Tag: effects of water pollution

Biological oxygen demand (BOD) is the rate at which microorganisms in water take up oxygen. A high BOD indicates two things - there is a high level of microorganisms in the water and there is a high content of organic material in the water that is broken down by the organisms. This is an indication of organic pollution.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. Biochemical oxygen demand is the amount of oxygen required for microbial metabolism of organic compounds in water.

BOD(Biochemical Oxygen Demand) which is defined as amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. Therefore, the greater the BOD of waste water, more is its polluting potential. 

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a body of water to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period. It is used as a measure of the degree of water pollution. 

Dissolved oxygen (DO) refers to the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. It depends on the following factors:

 Oxygen enters the water through diffusion and water has the highest potential to hold oxygen. The high temperature, untreated sewage having biotoxins, hazardous waste can reduce the oxygen to an alarming level leading to the hypoxia in fishes, whereafter enduring at the maximum level they die resultantly. This occurs because the untreated sewage is rich in organic matter and microbes utilize the dissolved oxygen for the decomposition called biological oxygen demand (BOD). The more the value of BOD, the lesser will be the oxygen in the water.

Phosphate pollution in the water is directly related to the release of the untreated sewage and agriculture fertilizers into the water body. This results in excessive algal bloom that forms a thick layer on the surface of the water and prevents the sunlight and oxygen from getting into the water. As a result, the underlying aquatic animals and plants suffocate and die. When this algal bloom dies, it further enhances the eutrophication process, greatly decreasing the dissolved oxygen in the water.

BOD refers to the biological oxygen demand by the microbes to decompose the organic matter present in the water body. Oxygen enters the water through diffusion and water has the highest potential to hold oxygen. The high temperature, untreated sewage having biotoxins, hazardous waste can reduce the oxygen to an alarming level leading to the hypoxia in fishes, whereafter enduring at the maximum level they die resultantly. This occurs because the untreated sewage is rich in organic matter and microbes utilize the dissolved oxygen for the decomposition.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in simple terms is the amount of oxygen that would be used by the decomposing bacteria to decompose or break down the organic compounds in the water body. The increase in the BOD reflects that the concentration of the organic mass is tremendous and so a large amount of oxygen would be claimed by the bacteria. This results in the deficiency of the dissolved oxygen in the water and adversely affects the aquatic life due to hypoxia. So, the BOD can be defined as the measurement of the rate of oxygen utilization by a unit volume of water over a period of time.

Discharge of untreated sewage into streams which contains high quantity of nutrients induce the disproportionate growth of algae causing eutrophication which results into depletion of dissolved oxygen in the water. The continuous flow of sewage reduces the self-purification capacity of the water body. The condition of hypoxia arises due to depletion of oxygen. Increase in temperature favours the eutrophication and algal bloom is the cause of eutrophication. Depletion of oxygen is the adverse effect of the eutrophication.