Acidification of Lakes

Acidification of Lakes

Jeff Walters, March 23rd 2016, BIO4U, Unit F

Research Question #1

Topic #2 How does the acidification of lakes from industrial processes affect fish populations?

Acidification can be seen in our oceans, rain and lakes and has been traced back to the 1970’s and started even earlier when industry were dumping tons of chemicals into the river and streams. This has lead to an increase in the acidity of our drinking water and the destruction of natural habitats. Believe it or not, most of these processes are reversible and can be remediated well. It comes down to the individual and the community to take action. The best way to get people involved is to properly educate them on the topic so let’s see what the effects of acidification in lakes looks like.

To begin most atmospheric rain is slightly acidic at about 5.6pH. Most rain falling in the USA, Canada and Europe is about 4.2pH. This was first noticed in Scandinavia in the 1970’s. Remember that one full number change in the pH is equal to ten times the acidity so a pH of 4 is 10 times as acidic as a pH of 5. This causes erosion, degradation of buildings and allows aluminum to seep into our water supply. The water is acidic because CO2 will naturally condenses in the rain creating a weak carbonic acid. What we are seeing now is sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) or their derivatives sulfates and nitrates are being added to the mixture in high amounts because of the runoff of industrial processes. Others causes for increase in acidity is: livestock introduction into the catchment, use of nitrogen fertiliser, increased efficiency of drainage, dry deposition of air pollutants and wet deposition of sulphuric and nitric acids. The main cause of all this being the atmospheric pollution that entering the lakes and oceans but what effect does that have on the organisms and their habitats especially fish populations?

Like what we learned in the biology textbook, most marine life has adapted to their surroundings. The most interesting of these is osmosis. Most creatures survive by keeping the insides of their body equal in the ions and chemicals as their environment. For example this is why fresh or saltwater organisms can not live in the other’s environment because of the salt disposition. Now if you add tons of unnaturally occurring chemicals that are harmful to creatures they will die and not reproduce. All organisms have a narrow range in which they operate in and even more so fish. They only lay their eggs in optimal pH ranges and depend on their immediate environment for water which can easily be polluted by toxins without any defense. It would be interesting to see if later populations of fish learn to adapt but that is unlikely because evolution takes many generations and this is becoming exponentially worse. Another problem is loss of marine habitat like the coral reefs in Australia. One of the largest biodiversity hubs has been destroyed almost completely due to acidification of the oceans. Because of this many fish and sea creatures lost their homes and food resulting in a collapse in the food chain. It is actually depressing to see the reefs looked before and after humans tampered with nature so rudely.

I find it ironic how we destroy the habitat that we need to live in order to improve our lives somehow. Many conservative minded people argue that it's “the” “economy” but what is a surprise to most of them is there is no one economy and that they are all changeable, unlike our need for clean water and habitat. I would like to see a much more drastic and quicker approach because although it may be remediable, the longer we wait the harder it will be.   

Works Cited

Air Quality, UK

Effects of Acid Rain, EPA