ISSN 2277-7729 Review Article EUTROPHICATION IN LENTIC SYSTEMS 

AND ITS IMPACT ON FISHERIES 

Roy, K.1*, Chari, M.S.2and Gaur, S.R.3 1*Research scholar.Department of Fisheries, College of Agriculture, 
Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur 492012, [email protected] cell: 
+919039412263. 2,3Professor. Department of Fisheries, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi 
Vishwavidyalaya. 
Received 25 November 2013; accepted 15 December 2013 Abstract Water 
eutrophication has become a worldwide environmental problem in recent years, and understanding the mechanisms 
of water eutrophication will help for prevention and remediation of water eutrophication. In this paper, recent 
advances in current status and major mechanisms of water eutrophication, assessment and evaluation criteria, and 
the influencing factors were reviewed. Water eutrophication in ponds, lakes, reservoirs, estuaries and rivers is 
widespread all over the world and the severity is increasing, especially in the tropical countries like India. The major 
influencing factors on water eutrophication include nutrient enrichment, hydrodynamics, environmental factors such 
as temperature, salinity, carbon dioxide, element balance, etc., and microbial biomass. The occurrence of water 
eutrophication is actually a complex function of all the possible influencing factors.Eutrophication can cause 
problems such as bad taste and odour in fishes captured from such waters. Sometimes it leads to the death of all 
forms of life in water bodies. Eutrophication increases the growth and age structure of planktivorous fish 
populations in peculiar cases. 
©  2013  Universal  Research  Publications.  All  rights 
reserved  Keywords:  Eutrophication,Mechanisms,  Influencing  factors,  Nutrient  enrichment,  Assessment  criteria, 
Water quality, Harmfulness. 
1. Introduction Water eutrophication is one of the most challenging environmental problems in the world. The 
increasing severity of water eutrophication has been brought to the attention of both the governments and the public 
in recent years. The mechanisms of water eutrophication are not fully understood, but excessive nutrient loading into 
surface water system is considered to be one of the major factors (Fang et al., 2004; Tong et al., 2003). The nutrient 
level of many lakes and rivers has increased dramatically over the past 50 years in response to increased discharge 
of domestic wastes and from agricultural practices and urban development (Mainstone and Parr2002). Nutrient 
enrichment, especially phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N), has beenconsidered as a major threat to the health of water 
bodies (Andersen et al., 2004). Once a water body is eutrophicated, it will lose its primary functions. The main 
purpose of this paper is to provide a brief review on recent advances on understanding the mechanisms of water 
eutrophication and progresses in identifying the influence factors inducing water eutrophication. 2. Water 
eutrophication – Definition and Meaning Lakes and estuaries accumulating large amounts of plant 
nutrients  are  called  ―eutrophic‖  (from  the  Greek  words  eu  meaning  ―well‖  and  trophe 
meaning―nourishment‖).  Eutrophication  can  be  defined  as  the  sum  of  the  effects  of  the  excessive  growth  of 
phytoplanktons  leading  to  imbalanced  primary  and  secondary  productivity  and  a  faster  rate  of  succession  from 
existence  to  higher  serial  stage,  as  caused  by  nutrient  enrichment  through  runoffs  that  carry  down  overused 
fertilizers  from  agro-ecosystems  and/or  discharged  human  waste  from  settlements  (Khan  and  Ansari,  2005). Water 
eutrophication  can  be  greatly  accelerated  by human activities that increase the rate of nutrient input in a water body, 
due  to  rapid  urbanization,  industrialization  and  intensifying  agricultural  production.  For  lake  aquatic  ecosystems, 
human  activities  in  the  watershed  can  lead  high  nutrient  turnover,  high  porosity of nutrients and sediments, and the 
