In order to improve agricultural production, people try hard to make their plants grow and produce good quality production. One way is to make a chemical fertilizer which in addition to increasing the yield of the plant will be free from pests and diseases.
However, some farmers do not seem to know how to use chemical fertilizers wisely. As a result, there was a negative effect on ocean fertilization. Below here are the following 17 negative effects of ocean fertilization you should know.
1. Chemical fertilizers
So far in our society, especially farmers why they prefer to use chemical fertilizer? Farmer production can produce high crop production and it can benefit farmers. But you know, behind it all it turns out chemical fertilizers contain harmful chemicals, such as nitrates and phosphates.
Both of them is not only can contaminate groundwater or ocean. But it can also stimulate the growth of water weeds and water hyacinth. The worst is if this fertilizer is infused to groundwater, and then water from the groundwater is consumed by humans for a long time, it would be dangerous for the human body itself.
2. Other chemical fertilizer content
There is another chemical compound contained in a commonly used chemical fertilizer, Potassium. Potassium Chloride is one type of fertilizer that can solve the negative effects of phosphorus fertilizer. This is because the process of extracting from raw materials is then continued by distillation.
In here potassium fertilizer is more positive in making plant resistance becomes greener and disease free. The potassium nutrients that enter in the soil can be easily washed depending on PH levels and saturation of bases on the soil.
However, please note the dosage in using it, as it could be negative effects, especially on groundwater quality. Read more about Importance of Marine Life Conservation
3. The spread of water pollution
Chemical fertilizers used in plants that are then flowed by very heavy rainwater, the rain flow will make the spread of water pollution. The contamination of this pollution is very fast, from the ground, then to the river and finally empties into the ocean.
I do not know what will happen if farmers always use chemical fertilizers in the long term. What will happen to the ecosystem life in the ocean? See also Effects of Ocean Waves On Shorelines.
4. Killed the microorganisms in the soil
The first negative impact, of course, it will fall directly on microorganisms that live in the soil. In here the balance of flora can be disrupted, especially if the fertilizer is used in excess will lead to microorganisms in the soil killed.
5. Changes the PH levels of the soil
Farmers who do not pay attention to labels on packaging, the use of fertilizer on the soil, it can not produce the benefits but it will quite the opposite.
The soil gets hot, and the pH level in the soil becomes down. This is usually called acid soil where pH levels are less than 7. Soils with a decreased pH state, it usually can have a bad effect on plants, such as yellowing of leaves on plants and it even decreased yields of farmer crops. Read more about Importance of Keeping the Ocean Clean
6. The low of oxygen levels at both places
Chemical fertilizers not only damage the soil or kill all the creatures that live around it. This fertilizer also provides a negative impact on the availability of oxygen to the soil.
The soil that was previously loose and fertile, it will due to excessive use of fertilizers to be dry and it is very attached to glue. Besides, the decrease of oxygen in the soil also results in the color of the water to be greenish with an unpleasant odor.
In here, the waters are also affected by the oxygen in the water is reduced and there are no other lives that can live in waters that have been exposed to this pollution. Algae and some fishes will die in here.
See also Effects of Ocean Currents on Adjacent Coastal Areas
7. The decline in production quality
The other serious impacts will lead to a decrease in the quality of crop production. Due to nutrient damage in the soil that is bound to chemical compounds, it is natural if the soil is lost its soil fertility.
The increased of using fertilizers, it does not only make the production quality go up, it will make it down and the surrounding environment will become threatened. It seems that farmers should be given a lesson on the effects of excessive chemical fertilizers.
8. Damage the human health
Have you ever noticed, if the food you eat or drink you drink there is a chemical element in it? The chemical elements that contained in the fertilizer that unintentionally human consumption of its negative effects will not occur directly. But it will happen gradually, this gradual situation allows to affect the condition of human health if consumed in the long term.
