Eutrophication: Causes, Impacts and Control Strategies

Eutrophication: Causes,
Impacts and Control Strategies

The word ‘eutrophication’ actually comes from a Greek word meaning excessive feeding.
When this process starts in a reservoir, it faces terrible consequences. Excessive feeding
means that the basic substances that fall into the reservoir cannot be controlled and if this
condition continues, the reservoir eventually becomes eutrophic and becomes a dead
ecosystem. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), eutrophication is the accumulation of excessive amounts of nutrients in a body of
water, resulting in a number of unwanted symptomatic changes. Abnormal production of
algae and other aquatic macrophages, for example, degrades water quality, taste and odor,
and eventually kills fish and aquatic animals.
Eutrophication is a process of increasing the nutrient content of water which accelerates the
growth of algae and higher plants. This process is influenced by external and internal sources
of nutrients. Nutrients come from known or unknown scattered sources. Phosphorus is
released from sediment in the form of particles. This source is considered as the main source
of nutrients in water. Nutrients play a major role in eutrophication as a result of human
activity in freshwater environments. This causes algae blooms. Cultural eutrophication in
marine and Gulf systems increases the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus. This increases the
predominance of cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates from diatoms or chrysophytes. This
process creates algae blooms in freshwater and marine ecosystems. As a result, toxins are
produced based on the existing algae species. Significant amounts of toxins are produced that
can have detrimental effects on human health in the ecological environment.
Freshwater cyanobacteria produce hepatotoxins. Freshwater cyanobacterial species can also

produce neurotoxins, anatoxins, and succitoxins. Marine dianoflagellates produce a variety of
toxins, especially paralytic shellfish toxins, diarrheal shellfish toxins, and ciguatoxins. These
algae cause problems in water purification and have a detrimental effect on the beauty of the
marine environment. There are many methods used to control eutrophication or algae bloom.
Integrated measures are taken to reduce the intrusion of nutrients into both freshwater and
marine aquatic ecosystems. This includes strategies that reduce the readily available organic
nutrients, especially phosphorus.
Eutrophication is a process that occurs all over the world. This process adds additional
nutrients to various reservoirs such as lakes, rivers, creeks and oceans, resulting in changes in
the initial production and species numbers in the community. This natural eutrophication
process has been going on for many ages, mainly on the geological time scale. The cause of
the Industrial Revolution is the addition of nutrients by humans to various water bodies. This
type of eutrophication is called cultural eutrophication. This has a variety of detrimental
effects on the ecosystem. Moreover, cultural eutrophication has a detrimental effect on
human society through recreational opportunities and depletion of seafood, drinking water
problems and phytoplankton poisoning of drinking water and seafood. Many problems with
eutrophication arise as a direct result of algal bloom production. Such algal blooms cause
poisoning or drastic changes in the ecology of water bodies.
Eutrophication mainly increases the levels of essential nutrients in water such as phosphate,
nitrate and silicate (Lee et al., 1980; Uhllmann, 1980).
Nutrients from many sources in the aquatic ecosystem, uch as chemical fertilizers, road
water, animal excreta, and organic debris (such as leaves), make this problem difficult to
solve.
Due to all these nutrients, the abundance of plants (mainly algae) increases. When the amount
of nutrients is excessive, the algae blooms cover the surface of all the water bodies. As a
result, sunlight cannot enter the water. In this condition, there are two types of problems in
water.
(1) As a result, photosynthesis from the surface to the bottom of the water is prevented, and
the amount of oxygen in the water is greatly reduced.
(2) The transfer of oxygen from the air to the water in the reservoir is stopped.
As a result, oxygen and sunlight in the reservoir are severely reduced. As a result, fish and
plants suffer. When fish and aquatic plants begin to die, the decaying bacteria use the
remaining oxygen to break down the dead organic matter. As a result, the water body is
covered with algae, and there is a lack of aquatic plants and oxygen.
Aquatic plants and oxygen are needed for a healthy aquatic ecosystem. It has been observed
that 80% of the total pollution in India comes from household sources with phosphorus
content of 8 and 10 mg / liter. In 1984, 2.8 kg of detergent was used per person per year in
India. In 2008 it increased to 4 kg. However, the use of detergents in rural areas increases at a
rate of 7-8% per annum. This condition is serious because high quality detergents contain
about 35% sodium dipolyphosphate. Increased use of phosphate-based detergents increases
the number of aquatic plants and cyanobacteria. Recently, there has been a growing
awareness among scientists and the general public about the problem of abnormal growth of
aquatic plants in water bodies, especially in lakes. 4/5 of the world’s freshwater drinking
comes from lakes. Abnormal growth of aquatic plants and algae in the lake poses serious
health risks to humans and animals.
Water bodies are generally classified based on variations in nutritional status. Figure 1
represents the eutrophication process and defines the terminology of the trophic status of the
water body. The water body starts from a nutritionally poor status (oligotrophic), through a
mesotrophic state with addition of nutrients, to a final state (eutrophic) where water quality
declines and nutrient build-up is observed in both water and sediments.

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Freshwater cyanobacteria produce hepatotoxins. Freshwater cyanobacterial species can also

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