Environmental Law and Acidification

• All biogeochemical cycles can be altered by human activity, and humans play a large role in transfers within these cycles.
• Eutrophication and acid deposition are two difficult environmental challenges.
• Global climate changes are largely a result of disruptions in carbon and nitrogen cycles.

Eutrophication

• A natural process where nutrient enrichment of water bodies leads to greater productivity.
• Human activities accelerate eutrophication by mobilizing nitrates and phosphates.
• Phosphorus and nitrogen: two main factors limiting plant growth in aquatic ecosystems.
• Oligotrophic ecosystems: relatively low nutrient levels
• Eutrophic ecosystems: high nutrient levels.
• Mesotrophic bodies have characteristics between oligotrophic and eutrophic extremes.
• It can take thousands of years for a body of water to progress from oligotrophic to eutrophic, but geological makeup of soils, and water depth affect this process.
• Fertile soils progress more quickly.
• Shallow lakes recycle nutrients more efficiently.
• Cultural eutrophication is caused by human activity which speeds up the natural process through adding phosphates and nitrates to water bodies.
• Lakes become shallower, nutrients are used more efficiently, productivity increases, and eutrophication progresses.
• Additional phosphates and nitrates come from many different sources and accumulate in aquatic ecosystems.
• 8.5 to 9.5 tonnes of phosphorus is transported to the ocean from 20 million tonnes mined each year.
  • This mined phosphorus is approximately eight times the natural amount.

Nutrient Sources Contributing to Cultural Eutrophication

• Runoff from fertilizers (N and P) and feedlots (N and P).
• Land use change such as cultivation, construction, and mining of natural sources.
• Discharge of detergents (P).
• Untreated sewage (N and P).
• Primary and secondary treated sewage (N and P).
• Emissions from internal combustion engines (dissolved nitrogen oxides).
• Enrichment promotes increased growth of aquatic plants, with phytoplankton growth favoured over benthic plants rooted in the substrate.
• Phytoplankton growth decreases the amount of light for benthic plants; because the benthic plants are diminishing, they produce less oxygen at depth.
• Oxygen depletion is worsened by decay of the large mass of phytoplankton.
• Dead matter then filters to the bottom of the lake to be consumed by oxygen-demanding decomposers and is returned to the surface through convection currents for more food for more phytoplankton and algae.
• Blue-green algae replace green algae in eutrophic lakes, exacerbating the problem because zooplankton do not consume blue-green algae .
• Oxygen depletion occurs with the addition of organic matter.
• The amount of organic matter that water can absorb depends on the size, flow, and temperature of the receiving water body.
  • Greater size and flow, and lower temperatures increase the water body’s ability to absorb matter and retain oxygen.
• Oxygen levels fall and bacteria rises when organic wastes are added to a body of water.
  • This is the oxygen sag curve.
  • Biological oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic decomposers to break down organic material.
  • At the discharge source, the oxygen sag curve starts to fall, and the BOD rises.
  • As bacteria digest the wastes, the oxygen content returns to normal, and the BOD falls.
• Major sources of nitrates and phosphates include runoff from feedlots/sewage discharge, as well as large amounts of oxygen-demanding wastes., and even heat.
• Eutrophication overall results in a less useful and less healthy water body.
• Fish species composition changes to those less dependent on high oxygen levels.
• Populations of waterfowl decrease as aquatic plants die, and swimming/boating becomes unpleasant as algae, weeds, and phytoplankton begin to infest the water.
• Water treatment becomes more expensive.
• To control eutrophication, limit the input of nutrients to the water body (treated and not treated wastes) by limiting domestic and animal wastes, and control runoff from urban areas and farmland.
• Because point sources of water pollution are easy to identify and monitor, pollution from such sources has fallen as a result, and increased attention is now being directed toward the non-point sources.
• Oceans are becoming so oxygen deficient (hypoxic) that they are referred to as “dead zones."
  • One large dead zone example is in the Gulf of Mexico from fertilizer excess from the Mississippi catchment, with similar zones off every continent.
• Eutrophication challenges are still present but on a larger scale.

