SIMPLE EUTROPHICATION PROCESS

IB ESS

#1 Fertilizer (nitrates and phosphates) is spread

#2 Fertilizer is washed down by rain (some run off but mostly seeps into soil.)

#3 Goes into underground water, which is going to a nearby lake.

#4 The fertilizer (nitrates and phosphates) in the lake causes overgrowth of algae and plants

#5 Sunlight can no longer reach the botter bcs of algae so aquatic plants die.

#6. Bacteria begin decomposing plants and algae, so the bacteria uses the available oxygen, making the lake anoxic.

#7. Because the lake is anoxic, the organisms in the lake die :(