What´s Eutrophication?

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Eutrophication is the ecosystem response to an excessive richness of nutrients in an aquatic ecosystem. Normally eutrophication is a non-harmful, natural process that occurs when a body of water is aging. The natural cause of eutrophication is the run-off of nutrients from nearby soil and erosion. However a different type of eutrophication is human-caused which accelerates the aging process and creates environmental issues. When there is an excessive richness of nutrients in a body of water, algae feeds off of these nutrients and creates an algal bloom. Algal blooms are harmful because when they die, a lot of oxygen is used to decompose the remains. This causes hypoxia and sometimes, in severe cases, anoxia. This is bad for the environment because it can destroy aquatic life in affected areas. Fish is one type of sea life that is severely affected by eutrophication.
Unfortunately, eutrophication is much more serious now because of human activity. The rise in eutrophic and hypoxic events have been attributed to the rapid increase of agricultural practices, industrial wastes, ...

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