Eutrophication

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-010182",
  "term": "Eutrophication",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The process by which lakes and streams are enriched by nutrients (usually phosphorus and nitrogen) which leads to excessive plant growth.\n\n2. The increase in the nutrient levels of a lake or other body of water; this usually causes an increase in the growth of aquatic animal and plant life.\n\n3. The normally slow aging process by which a lake evolves into a bog or marsh and ultimately assumes a completely terrestrial state and disappears. During eutrophication the lake becomes so rich in nutritive compounds, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, that algae and other microscopic plant life become superabundant, thereby \"choking\" the lade, and causing it eventually to dry up. Eutrophication may be accelerated by human activities.\n\n4. (you-TRO-fi-KAY-shun) The increase in the nutrient levels of a lake or other body of water; this usually causes an increase in the growth of aquatic animal and plant life.\n\n5. The process of excess nutrients accelerating the growth of algae, ultimately depleting the water of dissolved oxygen.\n\n6. A reduction in the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. The symptoms of eutrophication include blooms of algae (both toxic and non-toxic), declines in the health of fish and shellfish, loss of seagrass beds and coral reefs, and ecological changes in food webs.\n\n7. The process of aging whereby the increase of mineral and organic nutrients favors aquatic plants over animal life and results in increasing daily variations in dissolved oxygen concentrations, reduced biologic diversity, and reduced water clarity.\n\n8. The slow aging process during which a lake, estuary, or bay evolves into a bog or marsh and eventually disappears. During the later stages of eutrophication the water body is choked by abundant plant life due to higher levels of nutritive compounds such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Human activities can accelerate the process.\n\n9. Enrichment of a waterbody with nutrients, often resulting in high levels of primary production and leading to depletion of dissolved oxygen.\n\n10. The process by which a body of water or eco system acquires a high concentration of organic matter with potentially damaging consequences.\n\n11. Enrichment of an aquatic ecosystem with nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) that accelerate biological productivity (growth of algae and weeds) and an undesirable accumulation of algal biomass.\n\n12. The process by which a lake becomes rich in dissolved nutrients and deficient in oxygen, occurring either as a natural stage in lake maturation or artificially induced by human activities such as the addition of fertilizers and organic wastes from runoff.\n\n13. The process by which a body of water or ecosystem acquires a high concentration of organic matter with potentially damaging consequences.\n\n14. Process by which a lake becomes rich in dissolved nutrients and deficient in oxygen, occurring either as a natural stage in lake maturation or artificially induced by human activities such as the addition of fertilizers and organic wastes from runoff.\n\n15. The slow aging process during which a lake, estuary, or bay evolves into a bog or marsh and eventually disappears. During the later stages of eutrophication the waterbody is choked by abundant plant life because of higher levels of nutritive compounds such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Human activities can accelerate the process.\n\n16. “The process by which a body of water acquires a high concentration of nutrients, especially phosphates and nitrates. These typically promote excessive growth of algae. As the algae die and decompose, high levels of organic matter and the decomposing organisms deplete the water of available oxygen, causing the death of other organisms, such as fish. Eutrophication is a natural, slow-aging process for a water body, but human activity greatly speeds up the process.” - Art, 1993\n\n17. The aging process by which lakes are fertilized with nutrients. Natural eutrophication will very gradually change the character of a lake. Cultural eutrophication is the accelerated aging of a lake as a result of human activities.\n\n18. Process of excess nutrients accelerating the growth of algae, ultimately depleting the water of dissolved oxygen.\n\n19. Enrichment of a water body with nutrients, often resulting in high levels of primary production.\n\n20. The natural process whereby a lake or other body of water evolves from low productivity and low nutrient concentrations to high productivity and high nutrient levels that is greatly accelerated by nutrient enrichment from human activities. Results of eutrophication can include algal blooms, low dissolved oxygen, and changes in community composition.",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Ag 101 Glossary of American Agriculture",
    "Watershed Protection Glossary",
    "Aquatic Biodiversity Glossary",
    "Drinking Water Technical & Legal Terms",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "Acid Rain Glossary",
    "Urban Watershed Management Research Terminology",
    "Terms of Environment; Chesapeake Bay TMDL Glossary",
    "CADDIS Glossary",
    "Greener Products Glossary",
    "Watershed Planning Glossary of Terms",
    "Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) Glossary",
    "Glossary of Sustainable Manufacturing Terms",
    "EPA Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/NPS/chesbay502/pdf/chesbay_glossary.pdf; Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary",
    "USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program Definitions",
    "USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Glossary",
    "NSTEPS Online Glossary of Terms; N-STEPS Online Glossary of Terms",
    "NPS Agriculture Glossary; Nonpoint Pollution Source from Agriculture Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/eutrophication/"
}