loss  of  productivity  (Liu  and  Qiu,  2007).  For  example,  aquaculture  is  one  of many human activities contributing to 
the  environmental  decline  of  natural  water  bodies  and  the  collapse  of  fisheries  stocks  worldwide  (Alongi  et  al., 
2003).  Because  of  the  influence  of  several  human  activities,  excessive  nitrogen,  phosphorus and other nutrients are 
loaded into water bodies like lake, reservoirs, embouchure and bay,which could cause 
170 International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture 2013; 3(4): 170-175 

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in Fisheries and Aquaculture 
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algal negative ecological consequenceson aquatic ecosystem 
chlorophyll, water transparency and dissolved 
structures, processes and functions,result in the fast growth 
oxygen. Although there are many different 
assessment of algae and otherplankton, and deteriorate water quality 
parameters, the concentrations of total nitrogen and 
(Western, 2001). Water eutrophication is caused by the 
phosphorus are the two basic ones (CNEPA, 
2002).The autotrophic algae blooming in water,which composes its 
available parameters concerned include total 
nitrogen(TN), bioplasm by solar energy andinorganic substances through 
total phosphorus (TP), Chlorophyll-a, 
dissolvedoxygen photosynthesis. Inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus are the 
(DO), chemical oxygen demand by K2MnO 
4 
ox
idation major control factors for the propagation of algae, 
method (COD 
Mn 
), biological oxygen demand(BOD 
5 
especially phosphorus(Richardson et al., 2007). 3. Assessment of water eutrophication – Physical and Chemical 
evaluation Surface water quality guidelines have been improved in recent years.Five classes of surface water quality 
have been set up and some selected parameters for assessing water quality of lakes or reservoirs are shown in Table 
1. However there are no perfect evaluation criteria for assessing water eutrophication. Generally the physical and 
chemical evaluation parameters were used to assess water eutrophication, mainly nutrient concentration (N and P), 
), etc.(Cheng and Li, 2006). Table 2 shows the critical values of TN, TP, TNI and primary productivity in various 
eutrophicated water. It has been shown that theeutrophication or red/green tide occurs when N concentration in 
water reaches 300 μg/L and P concentration reaches 20 μg/L. Richardson et al.(2007) reported that exceeding TP 
threshold concentration of 15 μg/L causes an ecological imbalance in algal, macrophyte and macro invertebrate 
community structure. Therefore it is considered that a buffering zone (12~15 μg/L) of TP may be more realistic and 
protective for all trophic levels. Table 1: Classification of surface water quality for lakes or reservoir (CNEPA, 
2002) 
Items 
Surface water quality classification Class I Class II Class III Class IV Class V pH 6.0-7.0 7-7.5 7.5-8.0 8.0-8.5 
8.5-9.0 DO (mg/L) Near saturation ≥6 ≥5 ≥3 ≥2 COD 
Mn 
(mg/L) ≤2 ≤4 ≤6 ≤10 ≤15 BOD 
5 
(mg/L) ≤3 ≤3 ≤4 ≤6 ≤10 TN (mg/L) ≤0.2 ≤0.5 ≤1 ≤1.5 ≤2 NH 
3 
-N (mg/L) ≤0.15 ≤0.5 ≤1 ≤1.5 ≤2.0 NO 
2 
-N (mg/L) ≤0.06 ≤0.1 ≤0.15 ≤1 ≤1 TP (mg/L) ≤0.01 ≤0.025 ≤0.05 ≤0.1 ≤0.2 Chlorophyll a ≤0.001 ≤0.004 ≤0.01 ≤0.03 
≤0.65 Transparency (m) ≥15 ≥4 ≥2.5 ≥1.5 ≥0.5 Escherichia coli (L−1) ≤200 ≤2000 ≤10000 ≤20000 ≤40000 DO: 
dissolved-oxygen; COD 
Mn 
: Chemical oxygen demand by K 
2 
MnO 
4 
oxidation method; BOD 
5 
: Biological 
oxygen demand; TN: Total nitrogen; TP: Total phosphorus. Table 2: Critical values of N and P in various 
eutrophicated water (Richardson et al., 2007) 
Eutrophic status TP (μg/L) TN (μg/L) Primary productivity (mg C/m2/day) Oligotrophic water 5-10 250-600 5-300 
Mesotrophic water 10-30 500-1100 300-1000 Eutrophic water 30-100 1000-2000 >1000 Hypereutrophic water >100 
>2000 >1000 
3.1. Biological assessment of eutrophication – A new approach A set of ecological indicators including structural, 
functional and system-level aspects were proposed for a lake ecosystem health assessment according to the 
responses of lake ecosystems to chemical stresses like acidification, eutrophication, andcopper, oil and pesticide 
