Nutrient pollution of waters: eutrophication trends in European marine and coastal environments

Abstract

In the last 50 years, eutrophication (the natural or artificial nutrient enrichment of an aquatic ecosystem) has become a widespread environmental pollution problem due to the growing population, rapid urbanization of previously rural areas, and increased agricultural and livestock production. Even though this problem has particular relevance in developed countries and in areas with large populations, the implementation of intensive agriculture systems in developing zones (such as in Eastern Europe) may lead to the further propagation of the eutrophication in the coming decades. In 2004, the European Environment Agency (EEA) set out to answer to certain priority policy questions. For this purpose, it selected a small number of relevant indicators that are stable but sensitive to temporal and spatial trends. The core set of 37 indicators (referred to as CSI) covers six environmental subjects and four sectors that reflect the priorities of the EEA. In this work, the information rendered by four of the 37 selected CSI was used to assess the current state of eutrophication in European seas. The analysis showed that, despite implementation of those EU Directives aimed at improving the quality of aquatic environments, no general reduction in eutrophication has occurred. This fact emphasizes the slow recovery rate of ecosystems damaged by human actions.