a basic overview of what is Eutrophication, the types of Eutrophication and the causes of it.

1. Eutrophication
By: Alan Piepenburg

2. What is Eutrophication?
 From the Greek: eutrophia meaning “adequate nutrition”
 It is the process by which an aquatic ecosystem becomes enriched
 It starts when nutrients get added into water
 Phosphates
 Nitrates

3. What is Eutrophication?
 The increase in nutrients is great for plant life, which causes their numbers to
increase significantly.
 Over time plants grow and die, a natural part of the plant life cycle
 This is great for decomposers which feed on the remains of the dead plants
 Now the decomposers increase in numbers significantly
 Decomposers are organisms that break down dead material into nutrients
 They can be bacteria's, fungi or scavengers like shrimp, clams, and worms

4. More plant life is good…right?
Decomposers use aerobic respiration
meaning they take oxygen from the water
As a result of the increase in decomposers
the amount of oxygen in the water decreases
Now a microscopic organism know as algae
can begin to grow in extreme numbers.
Algae live on the surface of the water and
can form a big layer across the top of the
lake
This blocks out sunlight to the layers below

5. This is bad for plants living below the algae
 Plants, even under water, need
sunlight for the photosynthesis
process
 Without the sun, the plants die
 This increases the amount of
decomposition by decomposers.

6.  Fish and other organisms living in the water desperately
need the oxygen that the decomposers are taking out of
the water
 Without it they start to die

7. Now we know what
eutrophication is
What causes it?

8. There are two types of eutrophication
Natural eutrophication
 Very slow process
 Temperature dependent
Cultural eutrophication
 Much faster process
 Caused by human activity

9. Natural Eutrophication
 The process by which lakes gradually age and become more productive.
 mainly occurs in lakes located in temperate grasslands.

10. Cultural Eutrophication
Cultural eutrophication is a form of
water pollution
Cultural eutrophication happens when the amount of nutrients in the
water and/or the water temperature are changed due to human activity,
and the eutrophication process begins to run at high speed.

11. Sources of Cultural Eutrophication

14. Prevention of Eutrophication
 Reduce the input of nutrients into the water basins
 Fertilization balance
 Reduction in Phosphates and Nitrates
 Monitoring high risk areas to predict in advance
 Hydrodynamics of the water body – especially information about nutrients
 Precision agriculture – accurate irrigation
 Sewage treatment – removal of nutrients
 Prevention of erosion of soil
 Unfertilized zones near bodies of water