Original Research - Eutrophication

Two major marine related environmental issues are Eutrophication and Algal Blooms. Both of these issues negatively affect water bodies around the world, destroying ecosystems and harming humans. Eutrophication is the addition and overabundance of nutrients to a body of water. Algal Blooms are a population explosion of algae in a body of water. Both of these occurrences are major environmental problems in the world today

The main causes of eutrophication are runoff and inadequately treated wastewater. Runoff rich in fertilizer pollutants is a major cause of eutrophication. The major components of fertilizer, nitrates and phosphates, are designed to stimulate plant growth in farms and lawns. These chemicals, if introduced to a water system will also encourage algae growth. Runoff from agricultural and residential sources is the main contributing factors to the introduction of nutrients into the water column. A freshly fertilized farm field or house lawn will have some of its fertilizer washed away during a rain storm. The rainwater carries this fertilizer from the original source to a water source. This introduces the nutrients to the aquatic system, causing eutrophication. Another cause of eutrophication is the release of insufficiently treated waste water into a water system. The discharge of sewage, rich in nutrients, to the water system can cause eutrophication. 

The main cause of an Algal Bloom is Eutrophication. As stated before, Eutrophication is the overabundance of nutrients in the water column. Algae and other plankton use these nutrients to thrive, grow, and reproduce, causing rapid population growth. This population expansion is called an “Algal Bloom.” Algal Blooms are also known as “red tides.” Algal blooms have two major devastating environmental effects. After the nutrients in a water body are depleted by the algae, the algae can no longer survive. This causes a massive decline in the algae population because it can no longer be sustained. In the process of dying, the algae exhaust the dissolved oxygen in the water. Eventually, the dissolved oxygen in the water declines to such a level, that fish and other aquatic species can no longer survive in the ecosystems. This depletion of oxygen is known as a “dead zone.” A Harmful Algal Bloom is an algal bloom where the species of algae that has undergone a population expansion either is toxic, or unsafe to other organisms, including humans. Harmful Algal Blooms have been tied to shellfish poisonings and the death of endemic species to the ecosystems involved.

Many possible solutions have been developed to stop Eutrophication. The reduction of runoff and the instillation of Riparian buffer zones are two major preventative methods to curtail eutrophication. Governmental regulation of the type, amount, application, and timing of fertilization has helped reduce runoff pollution from agricultural and residential sources. The addition of Riparian buffer zones, the area between land and a river, help to reduce runoff into river sources. These zones act as a divider between land and water, and can trap pollutants in runoff before they reach the river. These solutions greatly reduce runoff containing pollutants and unwanted nutrients into the water column. The reduction of nutrients helps decline the rate of eutrophication. Without eutrophication, the occurrence of Algal Blooms declines. Each of these processes has consequences on other processes down the sequence of events. By eliminating pollution at its source, algal blooms can be brought to an end.

Original Research - Seawater Desalination

The lack of sufficient sources of fresh water may not seem like a crisis in New Jersey, but many parts of the world face this monumental issue. Approximately 1 in 6 people lack access to safe water, water that is necessary for cooking, farming, drinking. A way to combat the steadily growing deficiency of fresh water as the world’s population steadily increases is through a process known as desalination. To desalinate water is just as the word implies---to remove the salts from briny water. This conversion from saltwater/seawater to fresh water is accomplished through a couple of techniques and has eye-opening advantages over other solutions to the water crisis, but also has some outstanding shortcomings that need to be fixed.

            To begin, one technique to desalination is distillation. To distill salt water, large amounts are heated to evaporate pure water from the liquid. The large structure containing the process then separates the once saline water into two products: fresh, almost pure, water and very briny water. Another way to desalinate water, the most popular, is through membranes and filtration. Two processes under this category are reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Basically, a semi-permeable membrane removes ions, the salts, selectively, after a filter has removed most of the impurities.

            Several advantages of desalination are that the supply of water from the ocean is unlimited, the water product is relatively pure, and it removes the need to destroy or infringe on other sources of freshwater. However, there are negative aspects to the workings of the many desalination plants throughout the world. Although the cost of desalination has decreased over past years, this method of purification is still expensive in comparison to others. Also, tons of energy is consumed in the process; it isn’t “green.” Additionally, it negatively impacts marine life and the environment. Larger animals are killed on the impact screen through impingement; small organisms are killed in the process through entrainment. The briny solution left over contains nitrates, iodine, lead, and lots of salt, and there is no useful or safe place for it to be disposed.

            Ultimately, while desalination has some major distinct advantages over other methods of obtaining safe water, problems are evident that need to be fixed: the cost, the excessive energy consumption, the death of marine organisms, and the harmful briny leftover.

Original Research - Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The topic is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is located in the northern Pacific Ocean and is caused by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The garbage expanse itself is the largest “landfill” in the world, and is home to millions of pounds of predominantly plastic waste. Some facts about the problem: it is broken into two massive patches (Eastern and Western), the Eastern patch lies between Hawaii and California and is estimated to be larger than the state of Texas, while the Western patch lies between Japan and Hawaii.

            The accumulation itself is in itself caused by the Subtropical Convergence Zone, which is a 6,000-mile long current that gathers debris from all over the world and deposits it at the patches. Plastic makes up an approximated 90 percent of all of this flotsam, an estimated 10 percent of the 200 billion pounds of plastic produced each year ends up in the ocean, and it provides an incredible danger for the marine life and the environment itself. Plastic itself never biodegrades, breaks down into simpler substances, but rather it photodegrades, a process in which the plastic breaks into smaller pieces of plastic called “nurdles.” These nurdles are what prove to be the most dangerous, as they absorb toxicity and make their way into the diet of almost all parts of the marine food chain.

            Scientists believe it would be impractical and almost impossible to clean the entire ocean, as the area is large than a continent and reaches 100 feet below the surface. However research institutions and volunteer based organizations are trying to develop ways to help clean this all up.

            My offered solution to this problem is to create a naval craft that has the capability to be a recycling facility afloat. There is a virtually unlimited supply of plastic, and with proper trawling and extraction methods it could be done with little damage to the marine ecosystem. If such a grandiose solution was possible, it may not make effective immediate relief but long-term it could prevent the possibility of future photodegradation and make process on cleaning the oceans. Another more viable solution is to monitor the current on which the garbage travels, and collect at certain intervals along it rather than attempting to fix the giant mass of trash.

References

http://www.algalita.org/about-us/5-Gyres.html\

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch3.htm