The Algae Problem In The Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake bay is having problems with recent algal blooms. This paper will discuss the roles of the organisms in the partial chesapeake bay food chain, The possible effects of a decrease in the algae population on the plant and animal populations, What the causes of this problem is, what is being done to fix it, and what else could be done.
Algae is a floating plant on top of the water; that is at the bottom of the food chain. This plant has no roots, and floats freely about the water. According to , http://www.chesapeakebay.net/blog/post/the_abcs_of_habs_how_harmful_algal_blooms_impact_the_bay. Recently Chesapeake bay is experiencing H,A,B,s which is short for algae blooms. These algae blooms cause many problems for the habitat for other
organisms, for example the algae floats on top of the water which means that it is soaking up the sunlight. This prevents vegetation from the bottom chesapeake bay from getting their nutrients, this is bad because the bottom vegetation is consumed by the zooplankton, which is then consumed by the oysters, which finally is consumed by fish. Without the sunlight fueling the plants on the bottom the population of all organisms in chesapeake bay will die off. All of this is caused by algae blooms. The roles of the organisms of chesapeake bay are crucial to the underwater ecosystem, the chain started with bay grasses, and algae these are the nutrients for the zooplankton, and the Phytoplankton, The n the zooplankton consumes the phytoplankton, later the zooplankton is consumed by oysters, and other muscles along the bottom, and finally fish and other large carnivorous creatures of chesapeake bay are on top of the food chain. Some possible effects of a decrease in the algae population on the plant and animal populations. These effects would start at the base or the bottom of the food chain. If the bay grasses aren't getting the sunlight, then they are consumed by the zooplankton, and later consumed by oysters. Without these grasses, and algae these animals would not be able to survive at all. Which leaves the role of the fish would be useless without the oysters, the zooplankton, and the bay grasses, and algae. When there is too much of one there is a heavy unbalance. This unbalance is usually due to an algae bloom, and the excessive amount of algae that floats among the surface of the chesapeake bay. When there is a bloom the algae takes up all of the nutrients that is needed, and used by other organisms, That is a huge unbalance. After this plays its role there will ultimately be a die off which causes there to be virtually no life what so ever. Algae is needed in the chesapeake bay, but the high amount that it produces is dangerous, and unhealthy.
Surely there is a reason for the extensive and destructive amounts of algae that gets produced, and then eventually dies off leaving nothing to be found.
This seems to all lead back to runoff, The causes of the blooms are excess nitrogen, and phosphorus. This is like steroids for these microorganism. What it does is it brings the population of the algae up to a certain extent , then it crashes due to the fact that there is no more nutrients. It seems that the nitrogen, and phosphorus is coming from farm fields, and fertilisation. This happens when there is a major rain storm which picks up all of the fertilizer, garbage, and other harmful substances that cause this problem. Roads act as slides for these harmfull pollutants that all seem to lead straight to the waterways. This can be a huge problem because the more urbanisation and building that an area can go through there will be less land to suak up the harmful and destructive types algae. These blooms really screw up the water quality of chesapeake bay, they end up consuming almost all of the oxygen until there isn't any and then everything dies. This is obviously a huge problem. No body know how long that water body will withstand these torturous and extreme die offs, and blooms. According to http://www.chesapeakebay.net/blog/post/the_abcs_of_habs_how_harmful_algal_blooms_impact_the_bay residents are currently trying to drive less, upgradeing septic systems, picking up pet waste, and not useing fertilizerser on there
lawns. These could help clean up chesapeake bay because most of these problems consist of over fertilisation of the water. These excess nutrients can be found in animal waste, car pollution, fertilizer, and septic leaks.
According to https://www.epa.gov/nutrient-policy-data/causes-and-prevention The best ways to prevent these algae blooms is to target both point and nonpoint sources, even though that non point sources would be the harder because a Farm is an expample of a non point source, so that means that most of the fertilizer that woud be the problem refering to the algae blooms.
Another measure that would help is to increase water flow. This would be truly difficult in chesapeake bay due to the size, but in my opinion the approach towards the sources of runoff would be more promising. On the other hand if you where to place pumps that cycled the water in and out in large fertile areas this could minimise the amount of algae that is present in the
area.