Fertilizers+Nicole+and+Stephen

**//Fertilizer//**
Fertilizer has not always been used, but now that the population in Basgo is increasing more food needs to be produced. Plants grow at a slower pace than humans want it to, so farmers use fertilizer to make the plants grow faster. Fertilizer is chemicals that plants need to grow called nutrients. Plants have nutrients, but farmers increase the amount of nutrients so the food will grow faster. The two chemicals that the plants already have are called nitrate and phosphate. The plant uses these to grow. Some kinds of plants that don’t need fertilizer get the fertilizer from runoff after rain, and they grow too fast and become over populated like seaweed. There are few good reasons for using fertilizer and many issues. The good points are that it makes the food grow rapidly, so when there is a big population it allows the community to feed more people. The bad points are that when it rains the fertilizer gets washed away and lands in other plants that can’t have fertilizer or in a human's well. When it lands in somebody’s well they drink the water that has fertilizer in it and that is a risk of getting cancer. If the fertilizer gets washed into other plants like seaweed, they will grow and grow until they die. When they die all of the chemicals get released into other plants that live in the river. When the fertilizer gets into algae it “blooms” and when they grow to fast it is called "eutrophication". This process turns the water green and it makes it so the sun can not shine to the bottom of the river or estuary. That makes plants die and when they die the dead plants soak up all of the oxygen in the water so it kills the fish and it makes the body of water unhealthy for humans to swim in. Fertilizer also causes a problem called red tide which can kill humans if they eat any fish that was killed in the red tide. When fertilizer gets into the estuary the fish may die, the birds will drink the water with the fertilizer in it, and the phytoplankton will die because of the fertilizer. If the estuary is not protected the fertilizer will be washed into the estuary and any plants that are in the estuary will grow and take over the estuary. If the bridge is built across the estuary, people would have to protect the estuary so that the fertilizer does not get washed into the estuary. Another suggestion would be to make a buffer zone so the fertilizer would not be able to be placed close to the estuary. It would take longer for the fertilizer to reach the estuary and cause destruction of the estuary!

A little fertilizer won't kill organisms, but if a lot of fertilizer gets in the estuary it will keep organisms from reproducing. When the new developments are built like roads, factories, and bridges the builders need to keep in mind of the buffer zone when they want to grow grass!

The bad points of fertilizers are: the fertilizer can cause phytoplankton to bloom and block the light from the bottom dwellers. They also cause the water to become a murky and nasty place to swim. This happens when the rain washes the fertilizers into the ocean or other body of water. The fertilizers pass over the roads easily because there is no soil to filter it out. The good points of fertilizers are: Fertilizers can make plants grow and with the growing town of Basgo will need the extra crops and food to feed the growing population of Basgo. With more people comes more fertilizers and with that comes more problems so the people need to watch out for the fertilizers killing the fish and ecosystem. To prevent phytoplankton overgrowth the town of Basgo should put in dirt roads to filter out the fertilizers and have a buffer zone saying no fertilizers within 100 feet of the water. Since the people want to see the river and the buffer zone keeps people frome using fertilizer within 100 feet of the river the housing developments could be 200 feet away from the river.