Article Title: Enriching The Sea To Death
Author: Scott W. Nixon and Mia Schmiedeskamp
Key Points:
- Too many nutrients from the land causing problems for the sea
- Fertilizers are needed to provide great plant life
- Water runoffs transport nutrients towards sea
- Nutrients from fertilizers help feed phytoplankton
- Excess of nutrients towards phytoplankton creates phytoplankton bloom (eutrophication)
- Phytoplankton blooms create a blanket over the water blocking sunlight from coming to the bottom of the sea
- Treatments are being worked on to fix eutrophication
Summary:
Too much of something that is good can sometimes become harmful. Our use of fertilizers to help make our crops grow are not only changing our crops. Water runoffs spread the nutrients from our waste and fertilizers into the sea. Phytoplankton are like the crops of the water. Through a process called eutrophication, the phytoplankton are over fed through the nutrients given from water runoffs. Eutrophication covers the top layer of water with phytoplankton. This causes the deeper parts of the ocean to suffer from lack of sunlight.
My Thoughts on this Topic:
I believe that farms should be made in places highly secure from large bodies of water. This will stop eutrophication from the start. Waste should also be moved into a place remotely controllable where wildlife will not be affected. We could also place waste where smog is present. Because phytoplankton can help refresh the air, the waste can help the phytoplankton grow. This place will need to be highly watched, of course.
Too much of something that is good can sometimes become harmful. Our use of fertilizers to help make our crops grow are not only changing our crops. Water runoffs spread the nutrients from our waste and fertilizers into the sea. Phytoplankton are like the crops of the water. Through a process called eutrophication, the phytoplankton are over fed through the nutrients given from water runoffs. Eutrophication covers the top layer of water with phytoplankton. This causes the deeper parts of the ocean to suffer from lack of sunlight.
My Thoughts on this Topic:
I believe that farms should be made in places highly secure from large bodies of water. This will stop eutrophication from the start. Waste should also be moved into a place remotely controllable where wildlife will not be affected. We could also place waste where smog is present. Because phytoplankton can help refresh the air, the waste can help the phytoplankton grow. This place will need to be highly watched, of course.
So What?Excess feeding towards the phytoplankton creates eutrophication. This stops sunlight from reaching the deeper depths of the water.
|
Says Who? Says the authors of the article, Scott W. Nixon and Mia Schmiedeskamp
|
What if?What if the nutrients didn't come from the fertilizers? What would cause eutrophication?
|
What Does this Remind Me of?This reminds me of the phytoplankton lab in class.
|