Is There Any Link Between Phosphorus Overfertilization and Algae Blooms - Life Sciences Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Claim - The claim that will be explored and evaluated throughout this report is “Life depends on the solubilities of gases in water”.
Rationale - The claim “Life depends on the solubilities of gases in water” has several aspects that are able to be investigated. The first aspect of the claim is the concept of “solubilities of gases in water.” in this statement. In chemistry Ssolubility is defined as “the ability of a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance (referred to as the solute) to dissolve in solvent (usually a liquid) and form a solution”. Under certain conditions, the equilibrium solubility can be exceeded, yielding a supersaturated solution.” CITATION Lum l 1033 (Lumen, n.d.).

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is one of the most important indicators of water quality. It is essential for the survival of fish and other aquatic organisms. Oxygen dissolves in surface water due to the aerating action of winds. Oxygen is also introduced into the water as a by-product of aquatic plant photosynthesis. When dissolved oxygen becomes too low, fish and other aquatic organisms cannot survive.The colder water is, the more oxygen it can hold. As the water becomes warmer, less oxygen can be dissolved in the water. Salinity is also an important factor in determining the amount of oxygen a body of water can hold; fresh water can absorb more oxygen than salt water.Oxygen levels also may be reduced when there are too many bacteria or algae in water. After the algae complete their life cycle and die, they are consumed by bacteria. During this decay process the bacteria also consume the oxygen dissolved in the water. This can lead to decreased levels of biologically available oxygen, in some cases leading to fish kills and death to other aquatic organisms.The second aspect of the claim is concept of “life”. This report will be addressing and evaluating the effects of phosphorus in water via algae blooms and if there is any link between algae blooms and overfertilization.
Research QuestionIs there any link between phosphorus overfertilization and algae blooms?
BackgroundWhat are fertilizers?Fertilizers are chemical substances supplied to the crops to increase their productivity. These are used by the farmers daily to increase the crop yield. The fertilizers contain the essential nutrients required by the plants, including nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. They enhance the water retention capacity of the soil and also increase its fertility.

What chemicals are commonly used in fertilizers? There are different types of fertilizers however the most common fertilizer is a phosphorus fertilizer. The main nutrient in a phosphorus fertilizer is phosphorus. The efficiency of fertilizer depends upon effective phosphorus content, methods of fertilizing, properties of soil and crop strains. Phosphorus found in the protoplasm of the cell plays an important role in cell growth and proliferation. The phosphorus fertilizer is beneficial for the growth of roots of the plants.

The phosphorus present in the fertilizers helps in the faster development of roots and formation of seeds in the plants this is because Phosphorus (P) is vital to plant growth and is found in every living plant cell. It is involved in several key plant functions, including energy transfer, photosynthesis, transformation of sugars and starches, nutrient movement within the plant and transfer of genetic characteristics from one generation to the next.
What are Algae Blooms?An algal bloom is the accumulation or rapid increase in the number of algae in a water body. Algal blooms are usually visible as brightly coloured water or colourful scum on the water’s surface, but some algal blooms are not visible. Some kinds of algae produce harmful toxins (poisons). An accumulation of these algae is known as a harmful algal bloom.

Harmful algae can be found in both marine and freshwater environments.
Toxins produced by harmful algal blooms in a marine environment can impact human health as well as seafood harvested from algae-affected water.
Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, are harmful algae that can be found in almost all freshwater systems. They can be found in creeks, rivers, lakes and wetlands, and can appear individually or in a group.

