Phycoremediation And Environmental Pollution

Water, is a very valuable and necessary resource that, must be managed more carefully. Quantity-wise it is endless; all around the world there are many bodies of water. Ground sources, such as aquifers, as well as surface water, including oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams. Because of its endlessness it becomes more difficult to manage it all. Clean water that is readily available, for developed and devolving nations alike, is a challenge. There are many factors that play into what can access water sources, and pollute it. Pollution of water is a worldwide problem that occurs too frequently. There are various contributors to water pollution including agriculture, industry, waste management, as well as naturally occurring

Phytoplankton are microscopic photosynthesising organisms which live in water. In favourable environmental conditions they have a very high rate of reproduction. They are eaten by microscopic animals called zooplankton. In an investigation, samples of water were removed from a lake at intervals over a twelve-month period and the biomasses of these organisms were determined. The results are shown in the graph.

Although sewage systems are able to provide a great deal of sanitation to water before it is released back into a source, the risk of raw sewage overflowing into water sources poses several issues. Not only can raw sewage contain harmful bacteria such as E. coli, it can also negatively affect aquatic life. Human waste typically contains high levels of nitrogen, phosphorous, and other nutrients that are useful for people but can cause many issues in an aquatic environment (Burkholder et. al., 2011). Much of these elements are removed during wastewater treatment, but if they are sent directly to a water source due to flooding, they can cause algae blooms and harm

Fresh cell homogenate of G. semen collected from Lake Jelino (“FH” treatments) with chl-a range: 894 – 3576 mg m-3, caused distinct negative effect on Daphnia survival (Fig. 2.). It increased with the increasing biomass of alga and time of exposure. At lower chl-a concentrations (894 and 1778 mg m-3) the survival rate averaged 40% – 70 % after 24 h and 20 % – 30 % after 48 and 72 h of exposure. However, the addition of the most concentrated and fresh G.semen homogenized biomass (chl-a: 3576 mg m-3) caused 100% Daphnia mortality already after

Back to the history, the eutrophication problem was first time concerned by public on Great lakes at the 1960s, the Lake Erie was covered by algae as a result of over dumped phosphorus from the sewage and other waste water, at that time, the Lake Erie was known as the “Dead Sea of North America”(Fitzpatrick, J. J., and Di Toro 1999). The reason cause this problem can be concluded in 2 points, 1. the stresses of overfishing, 2. development of phosphorus-based detergents. At the end of 1960, the Canada and the United States have realized the penetrance of this problem and finally sit on the table to sign an agreement that limiting phosphorus dumps to the Lake Erie, and plan to control existing unstoppable algal growth. Because of the awareness of Canada and US government, the concentration of phosphorus got a significant success. And this problem happened again during the 1990s, but this time the reason why this happen is more complexly.

Blue green algae, also known as cyanobacteria can be found in many lakes and ponds throughout Connecticut. It can go unseen or noticed in these bodies of water and not have an impact in others. However when the circumstances are just right the alga can bloom excessively and release toxins into the water. If and when this occurs people and animals using this body of water for recreation can be at risk. Because the toxins in the water cannot be seen, a chemical analysis of the water is needed to verify the release of the toxins. This issue began in my small community in 2012 when the weather was just right in temperature and the correct amounts of nutrients were

The purpose of this experiment is to understand the effects of nutrient enrichment and eutrophication, using samples of water from Rio Salado and Encanto Park. The samples will contain different concentration levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and nitrogen and phosphorous combined and the impact it has on algae growth. The results recorded showed that the nitrogen concentration levels had a little change, phosphorous levels had a higher change and phosphorous and nitrogen combined had a significantly higher change, resulting in higher algae growth. The results showed that phosphorous indeed is a limiting nutrient in algae growth, but to achieve the highest growth rate, both nitrogen and phosphorous need to be combined.

Since plastic bags have also negatively impacted marine life, many bags are now biodegradable plastic (Balestri, Menicalgi, Vallerini, and Lardicci, 2017). The change was to address the accumulation of plastic bags in the environment. The biodegradable bags, however, are not biodegrading in marine sediments. Some bags were placed in marine sediments where some cellulose was being broken down. Despite six months passing, the biodegradable bags still weighed 85% their initial weight. The sediment was normoxic prior to the addition of the biodegradable bag, but after the bag was added, the sediment was nearing hypoxic conditions. The physical barrier of the bag between the sediment and the water could have interfered with the diffusion of oxygen. The bag was also a thermal insulator; the sediment was cooler with the presence of the bag. Seagrass do not thrive in hypoxic conditions, which may imply that the presence of biodegradable bags in the sediment are detrimental for the proliferation of seagrass. The presence of the bag also resulted

