Lakes, streams, oceans, rivers, wetlands, bays, aquifers, ponds, and estuaries are included into aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems are fragile. Aquatic ecosystems are easily disturbed by pollution. Lots of reasons/threats effect to aquatic ecosystems. Habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, deforestation, construction of canals and dams, domestic activities, industrial activities, constructions of roads and bridges, introducing invasive species, climate change, over fishing, and environmental pollution are some reasons which affect aquatic ecosystems negatively.
Recycling nutrients, purifying water, providing habitats for different species (increasing biodiversity), recharging groundwater are some functions of aquatic ecosystems. Due to lots of environmental functions are there, protecting aquatic ecosystem is important.
The ways that aquatic resources are destroyed:
Salvinia, giant salvinia, water hyacinth are some invasive plant species (related to aquatic ecosystems). Loss of habitats, loss of native species are the impacts of introducing invasive species. It is very difficult to eliminate those kinds of species. Invasive plant species such as salvinia spread throughout the surface of aquatic resource (throughout the water surface). Then sunlight is not penetrated, and other beneficial aquatic plants (beneficial to fish species) are destroyed due to they can’t continue photosynthesis. Then some fish species who depend on aquatic plants under water surface, didn’t get enough food and enough air. Proliferation of nutrients which are introduced from domestic and industrial wastes, increases the growth of algae. BOD value of aquatic resource is also increased. Eutrophication is also happened. Water is polluted, and algal bloom is happened in lakes, tanks and marine environment. Marine fish species are destroyed, due to oil leakages of ships, waste disposal, chemical disposal. Due to leaked oil float on the water surface, sunlight doesn’t penetrate to water source. Due to construction of roads and bridges, some aquatic resources such as wetlands are destroyed. Therefore, lots of aquatic species are destroyed. Fishermen of some countries drill coral to establish young lobsters, and earn money from selling them. Some fishermen practice overfishing, using small mesh size nets, dynamite, poison to catch more and more fish. It causes dying small fish which can grow further and to reduction of fish population. Even though coral is a nursery for lots of sea species, fishermen drill holes in the coral, and they are hung on a rope in sea water to make nest by small lobsters themselves. After small lobsters are established in coral, they are sold. Due to greenhouse gas emission, global warming is happened. It causes adverse climate change.
Sea water is polluted due to the waste, and oils which are released from ships. Normal fishery industry, beaches are affected due to those waste disposal, and leakages of oil from ships. When oil is floated on the sea, sunlight can’t penetrate the water surface. Water is polluted due to chemicals. Those chemicals negatively affect the aquatic species such as aquatic plants, fish, tortoises. Therefore, people should be careful, and they should be responsible to avoid malfunctions/mechanical defects of ships, and other sea vessels.
How to protect aquatic ecosystems:
Mangrove ecosystem is important at protecting aquatic ecosystem. Lots of florae and fauna species live under mangrove ecosystem. And also, Mangrove ecosystem does coastal protection, absorbing pollutants, minimizing the damage to Tsunami, stabilizing sediments, preventing erosion.
Sea grasses can be grown to protect aquatic ecosystem. Seagrasses are habitat providers, and sediment stabilizers. Seagrasses hold sand particles, and it is a good food source for green sea turtles. And also, Seagrasses are critical habitats for finfish and sea horses. Seagrasses has a high photosynthetic rate. Rules and regulations which are related to protecting aquatic species, global warming waste disposal, overfishing should be established, and should be strengthened. People’s attitude should be changed by awareness programs and other activities. Invasive species are introduced to some countries from another country. Some people have introduced some invasive species for aesthetic purposes. But later people realize the negative impact of those introduced species. Then they are too late to eliminate those invasive species. It is difficult to eliminate invasive plant species such as Salvinia, and they dominate the whole water surface. Then other aquatic plant species are vanished due to the competition for nutrients, sunlight is high. Some invasive fish species consume native species, and small species. Invasive fish species dominate that ecosystem. Then the biodiversity of the aquatic ecosystem is reduced, and the stability of the aquatic ecosystem is reduced. Lots of species such as human, birds, aquatic species depend on aquatic resources. When the water source is contaminated, and polluted, different non-communicable diseases are introduced. The beneficial insects such as dragonflies live near the clean water, and they are good predators of some harmful insects. Population of those beneficial insects is reduced due to water sources are polluted. Therefore, it is essential to protect water sources as well as aquatic species. Recycling should be practiced to minimize waste disposal. Greenhouse gas emission should be minimized by changing people’s attitudes, using filters, rules and regulations. Fishermen should be encouraged to use average mesh size nets for catching fish. When small mesh size nets are used, small fishes which can grow further, are also caught. Eggs of fish and other aquatic species are destroyed, when dynamite was used to catch fish. Even though fishermen were benefited temporarily from these methods, fish population goes down with the time. Therefore, awareness programs or other activities should be implemented to change the attitude of fishermen, to introduce sustainable methods for catching fish, and to increase the awareness of fishermen. Mangrove, coral reef should be preserved. Though government, environmentalists, societies, university students and other organizations tried to protect aquatic ecosystem, if people’s attitude is not good or their attitude is not changed, preserving aquatic ecosystem is not successful. Lots of effort have to be made to achieve the goal. And also, protecting aquatic ecosystem and environment can’t be done individually. Contribution of all the people, is essential to become successful. Therefore, different programs must be conducted to increase people awareness, and lots of efficient and effective methods should be used to increase people’s attitude before introducing other methods. Some people damage aquatic ecosystem without intention, due to lack of awareness, and they don’t know the negative impact of those things. The damage to those people can be prevented by awareness programs. But some people damage aquatic ecosystems deliberately for personal benefits, even though they have some idea about the negative impact of destroying aquatic ecosystem. Rules and regulations should be introduced to prevent those destructions. Offenders must be punishment by considerable amount of fine/penalty, and imprisonments. And also, people who protect the aquatic ecosystem, should be rewarded. Then people are encouraged, and persuaded to protect the aquatic ecosystem. Not only aquatic ecosystems, the environment can be also protected by these methods.
Conclusion:
Protecting aquatic ecosystems is important due to some aquatic systems can protect us from natural disasters. Mangrove, coral reef can reduce the effects of natural disasters such as Tsunami. Clusters of tanks absorb floods. Due to human activities, aquatic ecosystems are destroyed. Awareness programs should be conducted to improve the knowledge of people, and rules and regulations should be introduced to avoid those destructions.
By: W.I.M.Withanage
Author’s bio
I am Iresha Mihirani who is interested in writing and drawing. I create short stories, articles, scientific fictions, essays, cartoons, and doodles in my leisure time. I write to give a happiness to readers and to express a valuable idea or a message to society.
