Algae Blooms In Florida

590 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Water pollution an essay

Florida is currently battling the growing issue of polluted water infesting local lake and beach regions. The problem is increasing at an alarming rate. Scientists, environmentalists, and the citizens of Florida are committed to finding a solution that will rid Florida’s pristine waters of toxic algae blooms. Toxic algae blooms pose a threat to Florida’s fresh water, wildlife, and tourism industry. Thick, foul smelling algae blooms can grow large enough to blanket a body of water. They are caused by bacteria from chemicals in runoff water that usually spill into the lakes and rivers during periods of heavy rain. A major factor that causes algae blooms is high concentrations of nitrogen in the water (Li et al., 2016). Pollutants, such as …show more content…

Algae blooms can develop slowly and their effects can be long lasting. The toxicity continues to take its toll on marine life, long after the bloom has dispersed (Edwards, 2013). Algae blooms in the water can contaminate the food supply of marine life and humans, posing health hazards to both (Phlips et al., 2012). The blooms limit the amount of light that can penetrate down into the water; thus, cutting down oxygen levels needed to sustain plankton and sea grass (Phlips et al., 2015). The toxins released by the blooms pass through the gills of fish and lead to death by respiratory failure (Flaherty & Landsberg, 2011). Plankton, seagrass, and fish are not the only marine life affected by the toxic blooms. Larger animals, such as the Florida manatee, are harmed by these algae blooms. Manatees succumb to toxic poisoning from the algae blooms by ingesting seagrass that has been polluted with neurotoxins (Edwards, 2013). Also, coastal birds that feed on fish in algae bloom infested waters are exposed to deadly bacteria levels. It is evident how climate change issues are causing Florida temperatures and rainfall to rise, while spreading the harmful effects of algae blooms (Phlips et al., 2012). A solution must be found to rid the water of this extremely harmful

Show More
Related

  • The Florida Everglades

    3829 Words  | 8 Pages

    Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the Everglades' future have silently raged on for years about how, why, and when the restoration will begin. This ongoing, but virtually unproductive effort has cost taxpayers a great deal without any apparent benefits. Recently, this debate has been amplified by the voices of the sugar industry in Florida, which was attacked for its major contribution to pollution of the Everglades. Now debates rage on with a new effort called the Restudy. Backed by the Army Corps of Engineers, this effort would change the flow of the Everglades, potentially restoring it into the viable community of life that it used to be. The question now is, will this latest attempt to restore the Everglades ever be realized (thus ending the cyclic Everglades debate) or will it simply add up to one more notch on the bedpost of inadequate and failed attempts to save this national treasure. The world is watching to see how the United States will handle this unprecedented cleanup.

    Read More

  • The Everglades' Ecosystem

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    algae to grow in the Everglades. Humans have also prevented natural fires from occurring and

    Read More

  • Phiestria: The Unseen Killer

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    An incredibly scary new type of algae is on the loose on the eastern seaboard of the United States and worst of all not many people know about it. Phiesteria piscicida- Latin for “fish killer” has been living in the mud of rivers for millions of years, but until recently something has jolted its metabolism into overdrive and has caused it to become a fearsome predator. This newly discovered type of dinoflagellate or marine protozoa, which generally has two flagella and cellulose covering, has been living off simple nutrients in the river waters of primarily North Carolina, until now that is. Near the Neuse River in NC, there is a slaughterhouse for pigs and chickens; all of the waste from the pigs is stored in massive lagoons where it is later sprayed onto crops as fertilizer. Unfortunately, a lot of this raw sewage ends up in streams that flow into the Neuse, which in turn enters the Pamlico Sound, a 2,000-mile long estuary in NC. This ultimately brings an immense amount of nutrients to the water thus causing the Phiesteria to shape-shift and enter a state of lethal attack on everything from fish to human. The Center for Disease Control has yet to do anything about this at all, which may be the scariest fact so far.

    Read More

  • Florida Manatee Research Paper

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the nineteenth century, the Florida manatee population started to decline in numbers due to settlers hunting them for their meat (Pittman 15). In addition, during that time some of the scientists started to notice a decline in manatee sightings in areas they were known to migrate. Since permits were being granted to kill Florida manatees for science, and poachers were hunting them for their meat, government officials and researchers were concerned for the manatee's future (Pittman 17). Currently, there are many factors the Florida manatee is facing that poses a threat to their existence. Unfortunately, the greatest threat to the Florida manatee in the twenty-first century is boating and the loss of their natural habitat (McAullife 18). In fact, many boaters who have businesses have protested that their businesses are more important than the clumsy animals. Currently, another public concern for the Florida manatee is the increase of toxic blooms that cause red tide. In addition, since records have been kept researchers have discovered that red tide has been playing a role in the decline of the Florida manatee as well (Raloff 56). Red tide is a form of many toxins that are consumed by the manatee when they feed on seagrasses causing lung

