Aim: To determine what effect agricultural runoff has on surrounding environment, and to find what solutions can be made to reverse any damage.
Introduction: There are many different species of algae. One of the most common algae, blue-green algae, is a type of cyanobacteria. One species of this is the Chlorella regularis, single celled algae that stays alive through the process of photosynthesis.
The growth of algae depends on a variety of factors, such as the nutrients in that environment, temperature, light levels, turbidity, and stable conditions (Department of Primary Industries, 2009). The mass growth of algae is known as an algal bloom. This large population has negative effects on the surrounding environment.
Algal blooms have been linked to pollution spread from agricultural runoff in studies conducted at Stanford University in 2005 (Stanford Report, 2005), with the high levels of nitrogen/phosphorus used in the fertilizers spreading to these water sources, increasing the levels of algae. Nitrogen, for example, helps the chlorophyll in the algae photosynthesize at an increased rate, causing them to reproduce at a faster speed (Douma, 2008)
Algal blooms are not a new occurrence, with the first occurrence in the world being in 1878 in South Australia. In recent years, the number of these algal blooms has increased, with much larger areas than ever before being filled with these blooms. Research by the Smithsonian Institute found that in certain areas, the water could go for years without any contamination, but within days of agricultural runoff reaching the ecosystem, there were high levels of algal blooms spotted.
Common fertilizers contain high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, which is what a plant needs to produce mo...
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... for drinking water, this would lead to contamination of the water. Whether or not this solution would benefit at all is still down for investigation.
Algal blooms pose an enormous environmental risk, with massive outbreaks being devastating to many stakeholders. In late 1991, an infamous boom tinted 1000km of Darling-Barwon river system, causing the deaths of 1600 sheep. This eventually led to a surge in research of these cyanobacterial blooms, which helped develop some types of prevention methods. (Avolio, 2013). It can take months for the damage from a few days to be repaired, with some still water sources taking even longer to be repaired, due to the same water being in the exact same location.
Hypothesis: The solutions will not completely restore the environment to an appropriate state, and will be unable to accurately reverse the damage from the pollution.
Nitrogen and nitrates relate to Hypoxia via the process of eutrophication. Since Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient in most waters, the added input of nitrate causes massive growth in algae. The algae rapidly consume all available N, and once the nutrient is limited again, the alga dies en masse. As the alga decomposes, oxygen is depleted in the water. This lowers dangerously lowers the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, which harms living organisms in the area. Small organisms and organisms that are immobile or unable to escape low-oxygen areas are particularly vulnerable. Hypoxia and resulting “dead zones” are harmful to local fishing and shrimping industries and algal blooms hurt the tourism industry. Hypoxia has lead to a decrease of about 25% in the brown shrimp habitat, forcing shrimping operations further offshore. As the hypoxia issue continues to grow, negative human effects will only increase. Since nitrate runoff from ag. has been proven to be the dominant source of hypoxia, policies could be enacted to effectively deal with “point-source” pollution. This makes enacting environmental policy more easily adapted, possibly included in past policy such as the Clean Water Act.
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 underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Nitrogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these “dead areas” sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be contracted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species.
Cassidy, Keelin Owen. "Evaluating Algal Growth at Different Temperatures." Uknowledge.uky.edu. U of Kentucky, 2011. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. .
Because of farm fertilizer, an excess quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus can be wash down becoming runoff into rivers. From this, marine algal blooms cause the water to turn green from the chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a dilemma in the system causing either an increase of primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton on the water’s surface is then established. At the same time the water column is also stratified, meaning things such as the temperature and salinity are not sync from top to bottom. The seasonal warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the cooler and more dense water masses near the bottom layer is isolated from the top cutting off oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008).
