Latest Eutrophication Stories

Shallow disk injection found to be economically sound and environmentally safe, a technique that could help reduce nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake BayRecycling manure is an important practice, especially for large livestock producers. Manure can be used as fertilizer to aid in crop production, aiding livestock producers that grow their own feed crops. While manure does provide a rich nutrient source for crops, it also can contribute to nutrient leaching and runoff. This can contaminate...

People who want to eat healthy and live sustainably have a new way to measure their impact on the environment: a Web-based tool that calculates an individual's "nitrogen footprint." The device was created by University of Virginia environmental scientist James N. Galloway; Allison Leach, a staff research assistant at U.Va.; and colleagues from the Netherlands and the University of Maryland.The calculator is a project of the International Nitrogen Initiative, a global network of...

Recalculating the global use of phosphorous, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world's stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized world has become a leading cause of the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams.Writing in the Feb. 14 edition of the journal Environmental Research Letters, Stephen Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Elena Bennett of McGill University report that the human use of...

Continued eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, combined with an ever thinner ozone layer, is favoring the toxic cyanobacterium Nodularia spumigena, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden."There are several species of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, that can form surface blooms in the Baltic Sea," explains Malin Mohlin from the University of Gothenburg's Department of Marine Ecology. "Which species ends up dominating a bloom depends partly on how they deal...

Every person emits the equivalent of approximately two tons of carbon dioxide a year from the time food is produced to when the human body excretes it, representing more than 20% of total yearly emissions. That is what a study by the Universidad de Almería says, confirming for the first time that human excrements contribute to water pollution, primarily with nitrogen and phosphorus.A team of researchers from the Universidad de Almería (UAL) has estimated the environmental impact of the...

Excess nitrogen from agricultural and urban lands is contaminating groundwater, streams, lakes and estuaries, where it causes harmful algal blooms and contributes to fish kills.Cost-effective approaches to removing this nitrogen from croplands and urban stormwater runoff before it reaches sensitive water bodies have been elusive.But simple and inexpensive technologies are on the horizon. A recent scientific workshop on denitrification brought together ecologists, engineers and policy experts...

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea has clear negative effects, such as dead bottoms and massive blooms of cyanobacteria. But high plankton production can also have positive effects on acidification. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have shown that it is possible to work out the aggregate effects of various environmental measures."The environmental state of the Baltic Sea is affected by many different processes at the same time and on several different time scales....

Resulting ecological damage is serious, but could be reduced by wider use of more sustainable, time-honored practicesHumans are overloading ecosystems with nitrogen through the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in nitrogen-producing industrial and agricultural activities, according to a new study. While nitrogen is an element that is essential to life, it is an environmental scourge at high levels.According to the study, excess nitrogen that is contributed by human activities pollutes...

Resulting ecological damage is serious, but could be reduced by wider use of more sustainable, time-honored practicesHumans are overloading ecosystems with nitrogen through the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in nitrogen-producing industrial and agricultural activities, according to a new study. While nitrogen is an element that is essential to life, it is an environmental scourge at high levels.According to the study, excess nitrogen that is contributed by human activities pollutes...

Uses more water, leaches less nitrogenIn the search for the perfect crop for biofuel production, Miscanthus  has become the darling to many. But in an effort to not be charmed by its enormous potential for biomass production, researchers at the University of Illinois are taking a careful look at the pros and cons of its behavior in the field.A recent study analyzed water quantity and quality in plots of Miscanthus, switchgrass, corn, and soybeans and found that Miscanthus used...