Essay on Cultural Eutrophication

Human activities can result to the biogeochemical cycling imbalance in several ways. For instance, through the activities that cause damage to the natural environment, change the imbalance or an activity that is rare in that environment (Seah 1). These activities result to problems in the environment such as cultural eutrophication and fish kills. Even though eutrophication is a natural process, human activities, more so, those that result to water pollution accelerate it. Eutrophication can lead to the death of a body of water. The accelerated eutrophication is known as cultural eutrophication and it takes place when too much nutrients enter the ecosystem for example through sewage, detergents, and fertilizers.

The two main types of species, opportunistic and equilibrium have some similarities and differences. The        opportunistic population which has exponential growth normally use the r-strategy. The “r” describes the species’ intrinsic rate of increase. They produce so many sperms and eggs but only a few end up becoming offspring.  These species usually occupy a new environment very first with the boom and bust trend of growth but they have a very short life cycle. Whenever they experience any limiting factor in an environment, they tend to crash, especially when there is food shortage, little space, insufficient oxygen, and sunlight among others. Most insects and corals are opportunistic species. On the contrary, the equilibrium population which has logistic growth use the k strategy. The ”k” defines the capacity that the environment can carry. In contrast to the opportunistic species, the equilibrium produces a small amount of sperm and eggs. As such, they end up producing less offspring. They have a long life cycle and have a preference for a stable predictable environment. They have a smaller population and are more likely to become extinct. Most birds, mammals, and live bearing fish such as dogfish sharks are equilibrium species. In addition, both species have different ways of taking care of their offspring. Opportunistic type of species spawn and fertilize their eggs in water while the equilibrium ones nest their eggs and brood over them. Opportunistic species produce many offspring and give them very little care while the equilibrium populations have a few offspring who they give a lot of attention and care.

Biodiversity refers to the extent of life variation.  It can be genetic, species, or ecosystem variation. Maintaining biodiversity has both direct and indirect economic value to humans since any environmental imbalances affect the ecosystem. The direct values of biodiversity are obtained from plant and animal resources such as food, medicine, fuel, wool, rubber, and wax among others. The indirect values support the existence of biological life for instance the ethical values, socio-cultural values, option values, and the aesthetic values (Milligan 1). The direct values on the other hand serve productive and consumptive purposes.

A sustainable society is represented by certain traits such as the use of renewable energy sources, maintaining a stable population, recycling and renewing products, and avoiding exponential growth. Recycling helps to cut down the costs of production and reduces pollution. Avoiding exponential growth means that the economy becomes self-sustaining as it would no longer depend on growth.  A non-sustainable society majorly uses non-renewable fossil fuel energy, which results to pollution. Another trait on non-sustainable societies is the over-use of minerals and resources like land and water. When people overexploit the abundant natural resources, the society becomes unstable and non-sustainable.

Works Cited

Seah, I. Human Activities and their Influence on Nutrient Cycles. https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/hp331-2014-29/?page_id=110. Accessed on 20th January 2016.

Milligan, B. Indirect Economic Value of Biodiversity. http://web.nmsu.edu/~brook/courses/conservation-biology/lectures/valuation-indirect/slides/slides.pdf.  Accessed on 20th January 2016.