Types of Pollution

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Nonpoint source pollution

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Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single, specific site

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Point source pollution

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Pollution that comes from a specific site

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Chemical pollution

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Introduction of toxic substances into the ecosystem (such as medication that was flushed down the drain improperly)

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Thermal pollution

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Varying temperatures above or below the normal temperature (water heated from a power plant)

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Organic pollution

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Oversupplying an ecosystem with nutrients (fertilizer runoff)

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Ecological pollution

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Stresses caused by natural processes

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Types of ecological pollution

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1) Adding a substance not usually found in that location (like extremely high tides bringing salt water into a freshwater river)

2) Increasing the amount of a substance that is usually found there naturally (lots of rain brings a lot of sediments in runoff into a river)

3) Changing the amount of something that was already there (bird droppings add more of a certain aquatic plant to an area)

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Turbidity

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A measure of how clear water is

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Salinity

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A measure of the amount of dissolved salts in a given amount of liquid

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pH

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How acidic or alkaline the water is