Talk:Eutrophication

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Contents

[edit] Dubious photo

Isn't there something wrong with the photo purporting to show Potomac water laden with cyanobacteria? The color of the trees looks highly unnatural and suspiciously similar to the color of the water. This photo is almost certainly not in natural color, and therefore misleading. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.173.17.89 (talk) 22:53, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

i would say its just an old photo thats been scanned more than it being done of purpose IMO --Hypo Mix (talk) 05:03, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Non-aquatic eutrophication

Eutrophication is not limited to aquatic systems, so the article needs some fairly hefty revision. Any objections? Also the references list is far too long - could the person responsible trim it? --Sambostock 19:04, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Really? I'd go slow and provide some references of your own. I think the lead sentence is the widely accepted definition of the term, although the web site you link to is interesting and provides a perhaps better alternative (expanded?) definition.
I did not add the reference list, so I cannot comment on its usefulness. I would say, if all those references were used to develop the text they should stay. If they are just a list that provides further reading, the list should be trimmed as you suggest. I'm always concerned when contributors just add references, without proper citation in the text. It becomes impossible to know with futuire edits/changes if the reference makes sense or not. In effect, just adding a list of references at the end contributes nothing to the veracity of any claims or statements in the text, as there is no necessary association between the two. If no one comes forward and fixes as you suggest, there would really be no harm in just deleting all the references given. - Marshman 19:22, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I looked more closely and see that many of the references are cited in the text, so those should certainly stay - Marshman 19:23, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I would object to inclusion of non-aquatic eutrophication? I've been looking in some older Ecology texbooks (Krebs, 2nd ed.1978, R.L. Smith 1966)and dictionaries and so far have not found any intent that the terms 'eutrophic' and 'eutrophication' were intended to apply to terrestrial systems. The terms relate to a particular process found in aquatic systems, that do not occur in the same fashion in terrestrial habitats. To bend this definition to would severely dillute the meaning and confuse issues. (user: JC Benthos, 11/22/06)

The terms 'Eutrophic' is of Greek origin and was originally used to describe the fertility of soils in peat bogs (together with 'Oligotrophic'). However, 'Eutrophication' has been extensively used to describe algal blooms in surface water bodies for quite sometime now. A good compromise could be to insert this information in the article while retaining the present contents. (User: Ritesh Prasad Gurung[1] 11/24/2006)

The term "competitive release" is used (over-used) in this article. Although possibly a new combination with a special definition, as an ecologist I have never seen this "term" before and it means nothing to me. It is not defined in the article, so most readers must be as lost as I am about how it relates to eutrophication. - Marshman 19:01, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) - I have now confirmed that it is a real term (see [2]), but I think a difficult concept to simply introduce as a term without explanation, partly because it is a poor english combination (scientists do that kind of sh-- all the time). To my thinking it is backwards as "competitive" is an adjective in english. - Marshman 19:15, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Disputed

Contrary to what is said [in the opening sentences of the article], eutrophication is not in fact a form of pollution, but yet is caused by pollution. Eutrophication is the actual process that is occurring, not the reason of the process. As the water becomes saturated with nutrients from pollution and extreme biomass begins to accumulate, the body of water begins to turn over. As the biota within the pond, lake, river, etc. becomes overwhelming and nutrients are depleted, the ecosystem begins to die. This is the actual process of eutrophication. Preceding statement is by 140.141.3.109 (talk • contribs), removed to talk page by -- Paleorthid 05:32, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I removed the disputed tag. The problem you point out seems to be fixed so there is no reason for it to be there any more.--Santahul 17:25, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First section

The summary above the contents is way to heavy. That bits supposed to be a few sentences but at the moment it looks like somebody just copy and pasted and article out of a journal.--195.194.178.251 17:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Giant salvinia

I'm moving material from Nutrient to this article, and it mentioned giant salvinia. Are problems with that due to eutrophication, or is it inherently invasive? If it's the former, it could be added to this article as an example, and this tidbit added to the article on the plant. -- Beland 04:54, 24 June 2007 (UTC)