Blue-green algae can multiply rapidly in warm and slow-moving water, which is most common in summer and autumn. In these conditions, blooms (or ‘scums’) may form on the surface of the water. Blooms can range in colour from dark green to yellowish brown or red, though they may not be immediately visible. 
How are algae blooms formed?Some algal blooms are the result of an excess of nutrients (particularly phosphorus and nitrogen) into waters and higher concentrations of these nutrients in water cause increased growth of algae and green plants. As more algae and plants grow, others die. This dead organic matter becomes food for bacteria that decompose it. With more food available, the bacteria increase in number and use up the dissolved oxygen in the water. When the dissolved oxygen content decreases, many fish and aquatic insects cannot survive. This results in a dead area. Algal blooms may also be of concern as some species of algae produce neurotoxins. At the high cell concentrations reached during some blooms, these toxins may have severe biological impacts on wildlife. Algal blooms composed of phytoplankters known to naturally produce biotoxins are often called Harmful Algal Blooms, or HABs

Features of phosphorus
Analysis and Interpretation
Progress regarding research linking overfertilization with algae bloomsIn developing countries, a marketable surplus of agriculture is the key factor of economic development. In order to gain highest quality and optimum productivity, the farmers have to enrich the soil with extra nutrient additives like natural and synthetic fertilizers to maintain its fertility. Among the modern agricultural systems, chemical fertilizers play a pivotal role in maintaining the delicate balance between the nutrients in the soil and offering a vigorous boost to plant growth. Over the past few decades, even though the industrial revolution, followed by the green revolution, addressed food security, they at the same time adversely increased the consumption of chemical fertilizers. However, in this scenario, the enhanced unconscious fertilization favoured soil fertility, but its undesirable effects caused irreversible environmental pollution. The overdosage of chemical fertilizers without taking any remedial measures of soil testing has contaminated almost every part of our ecosystem leading to the most devastating effects of soil, water, land, and air pollution. This book chapter provides a detailed sketch on the chemistry and toxicity impacts of chemical fertilizers on human health and ecosystem. The minerals from the fertilizers reach the water bodies as a result of areal runoffs, soil erosion, and rinsing out. It also affects the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, heavy metal accumulation in agriculture lands, and food quality. The most significant issues are created by the excess input of phosphorus in the soil. The phosphorus fertilizers without proper uptake by the crop plant reach the groundwater and other water bodies too. The eutrophication of the water bodies is a result of intensive fertilizer use. The eutrophication creates oxygen depletion in water bodies that lead to the loss of water quality and degradation in the water environment. It also leads to the increase of unwanted species and the death of the aquatic community and causes odour problems. The phosphate content in drinking water causes significant health problems, mainly to newborn the disease methemoglobinemia. 
Threats and Risks of Algae BloomsThe most conspicuous effect of cultural eutrophication is the creation of dense blooms of noxious, foul-smelling phytoplankton that reduce water clarity and harm water quality. Algal blooms limit light penetration, reducing growth and causing die-offs of plants in littoral zones while also lowering the success of predators that need light to pursue and catch prey (Lehtiniemi et al. 2005). Furthermore, high rates of photosynthesis associated with eutrophication can deplete dissolved inorganic carbon and raise pH to extreme levels during the day. When these dense algal blooms eventually die, microbial decomposition severely depletes dissolved oxygen, creating a hypoxic or anoxic ‘dead zone' lacking sufficient oxygen to support most organisms. Dead zones are found in many freshwater lakes including the Laurentian Great Lakes (e.g., central basin of Lake Erie; Arend et al. 2011) during the summer. Some algal blooms pose an additional threat because they produce noxious toxins (e.g., microcystin and anatoxin-a; Chorus and Bartram 1999). Over the past century, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been linked with (1) degradation of water quality (Francis 1878), (2) destruction of economically important fisheries (Burkholder et al. 1992), and (3) public health risks (Morris 1999). Poisonings of domestic animals, wildlife (Figure 4), and even humans by blooms of toxic cyanobacteria have been documented throughout the world and date back to Francis' (1878) first observation of dead livestock associated with a bloom of cyanobacteria. 

Conclusion and Evaluation - Quality of evidenceEvaluation of claimThe research claim, “Life depends on the solubilities of gases in water” was investigated by focussing on the research question “Is there any link between phosphorus overfertilization and algae blooms?”. This was evaluated via researched obtained from academic papers and research that provided evidence. The evidence suggests that it is possible that there is a definite link between phosphorus over fertilization and harmful algae blooms. The research completed in this report shows that yes, algae blooms have a clear and strong connection to HABs and that there are sever environmental impacts caused by them.

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