ioremediation refers to the use of organisms, particularly microorganisms, to transform or degrade a contaminant to make it harmless (Antizar-Ladislao 2010). One well- characterized example is the bioremediation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaska coast; the treatment has largely eliminated pollutants and wastes along hundreds of miles of coastline (Atlas and Hazen 2011). Currently, bioremediation is regarded as a cost-effective remediation technology potentially appropriate for large polluted areas, such as contaminated water and soil. Its potential safety and efficiency will certainly accelerate further development of the

It depends on where the toxin is being dumped in/onto that concludes whether my plant is a good or bad bioremediator--making it inconclusive. It may work better when it comes to cleaning up toxins from the water, but not as good as it would on land. I don’t have enough results to confirm my claim(but I have enough to support it), so I'll need to conduct more experiments to actually confirm my claim just so that I am thorough. From the data in the graph in the results section, it showed that the Juncea plant with the toxins in the water actually didn’t die and actually grew, but if you look at my plant with the toxins in the soil it ended up dying on day number 12. This made me think: does the Brassica Juncea be a better option to clean up toxins depending where the toxin is dumped on/into.

Duckweed holds the remarkable ability to clean a variety of levels of polluted water. Research conducted by R A Leng in duckweed’s potential for a high – protein resource explains that duckweed was able to remove contaminants

Nutrient pollution is responsible for hundreds of dead zones across the world’s oceans lakes and estuaries, and the number and size of them is growing. Many of these dead zones cover thousands of square miles where almost nothing lives (National Science Foundation, n.d., Worldwide Dead Zones section, para. 1). Nutrient pollution, also known as eutrophication occurs when nutrients, most commonly nitrogen and phosphorus, from industrial, agricultural, residential, and airborne sources enter the water in high concentrations. This process results in water that is too rich in nutrients. This in turn causes a chain of events that can cause widespread ecological damage to both aquatic ecosystems. In order to reduce nutrient pollution to sustainable levels and prevent a manmade ecological disaster, mankind must stem the flow of nutrients into our waterways by regulating the sources that contribute to it.

Cultural eutrophication is the process by which abnormally high levels of limiting nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) are carried, by runoff, into a naturally occurring body of water, causing the out of control growth of algae. The unruly growth of algae, caused by the abundance of nitrogen and phosphorus, leads to harmful algal blooms on the water’s surface that have negative effects on the surrounding environment. This creates an area where there is no life, known as a “dead zone. All plants require the nutrient phosphorus to live and grow, therefore the algae thrives on the high levels of the nutrient phosphorus. As the runoff carries phosphorus, from fertilizers and other sources, into the body of water (in this case, the Maumee River into Lake Erie), an excessive amount of phosphorus is accessible and the algae begins to rapidly grow in a large quantity. This rapid growth causes the formation of harmful algal blooms on the surface of the water that restrict the amount of sunlight that can enter the water. The restriction of sunlight reduces the rate of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis captures sunlight turning it into chemical energy, and a product of this process is oxygen. Although there are organisms that do feed on algae, the growth becomes so rapid that an abundance of excess algae builds up, dies and decomposes. This process of decomposing the excess algae requires a large quantity of oxygen. Both factors, the reduction of photosynthesis and excessive

The use of microalgae in carbon-neutral biofuel production is a promising technology for the sustainable diversification of energy resources and fuels (US DOE, 2010). Despite the popularity of biofuels from other agricultural products, these biomass sources are inferior to algae in terms of productivity, reliability, sustainability, and sheer magnitude of yield (Wigmosta, et al., 2011). According to National Research Council, an assessment of land requirements for algae cultivation that accounts for climatic conditions; fresh water, inland and coastal saline water, and wastewater resources; CO2 abundance and sources; and land availability is needed to inform the potential output of algal biofuels that could be produced economically in the

Microalgae have a great potential to solve energy and environmental challenges around the world. Wastewater treatment with microalgae is a more environmental sound approach to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus and to remove heavy metals from wastewater. Microalgae can absorb significant amount of nutrients because they need large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus for proteins (45-60% microalgae dry weight) and metals as micronutrients for their growth. William Oswald first developed the idea of treating wastewater using microalgae and performed photosynthesis in sewage treatment [29]. Figure 2.1 briefly depicts the process involved in high rate algal pond in which algae plays a dual role by