Eutrophication Eutrophication Eutrophication (from Greek "eutrophos", "well-nourished"), or hypertrophication, is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients that induce excessive growth of plants and algae. This process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body. One example is the "bloom" or great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased levels of nutrients. Eutrophication is almost always induced by the discharge of nitrate or phosphate-containing detergents, fertilizers, or sewage into an aquatic system. Eutrophication arises from the oversupply of nutrients, which leads to overgrowth of plants and algae. After such organisms
Liebig's law of the minimum Liebig's law of the minimum Liebig's law of the minimum, often simply called Liebig's law or the law of the minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel (1828) and later popularized by Justus von Liebig. It states that growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor). The law has also been applied to biological populations and ecosystem models for factors such as sunlight or mineral nutrients. This concept was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not