plant cell Essay example

Submitted By vivhuynh
Words: 663
Pages: 3

Our idea to help protect the watersheds is to switch fertilizer to bone meal in recreational parks, playgrounds and public places during the spring time. We want to promote this by creating a campaign that not only includes information about what bone meal is, why we should switch to it and how it affects our watersheds. Bone meal is a by-product of the meat industry and is made of processed animal bones. It is a cheaper alternative in comparison to regular fertilizer and is a sustainable resource. There are both positive and negative effects when using bone meal. The watershed we are focusing on is the storm drain pond in Panorama Hills. The storm water that comes from all over the community ends up in the pond. Panorama Hills is a very recreational community; there are trails fairly close to the lake allowing you to walk your dog, most of the time they leave their dogs waste. Panorama Hills has various parks, a lot of people go to those parks and litter, and eventually their litter ends up in the pond. During the warmer months, the pond is either dried up or very murky due to the turbidity of overusing fertilizers and run off from the nearby roads. In winter time, the pond begins to freeze but the water quality is not much better. Unless there are plants inside, the rest of the pond remains black. Although bone meal includes more phosphorus than most eco-friendly fertilizers, you use less of it to get the same results. Our idea is to encourage maintenance workers to switch to bone meal in the spring time because plants absorb bone meal at a slower rate than regular fertilizers, thus using less and getting the same results. Most people use an excess of fertilizer in the spring resulting in runoff that is rich in phosphorous, nitrogen, and potassium. An abundance of phosphorus causes eutrophication in our watersheds. Eutrophication is when there is too much phosphorus in a body of water, causing the algae bloom inside to grow and die rapidly. With all the dead algae on the surface of the water, no sunlight can enter. Without sunlight in the water, it decreases the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. Without the proper amount of dissolved oxygen in a body of water, organisms cannot survive. Since bone meal uses excess materials in the meat industry that would otherwise go to waste, therefore you’re reusing it and not producing another unnecessary product.
Organic fertilizers are formed from natural resources, such as manure, blood, and compost, as well as bone. These are all the excess products that come