Whats the concept behind phosphorus And NItrogen in LAKES?

Question

is it good to have these to in the lakes?

what do they do?

what happens if they increase in their quantity?

does one balances out for the other one

Answer 1

These are not chemicals you want in a lake system.

Phosphorous comes from detergents and other chemicals that usually get washed into a lake from the water body.  Heightened levels of Phosphorous can kill off fish and other aquatic organisms.

Nitrogen comes from fertilizers and pesticides that also wash in from the watershed around the lake.  Excess amounts of nitrogen begin to cause Eutrophication which is the overloading of nutrients.  This leads to a bloom in algae which at first adds dissolved oxygen to the water, but after a very short amount of time that immediately changes and depletes the water bodies oxygen supply.  This is because when the algae grows (when the nitrogen enters the water) they take in CO2 and sunlight and give off oxygen but after a while the algae becomes so think that it starts to block out the sun from the other plants in the lake the oxygen levels decrease.  This leads to fish kills and very poor health of the lake.

If both enter the same lake in the same harmful quantity the lake would be in serious trouble.  They do not balance out nor do they have a relationship on each other.  THey are independent of one another but still equally harmful