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E 5.3 and E 5.4 Dixon Adair Eutrophication – Slide 1 • The process of excessive anaerobic decay, which produces smelly and toxic decay products, poisons the water and leaves it devoid of life. • How it happens: When nitrates and phosphates (namely coming from agricultural areas as runoff) accumulate in bodies of water, they act as nutrients, and increase the growth of plants and algae… Eutrophication – Slide 2 • …So what? • When these (abnormally large amounts of) algae and plants die, they would normally decompose aerobically, but with not enough oxygen to decompose aerobically, they must instead decompose anaerobically. Anaerobic decomposition is not healthy for the water, since its products are smelly and toxic as opposed to virtually harmless products for aerobic decomposition. As these harmful products further poison the water, more organisms/plants/animals die, and again, more anaerobic decomposition must occur of the additional dead organisms that, and so on. (Vicious Cycle) Thermal Pollution • The solubility of oxygen in water is temperature dependent. • As the temperature of the water goes up, the solubility of oxygen in water goes down. • To make matters worse, as the temperature of the water goes up, the metabolic rate of fish and other organisms increases, meaning they need more oxygen. • In essence, the higher the water temperature, the more oxygen the fish and organisms need, and the less they get of it. • So, how does it happen? Many industries use water as a coolant, and the discharged water, which is hot (since it was used to make other things cool and thus absorbed the heat of the thing it was cooling) often flows into bodies of water. This is thermal pollution.