrophication is a concern in the Chesapeake Bay. Eutrophication is caused by excessive amounts of nutrients. Excessive nutrients in the bay have negative effects on the bay's ecosystem. The extra nutrients make the environment unbalanced. The extra nutrients cause a chain reaction that eventually kills most of the organisms in that area. This is what is known as a dead zone.

The bay has fifty major rivers and streams that drift into it. Nitrogen and Phosphorous are rapidly getting released into the bay. Most of the Nitrogen and Phosphorous comes from agriculture, air, and sewage. The excessive nitrogen and Phosphorus degrade the bay's water quality. Each year roughly three hundred pounds of polluting nitrogen gets into the Chesapeake Bay. Just like the Everglades the Chesapeake's water is in danger.

Even though, fertilizers are needed to supply essential nutrients to the growth of plants; an excess of them is one of the major issues contributing to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Fertilizers are mainly composed of two elements: nitrogen and phosphorus.(4) Throughout the years, millions of pounds of this nutrients are applied all around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed; everything not absorbed by the soil or taken up by plants eventually reaches the Chesapeake Bay through storm-water runoff. This nutrients end up creating algae blooms in the water, which reduce the amount of sunlight available to underwater grasses; not allowing plants to photosynthesize and produce the food they need to survive. Algae then decomposes creating dead zones killing fish and other species since oxygen is needed for any organism to live. (5)

The runoff carries pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediments into the Bay. In urban areas the standard city block creates five times more runoff than a forested area. About 30% of runoff in an urban area is evaporated, 55% stays runoff, and the other 15% soaks into the land with a variation of deep and shallow infiltration. About 40% of runoff in a forest evaporates, 10% stays runoff, and the extra 50% seeps into the ground with a variation of deep and shallow infiltration. The runoff is actually the fastest growing source of pollution for the Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and

Did you ever wonder how things you do everyday effect the Chesapeake Bay watershed and Its tributaries? Well, It turns out to be not so good. One of the main causes for the Bay’s bad health are nutrients which are caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the air and water. Plants and animals need nutrients to survive but when too many nutrients are in the water they fuel the growth of algae blooms and create conditions that are harmful for aquatic creatures.

Algae blooms have been an issue in the Chesapeake Bay, especially in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Algae is a natural and critical part of the ecosystem, however in large doses it is harmful to the plants and organisms within the ecosystem. Algae blooms can block out sunlight and kill other plants in the water. Algae depends on various factors such as water, nutrients and carbon dioxide to grow. Eutrophication of the Inner Harbor has lead to algae blooms that have caused large fish kills in the past. When there is an over abundance of certain chemical nutrients eutrophication can occur. Runoff from land and farms is the main cause of excess nutrients into the water. The most common nutrients that are related to algae outbreaks are nitrate nitrogen and phosphate. In addition, a lack of dissolved oxygen can also be an indicator for the process of eutrophication and risk of an algae outbreak. A particular type of algae commonly found in Maryland is known as Prorocentrum minimum. Prorocentrum tends to cause “mahogany tides” causing water to be brown and have an odor. There has been a campaign launched by the Healthy Harbor

Spanning lengths over 300,000 meters, this it is a watershed that extends over six states, the District of Columbia, and meets the needs of over 15 million individuals. With its high rate of productivity, its economic and social importance to the surrounding areas, and its close proximity to the U.S. capital, the Chesapeake has the recipient of significant attention for quite some time(Boesch, Donald). One of the issues that threatens this important estuary is eutrophication. For the majority of the 20th century, research, guidelines, and management activity were focused on other issues like wetland loss, over harvesting of fisheries, infectious wastes, etc (Davidson et al, 1997). It took until the final quarter of the century for widespread realization to hit that eutrophication had deteriorated the Bay, with extreme consequences for the Bay’s resources(Malone et al., 1993). After awareness of the impact of eutrophication on water bodies began to increase, when it came to making policies and managing the Chesapeake Bay, eutrophication reduction took precedence over any other issues. As the Bay remains a very important body of water, the significance of understanding one of the major processes responsible for its degradation remains as well. This paper aims to understand the contributing factors of eutrophication in the Chesapeake Bay, with a special focus on the effects of air and

Fisher, Hagy, Boynton, and Williams provide a helpful overview of this phenomenon, focusing their study on the Choptank and Patuxent estuaries specifically. They note that the Chesapeake has become eutrophic over the last 50 to 100 years and that systematic monitoring since 1970 has shown a 2-5 fold increase in nitrogen and phosphorus inputs. They attribute this change to sewage discharges, fertilizer application, atmospheric depositions, and

Eutrophication is the slow process that occurs naturally in aquatic ecosystems, such as lakes and ponds. It is a result of an aging body of water gradually increasing its concentration of nutrients. This happens because the intervaling death and growth of organisms that, for whatever given reason, don’t cancel each other out, and modify the fertility of the ecosystem. Eutrophication is not inherently bad, but the hastening of this process through artificial means can be very harmful to the ecosystem, and ultimately end in failure.

Freshwater shrimp feed on the algae that grows as a result. The streams are kept clean by the freshwater shrimp eating the dead matter . Organisms such as fish would then die as sunlight cannot reach the other water plants, and the oxygen content of the water subsequently decreases too. Oxygen then decreases more because of decomposition by bacteria breaks down dead plant matter. According to Art Eutrophication is “The process by which a body of water acquires a high concentration of nutrients, especially phosphates and nitrates. These typically promote excessive growth of algae. As the algae die and decompose, high levels of organic matter and the decomposing organisms deplete the water of available oxygen, causing the death of other organisms, such as fish. Eutrophication is a natural, slow-aging process for a water body, but human activity greatly speeds up the process.” This has a direct impact on fish, their main predators who cannot not survive in low levels of oxygen, leading to an increase in freshwater shrimp

Ocean pollution is one of the most urgent issues in our world today. The ocean is crucial to our ecosystem and it is being severely damaged at an alarmingly increasing rate. In this paper I will educate about the role the ocean plays in our beautiful Earth, why it is being so widely ignored and dismissed, the causes of pollution, and its effects on animals and humans alike.

As the world develops and the human population grows there is more pollution being dumped into the oceans, causing major problems to marine life and ecosystems. Major causes of marine pollution involve non-point pollutants, marine garbage, toxic ocean pollutants and sewage disposal in oceans. From heavy metal poisoning including lead and mercury killing predators such as sharks and whales, to waste getting trapped in the digestive tracts of marine animals, this essay focuses on how human interference causes horrifying problems to the marine life, but also how to fix it. It will also explore the normal activities of people including farming and how this can cause an imbalance in an ecosystem. Everyday activities can cause massive nutrient

As the given situation describes, eutrophication is a result of the presence of nitrogen and phosphorus in river since no protection methods are carried out to end the release of waste into the water bodies. Such rivers are commonly known as sensitive rivers. These nutrients excite the production of algae providing food for their growth under the accurate circumstances thus causing eutrophication. Eutrophication can harm the ecosystem causing unwanted alteration in aquatic population, extreme reduction of oxygen, health issues to human-beings and animals, expensive water treatment costs and, interfering with recreational significance of water (Kuba et al., 1997). Thus the