Our Aquatic Environment is at Stake

This week, I learned some of the existing and emerging concerns associated with our aquatic environment. 80% of the earth’s surface is aquatic and 50% of the world’s oxygen is supplied by aquatic species and microorganisms. Indeed, the aquatic environment is able to provide the mandatory necessities that every human being need in order to survive. However, are we protecting the aquatic environment? Or are we causing irreversible damage to them unknowingly? We shall take a look at some of the existing issues that we humans directly or indirectly have caused in our aquatic environment.

Eutrophication

Eutrophication, known as algae bloom, is often caused by the input of excess nutrients such as potassium and nitrogen in the water bodies. Combined with the high temperature effect, several algae species including those harmful types can grow rapidly. Algae depletes the dissolved oxygen content in these water bodies, resulting in very low concentration of oxygen for aquatic animals and plant species to take in. Algae bloom are often associated with odour problems and may even produce neurotoxin that is harmful to aquatic species and humans too. How then could humans have cause eutrophication?Source of nutrients mainly come from the use of fertilisers for agriculture that ends up being in the water bodies due to surface runoff (from rain)

Microplastics

The convenience and myriad use of plastics have become an integral part of humans’ daily lives. Plastics ending up in water bodies such as the sea, rivers and canals have become a common episode for us to see. It is indeed unsightly to see large amount of plastics floating around as we take a stroll along the seashore, but did you know there exist an even more detrimental issue of plastic in our aquatic environment? Plastics are non-biodegradable material, which means they persists in our environment for a long period of time. This gives rise to the issue of microplastics, which are plastics that breaks down into very fine pieces in the aquatic environment. These microplastics are so fine that they can be consumed by animal species in the aquatic environment which may end up being consumed by us humans. What does this mean?Consuming plastics during our mealtime may become the norm in the future. Microplastics are known to damage both the human health and disrupt the ecosystem. We therefore urge all of you to start reducing your reliance on plastic usage.