The Overall Picture of Eutrophication

A survey of the literature of eutrophication reviews the symptoms of eutrophication, including standing crop of algae and depletion of dissolved oxygen, and their ill effects. Investigators have enumerated the significant causative factors, including macronutrients, trace metals, and organic growth factors, but thus far have devoted their major efforts to investigations involving phosphorus and nitrogen. Nutrient sources in the atmosphere, groundwater, watershed runoff, agricultural runoff, urban drainage, and wastewater effluents have been studied. Control of eutrophication by diversion of nutrient sources, advanced waste treatment, and dilution have been suggested.