Question

Explain accelerated eutrophication. Mention any two consequences of this phenomenon.

Answer 1

Hint: Eutrophication is the process of algal blooming which is due to excessive nutrients in the water body. Which will result in reduction in dissolved oxygen in water and it may affect aquatic life.

Complete answer:
Eutrophication is the process of aging of the water body like a pond, river, etc. due to the presence of excessive nutrients in the water body which will enhance algal growth inside the water body.

Accelerated eutrophication means when we observe large amounts of algae in water bodies and the amount of metabolic processes is very high. This will result in large algae production and also reduction in oxygen levels in water because metabolic processes need oxygen which is utilized by algae present in the water body.

This accelerated eutrophication may happen due to so many human activities which involve dumping of organic waste in water bodies, discharge of organic waste from domestic and industrial effluents into the water bodies will enhance eutrophication, which is known as accelerated eutrophication.

Consequences of this accelerated eutrophication are:
- Due increased metabolic activities inside the water body, the level of dissolved oxygen will decrease and it will affect aquatic life because they will not have sufficient oxygen for their survival and may lead to death of many aquatic organisms like fishes.
- Due to the presence of algae on the surface of water or inside the water it will hamper the penetration power of sunlight into the deep-water body which may affect the life of aquatic plants. As they will not be able to produce their food due to deficiency of sunlight.

Note: Algae present in water bodies survive on organic matter present in the water. When we dump so much organic-waste into the water, food of algae increases and it starts proliferating and for large amounts of algae more oxygen is required, and hence the level of oxygen reduces.