Consequences of thermal pollution of natural water bodies. OBZhD

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Consequences of thermal pollution of natural water bodies. Basics of safe life

Fundamentals of Safe Life Activities (OBZhD)

Temperature increase in water bodies adversely affects the life of aquatic organisms. In the process of evolution, cold-blooded inhabitants of the aquatic environment have adapted to a certain temperature range. For each species there is a temperature optimum, which may change somewhat at certain stages of the life cycle. To some extent, these organisms are able to adapt to life at higher or lower temperatures. If an organism lives in conditions of the highest values of its inherent temperature range, it adapts to them so much that its death can occur at temperatures somewhat higher than for an organism that constantly lives in conditions of lower temperatures. Most aquatic organisms adapt more quickly to life in warmer water than in colder water. However, adaptability has no absolute maximum or minimum limits and varies by species.

Under natural conditions, with slow increases or decreases in temperature, fish and other aquatic organisms gradually adapt to changes in ambient temperature. But if, as a result of the discharge of hot effluents from industrial enterprises into rivers and lakes, a new temperature regime is quickly established, then there is not enough time for acclimatization, living organisms receive a heat shock and die.

Heat shock is the extreme result of thermal pollution. The discharge of heated effluents into water bodies may also have other, more serious, consequences. One of them is the effect on metabolic processes. According to Van Hoff's law, the rate of a chemical reaction doubles for every 10°C increase in temperature. Since the body temperature of cold-blooded organisms is regulated by the temperature of the surrounding aquatic environment, an increase in water temperature increases the metabolic rate of fish and aquatic invertebrates. In turn, this increases their need for oxygen. As a result of the increase in water temperature, the oxygen content in it decreases. Lack of oxygen causes severe physiological stress and even death.

In summer, an increase in water temperature by only a few degrees can cause 100% death of fish and invertebrates, especially those that live at the southern borders of the temperature range. Artificial heating of water can significantly change the behavior of fish - cause untimely spawning, disrupt migration. If the destructive power of power plants exceeds the ability of species to self-repair, the population declines.

An increase in water temperature can disrupt the structure of the underwater flora. The algae characteristic of cold water reservoirs are replaced by more heat-loving ones, and as temperatures rise, they are gradually replaced by them - up to complete disappearance.

If thermal pollution is aggravated by the entry of organic and mineral substances into the reservoir (washout of fertilizers from fields, manure from farms, domestic wastewater), the process of eutrophication occurs, i.e., a sharp increase in the productivity of the reservoir. Nitrogen and phosphorus, serving as food for algae, including microscopic ones, allow the latter to sharply increase their growth. Having multiplied, they begin to close the light to each other, as a result of which their mass death and decay occurs. The process is accompanied by an accelerated consumption of oxygen: it can be completely exhausted, and this threatens the death of the entire ecosystem.

In addition to the fact that power plants can change the habitat of aquatic organisms, they can also have a physical impact on them. Salt water used for cooling is highly corrosive to metal surfaces and causes the release of metal ions, especially copper, into the water. Shell animals accumulate copper in such quantities that they become dangerous when used as food.

All of the above consequences of thermal pollution of water bodies cause great harm to natural ecosystems and lead to a detrimental change in the human environment. Damage due to thermal pollution can be divided into several areas:

economic (losses due to a decrease in the productivity of water bodies, the cost of eliminating the consequences of pollution);
social (aesthetic damage due to landscape degradation);
environmental (irreversible destruction of unique ecosystems, extinction of species, genetic damage).

Authors: Aizman R.I., Krivoshchekov S.G.

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