    Read More

  • Ecosystem In The Florida Ecosystem

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    Given how important coral reefs are, the increasingly disappearance of our coral reef ecosystems will continue to have a detrimental impact on marine biodiversity with in these ecosystems. In addition to the decline of the animal species, job opportunities for many staff members that keep our parks open and healthy for everyone to enjoy, revenue be lost due to the decline in coral reefs. To help ensure this downward spiral in eliminated before it is too late, park officials and scientist conduct continuous research on the effects of ocean acidification and global warming on marine organisms and overall health and longevity of these ecosystems. Ultimately, the goal is to develop ways to intervene before it is to late in hopes that we can reverse the damage already inflicted on our coral reefs and allow these ecosystems to re grow once

    Read More

  • Red Tides

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bruckner, Monica. “Red Tide- A Harmful Algae Bloom.” Microbial Life, 2014. Web. 24 May, 2014. http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/redtide/index.html

    Read More

  • Lake Erie Research Paper

    436 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lake Erie now is having bad algae blooms. For example in 2011 algae took up ⅙ of Lake Erie’s water. Photoshorus is sneaking back into the waters and feeding the algae, too. Since there is now more plastic, algae, and phosphorus than water the fish population has gone down which has caused charting fishers companies drop 40%! The water gets so dangerous sometimes you can’t drink the water because people are worried about the chemicals in the water affecting us. What’s causing all the algae? “ It's extreme weather that creates blooms.” (Pearson). Lake Erie has gone from bad, to the best example of ecosystem recovery, to the bad algae

    Read More

  • Red Tide: Harmulf Algal Blooms

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    Red Tide, commonly labeled as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), is a natural phenomenon that is caused by an explosion of algae in coastal waters. The algae are single celled protists; plant-like organisms. Because the algae reproduce expeditiously, they manage to alter the color of coastal oceans. However, the name "Red Tide" is a misnomer; many times, the ocean can be multiple colors, ranging from green to blue to yellow. Overall, Red Tide has many negative effects on the environment as well as the health of both humans and animals alike.

    Read More

  • Environmental Racism In Florida

    324 Words  | 1 Pages

    “ The state of Florida needs to take at the factors that have caused this”. What this is that the toxic waste the polluted Florida needs to be check out. In Pensacola , a superfund site abuts a play area where most of the children are black. Toxic chemicals produced throughout the world are found in extremely high levels in Inuit people’s bodies and in

    Read More

  • Florida's Growth

    378 Words  | 1 Pages

    Most people today know the damage done to Florida's environment because agriculture. Urbanization, flood control, and draining of swamps have reduced the original Everglades systems by half. Disruption of natural water flows and pollution have incredibly reduced the population of many species of wildlife, and severely damaged the Florida Keys reef.

    Read More

  • Water Pollution: Plastic in the Ocean

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects on the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousands of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation.

    Read More

  • Why Is Florida A Unique Place

    400 Words  | 1 Pages

    The state I call home is Florida. Florida is a unique place to live because of its rich history, environment, and location. Just by looking at Florida on a map, you can see its uniqueness right away.

    Read More

  • Fish Biomes In Florida

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    An ecosystem is a community of species that live together and interact with each other and their physical non-living environment. Florida’s natural ecosystem is extremely important to the diverse mixture of species throughout the entire state of Florida. Florida is surrounded by two oceans on three sides of Florida, the oceans are the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Florida has a diversity of species and this include vascular plant, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal species that are found nowhere else in the world. In Florida’s mainland, it consists of many bodies of water and several of them are freshwater. The freshwater biome is made up of lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers. Most freshwater biomes consist of moving water and

    Read More

  • Hypoxia in China

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    It means some elements enter the water which can be as a plant nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous. It caused the algae in the water get a faster reproduction, with the increasing number of algae, these algae will secrete thin blue-green or red-yellow films, and it’s seriously influenced the growth of fish. Although there are many algae, but there are not enough nutritive salt for algae living. When the nutritive run out, the algae would die. But after the mass of algae dead, much oxygen in the water be used to resolve their corpse, the corpse will formed a green film, and made the water had a sting smell. It is a big issue for my country; undoubtedly, it will take long time in the future to solve this issue. Except eutrophication, Water temperature, ocean currents, water PH, light intensity, etc. all can outbreak of algae bloom such as biological effect, even when the individual is the causative factor. The both of fresh water and sea water is possible to have this issue, they showed different color when hypoxia happened. The sea is red in ocean while green in the water, because the color of algae in thes...

    Read More

  • Ocean Protection and Conservation

    1961 Words  | 4 Pages

    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. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.

    Read More

More about Algae Blooms In Florida

Open Document