When chemical substances accumulated in the human body for a long time it will cause diseases that interfere with humans themselves. Read more about Importance of Thermodynamics in Marine Engineering
9. Causes disease for plants
Besides the excess fertilizer can be dangerous for the human, this thing causes the disease for plants too. The use of excessive fertilizer will bring disease for the plants themselves.
One such example, plants will show signs like plants cannot absorb more chemicals. Usually, the plants will be dark colored, vegetative growth, and the plant becomes easily damaged by cold and frozen.
This is one of the examples of plants that experience excess dosage from the use of chemical fertilizers. However, some plants show another sign too, like there is some fungus, even viruses can attack and destroy them. See also Effects of Radiation on Ocean Life
10. The plants grow will be hampered
When the soil does not have an effective nutrient, then the adverse effect that occurs is it will affect the plants.
The plant growth will be hampered, and this can disrupt and it can reduce the quality and quantity of the crop itself. Why the plant growth disrupted? The use of inappropriate fertilizer, it can cause the roots of plants softly and damaged that is why the absorption of nutrients can disrupt.
11. Inhibits decay of organic matter
When organic matter decays in loose soil, the process of decaying organic matter will run perfectly. This is due to the help of worms which helps the process of decaying organic matter and it can be decomposed perfectly.
Meanwhile, on soil that is given chemical fertilizers that seep into the soil, decomposition of organic materials cannot be decomposed as perfect because obstructed by the compound of chemical fertilizer.
12. The poisons of ocean
Sea pollution, waste of fertilizer is one of the wastes which includes threats to marine life. This waste of fertilizer is now increasingly being dumped through the river where it eventually enters the ocean. Waste of fertilizers containing many chemical compounds is poisonous for the ocean.
When the chemical compounds enter the ocean, the waste will be directly absorbed into the food chain in the ocean. The effects are can cause mutations and diseases that are harmful to marine animals. See also How to Reduce Global Warming Effects in Ocean
13. Ocean acidification
Some researchers found that the waste of fertilizer also has the potential to make the ocean condition to acid. This acidification produces carbonic acid and decreases the level of acidity in the pH of the oceans. In here researchers also study the effects of ocean acidification. It is found that some living things experience a negative effect of this ocean acidification condition.
14. Increased growth of algae
That is not all the effects of ocean acidification on living things are negative. Algae is an example, with the increasing acidification of the ocean it makes conditions of algae even positive for him.
Algae require CO2 to photosynthesize, this acidification condition of the ocean makes the algae grow faster. As fertilizer that works the same is to increase growth in plants. This also applies to agricultural wastes that are often disposed of by humans to the ocean.
15. The trigger of the abundance of jellyfish in the ocean
Jellyfish is one of the sea creatures that are quite dangerous in the ocean and it is not good to eat. Jellyfish have toxic tentacles which if regarding humans, it can kill.
Jellyfish is a pest to the oceans. However, did you know that now the jellyfish has mastered two-thirds of the earth?
What the triggers the rise of these jellyfish? After the investigation, the increased appearance of these jellyfish because of the side effects of pollution, including waste.
Algae is a staple food for the jellyfish. If the growth of fertile algae, then automatically the appearance of jellyfish will be increased and more and more. The increasing the algae, it will increase of the present of jellyfishes too. See also: Interesting facts of Ocean Pollution
16. The damaged marine ecosystems
The increasing waste that is removed will eventually also damage the ecosystem at sea. Unwittingly, the use of fertilizers that contain chemical compounds also destroys marine coral reefs in the ocean. Some of the effects that can be seen are coral bleaching.
17. Increased mortality of marine organisms
Bleaching of coral reefs that occur due to agricultural abundance will obviously have an impact on another biodiversity in the ocean. If coral bleaching is spread, the condition of the food chain in the ocean also changes.
The fish that used to get their food now switched to eat the waste. The continuous waste that consumed by these fish can have a serious impact, the death. This also happens to other marine life organisms. That’s why now the increase of death on biodiversity in the ocean happen.
Hopefully, the 17 negative effects of ocean fertilization may add our knowledge as well. Let’s love our ocean by not littering waste, and use organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers.