Committee: Representative of Agriculture
Topic: Lake Erie’s Toxic Algal Bloom
Name: Violet Landrum
“Nobody adores fertilizer. Nobody devotes their life to fertilizer (unless they own a fertilizer company). But, you need it to grow the crops. The land is arid and dry without it, and trying to grow things is likely to be futile.” - Shellen Lubin. According to a paper written in Science, the ocean has lost roughly 77 billion tons of oxygen in the last 50 years, being up to nearly 2% of its waters (USA today). Algal blooms have been a straining issue, causing wildlife and oceans to perish under it’s suffocating mass; these are created by surplus of nutrients, many that have been found to be in farmers fertilizer. The large runoff from agricultural …show more content…
When released into the environment at these levels, algae feeds and expands, soon creating the catastrophic dead zone. A team of researchers led by ecologist Patrick Mulholland in Tennessee report in Nature that streams and other waterways are losing their ability to filter excess nitrates from these fertilizers and sewage. The water is still able to take up nitrate, but begin to remove smaller fractions the more they are loaded; this may be the reason for low oxygen levels in coastal waters. Usually, the fertilizer will go through a process called denitrification, where bacteria convert the nitrate to nitrogen that can be released into the atmosphere as gas. However, the scientists found a shocking result that the bacteria have only been eliminating 16% of all nitrogen pollution (Futurism). This is a matter that must be addressed, considering the percentages may drop lower over time. This oppression of nutrients has caused many complications and damage to our …show more content…
Many alternatives such as mulching, composting, and using iron to aid plants instead of nitrogen can be easy ways to cut down on use (CWsec). Companies can cut their product quantity by 10%, making reading the label simple. Agriculture also suggests farmers can give reports on the annual usage to organizations like the FAO, or the government. Fertilizer is not the only contributor to the dead zones forming, but makes a significant impact. If these solutions are added into everyday lives, it will become easier to reduce the amounts naturally and healthily. Getting the world to reduce may be difficult, but once done will do a great deal to aiding the
Topic: Lake Erie’s Toxic Algal Bloom
Name: Violet Landrum
“Nobody adores fertilizer. Nobody devotes their life to fertilizer (unless they own a fertilizer company). But, you need it to grow the crops. The land is arid and dry without it, and trying to grow things is likely to be futile.” - Shellen Lubin. According to a paper written in Science, the ocean has lost roughly 77 billion tons of oxygen in the last 50 years, being up to nearly 2% of its waters (USA today). Algal blooms have been a straining issue, causing wildlife and oceans to perish under it’s suffocating mass; these are created by surplus of nutrients, many that have been found to be in farmers fertilizer. The large runoff from agricultural …show more content…
When released into the environment at these levels, algae feeds and expands, soon creating the catastrophic dead zone. A team of researchers led by ecologist Patrick Mulholland in Tennessee report in Nature that streams and other waterways are losing their ability to filter excess nitrates from these fertilizers and sewage. The water is still able to take up nitrate, but begin to remove smaller fractions the more they are loaded; this may be the reason for low oxygen levels in coastal waters. Usually, the fertilizer will go through a process called denitrification, where bacteria convert the nitrate to nitrogen that can be released into the atmosphere as gas. However, the scientists found a shocking result that the bacteria have only been eliminating 16% of all nitrogen pollution (Futurism). This is a matter that must be addressed, considering the percentages may drop lower over time. This oppression of nutrients has caused many complications and damage to our …show more content…
Many alternatives such as mulching, composting, and using iron to aid plants instead of nitrogen can be easy ways to cut down on use (CWsec). Companies can cut their product quantity by 10%, making reading the label simple. Agriculture also suggests farmers can give reports on the annual usage to organizations like the FAO, or the government. Fertilizer is not the only contributor to the dead zones forming, but makes a significant impact. If these solutions are added into everyday lives, it will become easier to reduce the amounts naturally and healthily. Getting the world to reduce may be difficult, but once done will do a great deal to aiding the