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Discuss the purpose of fertilizers, and determine the difference between fertilizer and organic matter.
Fertilizers are used to maintain soil fertility, this allows farmers to continue to grow nutritious and healthy crops, many farmers use fertilizers because they contain plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In this case, organic matter is organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer is fertilizer extracted from animal matter, human excreta, or vegetable matter. Organic fertilizers include animal wastes from meat processing, peat, manure, slurry, and guano. Whereas fertilizer, or inorganic fertilizer is chemically created, it is a commercial fertilizer mined from mineral deposits or manufactured from synthetic compounds. They can be made from petroleum or natural gas, they are not derived naturally from animals.
Mechanism of leaching of fertilizers into water sources (how it occurs) and effect of it.
Water from rain, flooding, or other sources of excess water seep into the ground and dissolve the chemicals in the ground from fertilizers into an underground water supply. For instance, soils do not absorb excess nitrogen in fertilizers so the nitrogen moves downward freely with drainage water, and are leached into groundwater, streams and oceans. Leaching can cause the water being leached into to become very toxic, for instance, chemical invasion of fertilizers in water damage reservoirs of human sources of water, through the leaching of chemical in fertilizers into the water supply.
Algal Bloom, decomposition and the effect on biochemical oxygen demand (why is it negative)
Algal Bloom- algal bloom is the rapid increase of algae in an aquatic system. They can occur in freshwater and marine environments. The algae grow out of control and cover the top of bodies of water, this produces toxic effects on people, fish, and birds. These algae produce toxins which are consumed by the fish, this creates a higher concentration of the toxin and eventually humans consume the toxin when eating fish. The algae also cover the sunlight for animals that live near the top of the water and need sunlight, this causes those animals to die off and in turn, it kills of the rest of the animals in that specific body of water. The algal bloom causes many organisms in the specific body of water to die off, the decaying organisms are decomposed by tiny microorganisms, this process of decomposition requires an abundance of oxygen, this takes away oxygen from larger organisms in the water. Biochemical oxygen demand is the quantity of oxygen used by microorganisms, algal blooms increase the oxygen demand because as the algae begin to die they use up the oxygen for decomposition, this is negative because it takes from the oxygen supply which is for the larger organisms such as fish.
Government regulations on fertilizers (In Canada)
Canada has accepted the Fertilizer program
Fertilizer Program- all fertilizers must be safe for plants, animals, humans, the environment. Safety tests are performed on each product of fertilizer, this to search for contaminants. All fertilizers on the market must be monitored for product guarantees. The entire program is based on the safety of fertilizers so the effect of leaching will be little to none.
Alternative technologies used in place for fertilizers
Alternatives include:
Bone Meal- made from ground bones of animals, it is a product of the meat processing industry. It is very high in phosphorous and calcium, which is ideal for fertilizers.
Cottonseed Meal- it is slightly acidic and it contains a nitrogen-to-phosphorus-to-potassium of 7-3-2, this ideal for fertilization. It is ideal for acid loving plants and it should be mixed into the soil of acid loving plants because that is where it is most effective.
Bat Guano- It is bat feces, it is available in powder form at various garden centres. It is high in nitrogen and phosphorous which is ideal for fertilizers.
Composted Manure- This is the complete fertilizer, but the NPK ratio depends on what animal it is derived from, it is very high in fresh manures which is good, the only downfall is that it is the most expensive.