Summary
In this article it talks about how eutrophication works in lakes. Eutrophication is defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter in an ecosystem. In the lakes the supply is given to the sediment. Then what happens is that the sediment starts to build up until the sediment has taken up all the space like in the picture below. Not only that but the algal begins to turn the lake into an icky green color. The article also talks about how humans are speeding up this process. They are speeding up the eutrophication by letting more nutrients into the lakes. If the process is sped up then it could hurt the habitat of many fish. In the article they also talked about an experiment they did to a lake. On one side of the lake they did not phosphorus but added nitrogen, and carbon to the lake. On the other side they did the same except they added the phosphorus. The amazing thing is that the side they added the phosphorus had algal all over. They then concluded that if all three nutrients were added then the lake will definately grow algal. The lakes would have to go through this eventually but this rate of the eutrophication could be dangerous.
Reflection
This topic and the article were very interesting for I did not even know about eutrophication. I also found it interesting that lakes got smaller and turned a sickly green. I hope that we are able to have nice clean water and yet not cause lakes to disappear from our planet. I forgot to mention this but in the article the sickly green color is algal. It helps keep the nutrients away so that the lake can maintain itself. I found that to be funny for its seemed like the lakes are going through natural selection. For the lake only does that when too much nutrients are added and not at any other time. I really do hope though that the lakes turn out to be better.
Questions
1. What is algal? Also can it harm fish?
2. What is a watershed?
3. Can it be dangerouse to have algal in our water?
Summary:
ReplyDeleteEutrophication is the increase in nutrients in most lakes that increase algae growth in the body of water. Scientists have been studying this for about 40 years (thats a long time)! At one point the eutrophication level in Lake Erie reached a high point and was shallow in the Great Lakes. The effects of eutrophication in lakes can risk human's health.
Relfection:
Overall, I found this article to be very interesting. Originally I had no idea what eutrophication even was! All knew was that it was going to be a pain to keep rewriting in this comment (which it is!). However, I thought it was cool how us humans are speeding up the eutrophication process by adding more nutrients into the lake. In the summertime, when I go camping, I swim in lakes. If the lake I was swimming in had algae that was effected by eutrophication, then I would be pretty concerned because eutrophication does kill fish and will most likely affect the humans!
Expand: I found this article which says that eutrophication can't be controlled by the nitrogen input and goes into further depth on this subject that has been studied for a long period of time. Check it out here: http://www.pnas.org/content/105/32/11254
Answer: 2: A watershed is an area of land that is basically drained by other bodies of water like lakes or rivers.
New Questions:
1) How does eutrophication kill fish? How can this be harmful to humans?
2) What did the artcile say will be present in the future with the issue of eutrophication? Will this be postive or negative?
3) What is a sign of a lake with a high level of eutrophication? (think colors...)
Opinion/Reflection
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty shocked at this truthfully! I mean before I read this I had no idea what eutrophication was, it was cool to learn about something new that I didn't even know existed! It seems so twisted, and it's really gross how the lakes turn icky green colors due to algal. The lakes also get smaller? That's crazy! This article is really a downer. I mean, if humans speed up the eutrophication process by adding nutrients, that's bad for the fish! I think it's really hard to find a way out of this problem. Eventually, it's sad to think that some lakes could just disappear, considering that they are getting smaller! I really wonder if there is anyway that the fish could at least be saved from this and that their habitat is not hurt too bad. I would hate if the lakes started disappearing because of this, since I go on several vacations with my family in lake areas, go fishing, etc. We would definitely lose a lot of attraction sites if this continues.
Expand:
Question #3: Yes, it could be dangerous if there are significant amounts of algal in the water because it will turn the water a sickly green color.
I also found this really neat picture of the eutrophication process and what it does to lakes!
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1599&bih=795&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=AO8aPE9SSlse2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.lakescientist.com/learn-about-lakes/water-quality/eutrophication.html&docid=b01SHJ4jaQ7LfM&imgurl=http://www.lakescientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/clip_image001.jpg&w=570&h=379&ei=0aJzT_XyFsLo0QGJpdD_Ag&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=973&sig=102834458259560062818&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=182&start=0&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0&tx=43&ty=97
Opinion/ Relfection
ReplyDeleteI never heard of eutrophication and reading this shocked me. Eutrophication is not good at all, and to know that the process is beening speed-up worries me even more. For one thing, all the animals and plants that depend on the the lakes are slowly losing their habitats. Immediately I thought of keystone species. If we lose a keystone species due to eutrophication, than many other species would be at risk. Also reading the part of about humans adding nutrients reminded me of invasive species. In away adding the nutrients is a lot like non native spcies being added to a certain area. The unfortuante part is that the nutrients have nothing in an ecosystem can controll the vast amount of nutriends being added. This affects me because many fish are dying because of this. If we lose a keystone species, that it could affect the foods I eat and even affect me. We need to find a way to put a stop speeding up the process of eutrophication. Eventually eutrophication could be out of our control.
3 New Questions
1) Does eutrophication limit our surface water supply? Why or why not?
2)After eutropication take place, what could be done to limit the amount of nutrient build-up?
3)Are there other factors contributing to nutrient build-up? If so, what are they?
Opinion: Unlike everyone else, I was not at all surprised that humans had this type of impact on lakes. However, I did not know what europhrication even was, so I did appriciate this article in that respect. It is sadenning that this is continuing to happen, even though marine life is suffering becauser of it. I also did not ever know if algal was good for lakes, but now I know it certainly is not. Of course, like everything else we read about, people should take action in stopping this from occuring, but I do not find this issue as threatening or important as others we have read about.
ReplyDeleteCasey's #3: Of course this would be damaging to our water supply, because if we ever needed to drink or use lake water it would be contaminated. It would take a lot of effort and money to purify it again. However, I do not think it would make a big difference where we live, since we use mostly underground water for consumption. In poorer countires, this could be a bigger issue.
New Question: Which type of fish are directly impacted by this algal? Does that affect the food chain in lakes?