Excessive nutrients from agriculture, development, and industry are harming the Chesapeake Bay. These excessive nutrients harm the habitat for many of the bays species. On top of the habitat being depleated, overfishing and diseases are also hurting the bays species. Nutrient loads can be reduced with the help of lawmakers to put a cap on the emissions allowed in the environment. If this is done the dead zone will start to recede, but the time and money need to be spent in order to save the bay.
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.
There are many factors that contribute to the growth and spread of this harmful algal blooms, or HABs. According to livescience.com, “low salinity levels, a high nutrient content and warmer than usual water temperatures “, directly contribute to the growth of Red Tide. Another event that can trigger a massive red tide bloom is dust from the Sahara desert settles onto the water during rain events,
For years farmers have been adding natural fertilizers to their crops. It is a big risk though. Over fertilizing is very dangerous. It puts high concentrations of salt into the soil. It can also affect the water resources nearby. Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium are the basics of fertilizer. If a certain nutrient is short in supply the fertilizer might not work as well. Calcium, iron, manganese are also nutrients that might be needed. So don’t just trust the fertilizer bag that says it has all the nutrients, test it out. (Miller and Levine 717)
...fer and grow too much algal. Both of these practices were developed around the 1950s. Both of these methods were practiced in the Great Barrier Reef until the early 2000s causing damage on a large amount of reefs within the Great Barrier Reef area. (Source)
The Chesapeake Bay has faced an excessive amount of pollution over the past century. The water in the bay has become so highly polluted that It is capable of causing harm to humans coming in direct contact with the water. Although algae serves a vital role in the bay’s ecosystem, it also creates a problem that is causing a large amount of the problem.
Dinoflagellates are one of the four main types of phytoplankton, which are photosynthetic, single celled and free living organisms in the ocean. Dinoflagellates cause the Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) also known as the red tide effect (Hackett et al 2004). Toxicity persisting at upper levels of the food chain is detected in them from the ones which are toxic, but not all such blooms are toxic. Enhanced detection capabilities may in part contribute to observed high frequency and severity of toxic blooms. As they are also important in the health of coral reefs their study has gained significant interest. Species are often selected for genome sequencing based on their importance as a model organism or relevance to human health, such as the HAB case.
The black vertical lines indicate the range of outliers in the data. The blue boxes represent the normal distribution of data within each sample. The black horizontal line included in the blue boxes represents the average for each sample. Growth rates were calculated using the equation µ = (1/t)*ln(N/No). “Here “µ” is the specific growth rate (in units of t-1) and “t” is the duration of the time over which you were measuring growth. For our purposes, “No” is the concentration of chlorophyll at the beginning of the experiment and “N” is the concentration of chlorophyll after time t has elapsed. Although “N” and “No” usually refer to actual numbers of cells, we will be using changes in bulk phytoplankton chlorophyll-a as a proxy for cell number.”(OCN 310
Algae are wide species of unicellular and multi-cellular organisms that use make use of photosynthesis like plants. They may commonly, though not scientifically, referred to as leafless plants. Algae are present in almost all kinds of ecosystems, whether terrestrial or aquatic, and can live in extreme and harsh conditions [1]. Flue gases from power plants and industrial exhaust gases are responsible for a big chunk of global GHG emissions and contain up to 15% CO2 [2]. These gases can be used as a source CO2 for algae and help mitigate the emissions by a great amount. Algae have shown ability to mitigate CO2 while being more efficient in use of sunlight. Another potential application for algae is in waste-water treatment plants. Nitrogen and Phosphorous in the waste water can be consumed by algae. A variety of species including Chlorella, Scenedesmus and Spirulina have been studied for waste water removal [3].Microalgae has historically been used to produce a large number of different valuable co-products such fertilizers and soil conditioners, anti-oxidants, fatty acids, coloring su...
PURPOSE (state specific purpose, relate topic to audience and establish credibility): The cars we drive every day release toxic exhaust gases into the atmosphere that damage it. We should try to do better to reverse these effects now; otherwise, our world will continue to get filthier and eventually become uninhabitable.