Eutrophication

Eutrophication is a process whereby water bodies, such as lakes, estuaries, or slow-moving streams receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant growth (algae, periphyton attached algae, and nuisance plants weeds). This enhanced plant growth, often called an algal bloom, reduces dissolved oxygen in the water when dead plant material decomposes and can cause other organisms to die. Nutrients can come from many sources, such as fertilizers applied to agricultural fields, golf courses, and suburban lawns; deposition of nitrogen from the atmosphere; erosion of soil containing nutrients; and sewage treatment plant discharges. Water with a low concentration of dissolved oxygen is called hypoxic.

More Information

• Phosphorus Doesn't Migrate in Ground Water? Better Think Again!, USGS Toxics Program
• Phosphorus Plume Remediation, USGS Toxics Program Remediation Activity
• Nutrient Enrichment and Criteria, USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program
• Nutrients in the Nation's Waters--Too Much of a Good Thing?, USGS Circular 1136
• Review of Phosphorus Control Measures in the United States and Their Effects on Water Quality, USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 99-4007
• Eutrophication, Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Agricultural Phosphorus and Eutrophication, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Eutrophic Conditions in Estuarine Waters, NOAA's State of the Coast Report, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Phytoplankton Response to the Invasion of the Asian Clam in North and South San Francisco Bay, California
• Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay – Frequently Asked Questions
• Comparison of Phytoplankton Blooms in San Francisco Bay and Chesapeake Bay
• USGS: Science Topics: eutrophication

Related Headlines

• New Information on the Long-Term Fate of Ammonium in Ground Water
• Microscopic Phytoplankton Can Cause Big Problems for Estuaries
• A Tool for Predicting the Effect of Invasive Species on Aquatic Food Webs
• Nitrogen Isotope Study Answers Questions about the Transport of Nutrients in Streams
• New Report on Science for Hypoxia in Gulf of Mexico
• USGS Info Guides Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Action Plan

References

Cloern, J.E., 2001, Our evolving conceptual model of the coastal eutrophication problem: Marine Ecology Progress Series, v. 210, p. 223-253, doi:10.3354/meps210223.

Mueller, D.K., and Helsel, D.R., 1996, Nutrients in the Nation's Waters--Too Much of a Good Thing?: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1136, 24 p.

Antweiler, R.C., Goolsby, D.A., and Taylor, H.E. 1995, Nutrients in the Mississippi River, in Meade, R.H., ed., Contaminants in the Mississippi River: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1133, p. 73-86.

Henry W.A. ed., 1993, The Dictionary of Ecology and Environmental Science: Pownal, Vermont, Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

Horne, A.J., and Goldman, C.R., 1994, Limnology (2d ed.): New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 576 p.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2000: Houghton Mifflin Company, Fourth Edition.

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