contamination. The structural indicators included phytoplankton cell size and biomass, zooplankton body size and 
biomass, speciesdiversity, macro- and micro- zooplankton biomass, thezooplankton/phytoplankton ratio, and the 
macrozooplankton/microzooplankton ratio.The functional indicators encompassed the algal C assimilation ratio, 
resource use efficiency, community production, gross 
production/respiration (i.e., P/R) ratio, gross production/ standing crop biomass (i.e., P/B) ratio, and standing crop 
biomass/unit energy flow (i.e., B/E) ratio. The ecosystem level indicators consisted of ecological buffer capacities, 
energy, and structural energy (Xuet al., 2001). 4. Influencing factors of water eutrophication Water eutrophication is 
mainly caused by excessive loading of nutrients into water bodies like N and P. Excessive nutrients come from both 
point pollution sources such as waste water from industry and municipal sewage and non- point pollution sources 
like irrigation water, surface run water containing fertilizer from farmland, etc. The basic cause of water 
eutrophication is more connected to an imbalance in the load of nitrogen and phosphorus with 
171 International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture 2013; 3(4): 170-175 
 
respect to silica (Dauvinet al., 2007). At present, excessive TN and TP in water are considered as the only factors 
inducing water eutrophication. Rather, nutrient enrichment is only the necessary but not the sufficient condition for 
algal boom. Other influencing factors of water eutrophication include: slow current velocity, adequate temperature, 
other favorable environmental factors, microbial activity and biodiversity (Li and Liao, 2002). 4.1. Nutrient 
enrichment There are different opinions on the relationship of nutrient enrichment to water eutrophication and algal 
bloom: (1) When P concentration in water is low, it may be the limiting factor for inducing water eutrophication and 
algal bloom; (2) When P concentration in water increases rapidly, other may become a new limiting factor, such as 
pH, water depth, temperature, light, wave, wind or other biological factors; (3) The influence of N and P still lasts 
for a longer time because of the high development level of our society (Zhao,2004). The ―experienced molecular 
formula‖ of alga is as ―C algae. 106 
H 
N 263 
and O 
110 
P N 
are 16 
P‖ the based two elements on the chemical which account components for least of 
proportion in the molecular formulaof algae, especially P; it is the main limiting factor to control the growth of alga 
in water (Mainstone and Parr, 2002). It was reported that 80% lake and reservoir eutrophication is restricted by 
phosphorus, about10% lake and reservoir eutrophication is relative to nitrogen, and the rest 10% lake and reservoir 
eutrophication is relative to other factors (Zhao, 2004). In many ecosystems, phytoplankton biomass is correlated 
with the availability of N or P (Cloern 2001; Bledsoe et al., 2004). The composition of phytoplankton species is also 
affected by the concentrations of N and P (Reynolds, 2006).The ratio of N:P in the water body (referred to as the 
―Redfield ratio‖) is an important indicator of eutrophication. If the Redfield ratio is 16:1 or more, P is most likely 
the limiting factor for algal growth and lower ratios indicate that N is of great importance (Redfield et 
al.,1963;Hodgkiss and Lu, 2004). P has been shown to be the principal limiting nutrient for primary production of 
phytoplankton in many freshwater environments (Phlips, 2002), while N is commonly limiting in marine ecosystems 
(Cloern, 2001).However, there are many exceptions to this general pattern. The variations in the chemical 
composition of natural waters are believed to be an important factor in regulating the abundance, composition, 
geographical and periodic distribution of phytoplankton. It has been considered that the growth of phytoplankton is 
influenced by dissolved silicate-Si (DSi) concentration in water and its ratio to nitrate (Turner et al., 2003). 4.2. 
