how does water pollution affect plants and animals?
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The specific effects vary depending on what pollutants enter the environment. Sometimes, water pollution causes an explosion of new plant growth by providing necessary nutrients and food. Other times, it can harm or kill plants by changing growing conditions, such as by raising or lowering the environment's acidity.
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Agricultural practices may also have negative impacts on water quality. Improper agricultural methods may elevate concentrations of nutrients, fecal coliforms, and sediment loads. Increased nutrient loading from animal waste can lead to eutrophication of water bodies which may eventually damage aquatic ecosystems.
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Soil Problems Water pollution makes the soil acidic and negatively affects the solubility of nutrient ions, such as iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium ions. As a result, water removes these nutrients more quickly from the soil and sends them into streams and lakes, according to Cornell University in New York.
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Water pollution makes river biodiversity more vulnerable to climate warming. ... The breakdown of organic pollutants such as sewage and farm run-off uses oxygen, meaning that polluted waterways often suffer severe drops in dissolved oxygen levels.
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Water Pollution. Water pollution has been one of the main impacts that the tourism industry has on environment. ... The tourism industry has also impacted the water quality through its abuse to meet the increased demand of food, construction and maintenance of tourist infrastructure.
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Acid rain can turn lakes acidic, killing fishes and other animals. Water pollution can have disastrous effects on the environment. ... Sometimes pollution affects the entire food chain. Small fishes absorb pollutants, such as chemicals, into their bodies.
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Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, animals and plants through toxic pollutants. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down so the environmental damage is long-lasting. ... Toxins work their way up the food chain when plastic is ingested and can even be present in the fish people eat.
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Water pollution happens when toxic substances enter water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans and so on, getting dissolved in them, lying suspended in the water or depositing on the bed. This degrades the quality of water.
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Organic matter and nutrients causes an increase in aerobic algae and depletes oxygen from the water column. This causes the suffocation of fish and other aquatic organisms. Sulfate particles from acid rain can cause harm the health of marine life in the rivers and lakes it contaminates, and can result in mortality.
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As well as soaking up carbon, wetland ecosystems also serve as large, living water filters. ... This protects other ecosystems downstream by preventing algal blooms caused by agricultural fertilisers, or preventing poisonous metals from building up in the water and the food chain, affecting fish, marine mammals and humans.
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Dangers to our Environment There are many different types of water pollution and all have a different adverse effect on the environment. Heavy metals from industrial processes can accumulate in nearby lakes and rivers. These are toxic to marine life such as fish and shellfish, and can affect the rest of the food chain.
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Coffee processing plants often discharge waste into rivers creating pollution and contamination problems that can cause eutrophication of the water systems and kill aquatic plants and animals. As coffee demand grows, so does the market and in come the new suppliers.
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How does water pollution affect humans? Try drinking untreated water nowadays and your body will immediately react to it. ... Infectious diseases can be spread through contaminated water. Some of these water-borne diseases are Typhoid, Cholera, Paratyphoid Fever, Dysentery, Jaundice, Amoebiasis and Malaria.
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People are sometimes careless and throw rubbish such as bottles and crisp packets directly into rivers. Pollution kills water plants and animals. Polluted water also carries diseases. When animals drink the water, they may get diseases which can kill them.
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Air and Water Pollution. Air pollution is caused by release of particulates, biological molecules or harmful gases into atmosphere, which causes death to humans and damage to living organisms like food crops. Water pollution occurs by the contamination of water bodies like lakes, rivers, oceans.
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Ammonia emissions negatively affect biodiversity. Ammonia pollution also effects species composition through soil acidification, direct toxic damage to leaves and by altering the susceptibility of plants to frost, drought and pathogens. At its most serious, certain sensitive and iconic habitats may be lost.
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Economic Losses Resulting from the Impact of Water Pollution on Human Health. Water pollution may affect people indirectly through the aquatic food chain and through the use of waste water for crop irrigation. ... Waste water irrigation pollutes and damages both the agricultural environment and human health.