Lake Erie as an Example

• Many eutrophic lakes exist in all parts of the country and the best known are the Great Lakes.
• Lake Erie has the most severe conditions, and phosphorus levels continue to increase.
• It is the second-smallest and shallowest of the Great Lakes.
• Fish species composition has changed as human population increased and water quality declined.
• Species such as Lake sturgeon, cisco, blue pike, and lake whitefish, are gone. 11 million people live in the Lake Erie drainage basin.
• 39% of the Canadian and 44% of the American shore is used for urban development.
• Intensive agricultural use and industrial use surrounds the shore.
• In the past, nearly 90% of the bottom layer of the central zone of the lake was oxygen deficient.
• Large algae mats became common, beaches were closed, and it might have taken thousands of years for natural eutrophication, but it was superseded by cultural eutrophication within the space of 50 years.
• In 1972, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was signed by Canada and the US, which was strengthened by the signing of the 1985 Great Lakes Charter.
• Since the 1970s, phosphorus controls have been implemented as well as bans on phosphate-based detergents with upgraded municipal waste treatment plants, leading to significant reductions in phosphorus.
• The remaining nutrient load comes from non-point sources, such as runoff from agricultural fields, lawns, and construction sites.
• Phosphorus levels exceed objective levels as levels of nitrite and nitrate concentrations rise leading to further eutrophication as a result of other nutrients.
• Synergistic effects between increasing phosphorus loads and invasive species exacerbate the problem.
• Zebra mussels are filter-feeders that remove the phosphorus from the water and convert it into a form easily usable by aquatic plants and algae.
• Zebra mussels selectively feed on edible algae.
• Toxic blue-green algae Microcystis is not a preferred food for zooplankton and affects the food chain from the base level.
• The water became limited in fish growth, while the phosphorus was excessive in the littoral zone from the concentrating effect of zebra mussels and growth of algae Microcystis.
• Animal feedlots: major source of nutrients (phosphates and nitrates) speeding up eutrophication.
• The amount of water flowing affects Lake Erie's dead, oxygen-deficient zone.
  • The 2012 drought led to the largest dead zone ever recorded.
  • Meteorological factors have a major effect.
  • Algae blooms are associated with large inflows, dead zones are associated with small inflows.
• In 2014, Toledo, Ohio, citizens were not allowed to drink water from, or shower from the Lake water source because of algae blooms.
  • This lead to a response of Lake Erie being given the same “legal rights” as humans where organizations have the right to sue a polluting entity on behalf of the Lake.

Acid Deposition

• In 1966, the 4,000 pink salmon introduced to Lumsden Lake disappeared.
• Indigenous fish species to the lake as a whole were missing.
• From 1961 to 1971, Lumsden Lake had a 100-fold increase in the acidity of its waters.
• Fish species perished whose tolerance was exceeded by the changes, and became victims of acid deposition.

Disappearance of Fish from Lumsden Lake

• 1950s: Eight species present.
• 1960: Last report of yellow perch and burbot.
• 1960-5: Sport fishery fails.
• 1967: Last capture of lake trout and slimy sculpin.
• 1968: White sucker suddenly rare.
• 1969: Last capture of trout, lake herring, and white sucker.
• 1970: One fish species present.
• 1971: Lake chub very rare.

Lake Acidification in La Cloche Mountains

• The increases in acidity are from human interference in the sulphur and nitrogen cycles.
• The largest sources are smelting sulphur-rich metal ores and the burning of fossil fuels for energy, changing the distribution of elements.
• Natural processes cannot deal with the buildup of matter.
• Increased amounts of sulphur and various forms of nitrogen are ejected causing acid rain.
• Human activities account for more than 90% of the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in North America.
• Excessive sulphur is produced when ore bodies, such as copper and nickel, are roasted (smelted) at high temperatures to release the metal, burning sulphur-containing coal in power.
• In Canada, the smelting of metal ores accounts for most sulphur emissions.
• In the US, electrical utilities are the largest source, accounting for 70%.
• Smelting plants’ effects included destroying trees over large areas.
• Industry began to build higher stacks to eject waste farther into the atmosphere such as the Inco “Superstack".
• This improved the local scale and created problems elsewhere, especially in Quebec, as entire air masses acidified, dropping their acid burdens over a larger area.
• Acidified air masses tend to travel in patterns to the northeast and bring a heavy pollution burden.
• Half of the sulphate falling in Canada comes from the US.
• Point sources of pollution are easier to monitor and control.
• The highest emissions come from transport and the oil and gas industry.
• Declines in nitrogen emissions have occurred from clean technology/fuels and domestic and international agreements.

