Fish Need a Breath of Fresh Air Too: How Eutrophication Leads to Decreased Dissolved Oxygen in Lakes

Abstract

Different ponds, lakes, and rivers all have different concentrations of dissolved oxygen. Many water bodies also encounter pollution, whether natural or manmade. We propose this pollution causes eutrophication and a subsequent flux in dissolved oxygen. Dissolved oxygen plays a key role in the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems, and if there is too little of it, many aerobically respiring organisms will die off. There needs to be a more definitive correlation established between added pollutants and dissolved oxygen concentration in water bodies to show that pollution is detrimental to life in aquatic ecosystems. We sought in this experiment to provide a more definitive correlation.