Hydrodynamics There is no relationship between water disturbance and algal occurrence or its scale, but water 
disturbing can influence the growth periphytic algae because their blooms grow in relatively stable water. Cai et 
al.(2007) found that when there is no water to dilute, disturbing water itself can influence the process of 
eutrophication and species succession, which is not related to disturbing water itself but is influenced indirectly by 
changing light and nutrient 
172 International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture 2013; 3(4): 170-175 
status. In shallow water, increased frequency of disturbance could increase the P release from the sediment, 
especially at high temperatures (Cai et al., 2007). 4.3. Other environmental factors In many moderately 
eutrophicated water bodies, algal bloom occurs in some seasons or some years when the environmental conditions 
are favorable. The influence of some of these factors is discussed as follows: 4.3.1. Temperature Temperature 
induces alga bloom. Alga bloom always occurs at temperature between 23 °C and 28 °C. Statistical analysis shows 
that the influence of temperature on algal growth rate is the largest.The process of sporangium formation and 
bursting is hypersensitive to temperature. Under adequate temperature, it can propagate largely and alga bloom will 
form very fast (Wang et al., 1996). 4.3.2. Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide level is one of major factors controlling 
water eutrophication. Cyanophytes are more capable of utilizing levels of carbon dioxide and become more buoyant 
at low levels of carbon dioxide and high pH. Some species produce dense mats of vegetation, inhibit the growth of 
other phytoplankton and also limit the swimming of zooplankton. The reduction of light reaching the lake floor also 
inhibits submerged and rooted macrophytes, and sediments become anoxic as large amounts of planktonic biomass 
are added to them (Kant and Raina, 1990). The fluctuations in free carbon dioxide values correspond directly with 
the fluctuation in the standing crop of phytoplankton. As the diversity and density of phytoplanktons increase 
through various months, the amount of free carbon dioxide for photosynthetic activity becomes limiting. The pH 
changes in these ponds are governed by the amount of free carbon dioxide, carbon trioxide, and bicarbonate (Kant 
and Raina, 1990). 4.3.3. Light Light plays an important role in the growth, diversity and density of aquatic flora. 
Algal growth has been reported to increase with light intensity, and luminescence of 4000 lux was found most 
favorable (Shen, 2002). As eutrophication progresses, a decline of submerged macrophytes occur in many shallow 
water bodies, probably due to low light intensity caused by algal blooming.The light has been almost completely 
absorbed by the plankton of the top few meters, so that too little light penetrates to the thermocline and beyond to 
support photosynthesis (Ni et al., 1999). 4.3.4. pH and Dissolved oxygen There are other factors like pH and 
dissolved oxygen affecting water eutrophication (Khan and Ansari, 2005). The minima and maxima in the 
concentration of dissolved oxygen are found to be directly related to the maxima and minima of the phytoplankton. 
