Eutrophication for Plants at Lower Arroyo Park

At Lower Arroyo Park, we found many flowering plants (Phylum Magnoliophyta), such as western sycamore, greater plantain, yellow trumpet flower, etc. we can see that this location also has very high plant diversity, many plants grow around the river. This is an obvious sign of eutrophication. When we did the chemical test for the river, we found our that the nitrate concentration is so high in this river. there is also an excessive amount of Algal Blooms grow, known as red tides, blue-green algae which are actually bacteria (cyanobacteria). According to research that I found on the internet, there is a correlation between plant and nitrate. When plants die, nitrogen is released into the environment or into the river as ammonium. This ammonium is eventually oxidized by bacteria into nitrite and then into nitrate again, and then plants use nitrate for making amino acids, which are necessary to make proteins for more growth. The higher amount of nitrate will result in high growth rate. This is like a cycle, plants die to released more nitrate and more nitrate causes more plants to grow. However, due to the high amount of nitrate, it resulted in the increase of eutrophication for plants. In addition, excess nutrients also stimulate excessive harmful algal blooms and the creation of anoxic (oxygen-free) zones. The algal blooms have severe impacts on human health, species, and aquatic ecosystems, it can be toxic, scummy and smells bad, keeping species away from the river. It also blocks the sunlight from passing through the water. Based on these aspects, this is also as to why stream, vertebrates, and insects diversity are low at Lower Arroyo while the nitrate and plants diversity is so high. The overall conclusion is that The increased amount of nitrate will increase the eutrophication for plants, and the increase in the eutrophication for plants will also increase the amount of nitrate as well. However, the increase in the amount of nitrate will decrease the diversity of other species such as insects and vertebrates.
Refer to:
Definition of Water Quality Parameters. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2017, from http://fosc.org/WQData/WQParameters.htm

US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic, and Atmospheric Administration. (2004, December 19). NOAA's National Ocean Service Education: Estuaries. Retrieved December 06, 2017, from https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/estuaries/media/supp_estuar09b_eutro.html

Publicado el diciembre 10, 2017 12:12 MAÑANA por zlu1