Effects of Acid Deposition

• Aquatic effects: Fish populations, and other species declines.
• Insects such as mayflies (food source) are eliminated and birds that eat fish such as loons are often affected through food depletion.
• Reproductive capacities are negatively affected through winter acidity.
• Spring runoff produced a pH as low as 3.3 in Lumsden Lake, 100 times more acidic than in 1961.
• Holopedium species are becoming the dominant plankton as a result of calcium deficiencies.
• Acid rain has removed many nutrients from already nutrient-deficient catchments.
• Calcium: a nutrient needed for Daphnia (zooplankton species) to grow an exoskeleton.
  • Holopedium does not require as much calcium and is displacing Daphnia.
  • Holopedium repels predators with a slimy gel on to repel predators.
  • The lakes are becoming “jellified” and clogging drinking water filtration systems, which are also low in nutrients.

Terrestrial Effects

• Trees began to die and trees are susceptible to this process
• Acids eat away at photosynthetic surfaces of leaves once entering the soil, which leads to nutrient deficiencies and the inhibition of nutrient uptake.
• Decomposition and humus formation are slowed.
• Biogeochemical cycles are adversely affected. Soil contains bacteria and organisms for ecological functions, but the effects of acidity inhibits growth and lowers resistance to disease.
• Damage from acid deposition is now visible outside of emission areas.
• In Europe and the eastern United States there are extensive damaged areas, acid deposition difficult often to isolate.
• Other factors include climate change/pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.
• Smelters such as at Trail, BC, and agricultural lands damages plant life where growth is now inhibited.
• In central an eastern Canada, 84% of the most productive agricultural lands receive more than 20 kg of acid deposition.
• In some areas, adding lime has become routine to neutralize the acids.
• Forest cover is altered as the habitat diminishes for heterotrophs.
• Toxic metals will concentrate and accumulate in species' livers in certain plants and lichens/animals like moose/caribou.

Ecosystem Sensitivity

• Not all ecosystems are equally sensitive to the effects of acid deposition.
• The critical load is the maximum level of deposition that an area can sustain without comprising ecological integrity.
• Some areas can neutralize excess acids because of bedrock base. Areas with high carbonate-rich rocks or deep soils have high buffering capacity and are less sensitive to the effects of acid deposition.
• Areas such as central and eastern Canada and coastal British Columbia weather rocks poorly with low nutrient content (granite) combined with thin soils following glaciation.
• Provinces vulnerable due to ranked as highly sensitive include Quebec (82%), Newfoundland & Labrador (56%), Nova Scotia (45%).
• Low buffering capacities and deposition rates explain Canada's concern in central and eastern parts of the country.

Socio-Economic Effects

• Socio-economic implications/effects on human health exist to this.
• Declines in fish populations impact fishing industries. With possible tree reduction, implications include reduced value and lost profits to the forest industry.
• Difficult quantifiable aspects include reduced lake-side recreation.
• Under pH levels of 4.5, loons start to suffer as a species and are an indicator of sensitivity.
• Improvements in bodies of water are being observed: emissions regulations have led to success in increasing aquatic biota, as observed via breeding fish eaters (such as loons) in Ontario/Quebec/Newfoundland.
• Human built environments are damaged and costs billions to maintain, particularly the human health, from respitory and cardiovascular side effects. In 2010 after emissions reductions, the US government suggest that southern Ontario has been saving more than $1 billion per year because of lessened health costs.
• Water systems can corrode from drinking water and lead to health risks and schools have to flush to mitigate this.
• Pollutants are being spread to animals, the water and eventually humans because toxins, such as metals, move up the food chain.

Actionable Items

• Acid deposition is not limited to areas generating the issue.
• More than half the acid deposition originates in the US.
• Reduce your wastes via recycling to contribute to the reduction.
• Acid Deposition occurs because our choices contribute to fossil fuel transport and elctricity consumption.
• Many things we buy and use everyday need proper disposal
• Livestock wastes are responsible for adding to the pollution from farms.
• Canada adddressed the porblem with both national and internatinal efforts.
• The Canadian Council of Resource and Environment Ministers agreed on an annual target.
• This target focused on deposition or critical load of 20 kilograms per hectare because the load represented the policy target value (PTV).
• Scientific target value (STV) warned that a further 75% reduction in SO2 emissions.
• Advances have allowed for comprehensive loads that combime both sulfates and nitrogen oxides.
• These are expressed as ionic charge balance in terms of equivalent/hectare/year
• Annual SOX emissions have gone down in shorted periods of time in Canada between 1990 and 2015.
• Reductiions of 47 per cent between 1990 and 2014 have been made to NOX emissions.

This quiz explores legal rights for natural entities, the impact of acidification on aquatic ecosystems like the La Cloche Mountains lakes, and actions to prevent future environmental damage. It covers pH changes, ecological consequences, and effective preventative measures.