The process where water bodies become overly enriched with nutrients, typically from fertilizer runoff, causing excessive plant and algae growth. This leads to oxygen depletion and can create dead zones.
From Greek 'eu' (well, good) and 'trophe' (nourishment), literally meaning 'well-nourished', with the suffix '-ication'. The term was introduced by German limnologist August Thienemann in the 1920s, though it became widely used in the 1960s.
Eutrophication turns clear mountain lakes into green soup! When algae blooms die and decompose, they consume so much oxygen that fish suffocate, creating a vicious cycle where the 'well-nourished' lake becomes a biological desert.
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