The direct relationship between phytoplankton and dissolved oxygen content has been observed by a number of 
researchers (Khan and Ansari, 2005). pH is a plant growth limiting factor. The change in pH is directly related to the 
availability and absorption of nutrients from solution. Ionization of electrolytes or the valence numbers of different 
ion species are influenced by changes in pH.High pH values promote the growth of phytoplankton and result in 
bloom 
 
(Howarthet al.,2000). 4.4. Microbial biomass Microbial activity is the inducement factor toalga bloom (Paerl, 1998; 
Paerlet al., 2003). It can enhance abundant breeding of alga bloom. Nutrient enhanced microbial production of 
organic matter, or eutrophication, is frequently accompanied by altered microbial community structure and function 
(Paerl, 1998). The amount of microbial biomass is positively related to the content of organic matter and the amount 
of plankton in eutrophicated water. There exists certain intrinsic relationship between the amount of bacteria and the 
occurrence of eutrophication. The decomposition of organic matter by bacterial activities can produce nutrients and 
organic substances, which may promote algal bloom (Watson and Ormerod, 2004). 5. Harmful effects of water 
eutrophication Water eutrophication disturbs the intrinsic equilibrium of the aquatic ecosystem and lead to the 
damage of the water ecosystem with gradual degeneration of its functions. As a result it can affect water quality and 
make transparency of water become worse. Thus little sunlight can penetrate water body and photosynthesis of 
plants under thewater will be weakened or even stopped. Water eutrophication can also cause the super-saturation or 
lack of dissolved oxygen in water, which will be stressful to aquatic animals and may cause death. Eutrophic 
systems tend to accumulate large amounts of organic carbon (Dell′Annoet al., 2002). Meanwhile due to water 
eutrophication, a mass of algae, mainly Cyanophyta and Chlorophyta, bloom and form a thick layer of ―green 
scum‖ on water surface. Algae can release toxins, consumes dissolved oxygen and render the organic matters in 
water to be decomposed into harmful gases, which will poison the fish/shellfish. The harmfulness of eutrophication 
also causes the shortage of drinking water source by degrading water quality. When the blooming algae die, they 
produce lots of algal toxin which is harmful to human health. Cyanobacterial toxins (cyanotoxins) include 
cytotoxins and biotoxins which are responsible for lethal, acute, chronic and sub-chronic poisonings of 
wild/domestic animals and humans. The biotoxins include the neurotoxins; anatoxins, saxitoxins, hepatotoxins, 
microcystins, nodularins and cylindrospermopsins (Carmichael, 2001). 6. Impact of eutrophication on the fisheries 
production of lentic systems – A contradictory case Eutrophication can cause problems such as bad tasteand odour 
in fishes captured from such waters. Sometimes it leads to the death of all forms of life in water bodies. On the other 
hand, it has also been reported that eutrophication increases the growth and age structure of planktivorous fish 
populations (ICAR, 2011).The increase in total catches incyprinid and silurid populations together with the decrease 
in percid, clupeid and salmonidis a well documented phenomenon in the eutrophic patches of rivers and reservoirs 
(Colby et al. 1972; Svärdson and Molin 1981; Persson et al. 1991). Organic matter depositing from the increased 
phytoplankton crops promotes oxygen consumption in the hypolimnion, causing even anaerobic conditions in lakes, 
reservoirs and tanks. A deoxygenated 
173 International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture 2013; 3(4): 170-175 
hypolimnion excludes some fish groups such as percid, clupeid and salmonid, as they are intolerant of such 
situations. Fish tolerant of higher temperatures and lower oxygen concentrations may increase in production 
(Lappalainen, 1996). Usually in shallow lakes, dense algal growth out-competes the original aquatic plant beds. This 
means a loss of living habitats for young fish and a loss of spawning habitats for species that attach their eggs to 
aquatic plants. The abundance of large invertebrates living on plants, such as snails and insect nymphs, is also much 
curtailed, reducing the amount of suitable food for many larger carnivorous fishes. Such extreme conditions may be 
less favourable for cyprinids, too (Moss 1980).Changesin the physical environment induced by eutrophication such 
as decrease in submerged vegetation,increase in turbidity could affect thecompetitive interactions predator and prey, 
especially carnivorous fishes (Persson, 1983; Diehl, 1988). Cyprinids are able to feed efficiently at low light 
intensities and evenin darkness, whereas silurids, percids, clupeids and salmonids are visual hunters as they are 
dependent on vision (Diehl, 1988).Some highly eutrophic waterbodies also tend to produce large populations of 
stunted pan fish. This may be the result of inadequate predation onthese fish arising from the inability of predators to 
see them due to increased turbidity from planktonic algae and suspended sediment (Lee et. al., 2012). 7. Future 
suggestions The limited knowledge of water eutrophication processes will add difficulties for the prevention and 
remediation of water bodies. Therefore, more researches should be turned to the mechanisms of water eutrophication 
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Source of support: Nil; Conflict of interest: None declared 

175 International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture 2013; 3(4): 170-175