ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION OF LAKES AOT) PONDS 

 A Review of the Literature 



PREFACE 



One of the primary factors limiting the productive capacity of a 

 body of water is the quantity of available nutrients which form basic 

 materials for structure and growth of living organisms. Fertilization 

 techniques attenpt to supply these nutrients in optimal quantities, there- 

 by overcoming natural chemical deficiencies and shifting limitations of 

 productivity to other factors. Aquatic fertilization is as ancient as pisci- 

 culture. The Chinese reputedly fertilized carp ponds more than 2,000 years 

 agOj developirgthe process as an art rather than as a science. Through the 

 intervening years, culture-pond enrichment apparently existed as an off- 

 spring of agronomy, but recent scientific work has shown that the two fertil- 

 ization processes (agricultural and aqui cult 'oral) are not homologous because 

 of differences in the very nature of land and water. Aquatic fertilization 

 undoubtedly hasmerit in raising productive levels^, else it could not have 

 survived to the present state of development „ 



Artificial aquatic enrichment has been limited mainly to standing water^ 

 but a few reports on brackish water and stream fertilization have appeared 

 in the literature. Huntsman (19li8) , for example, succeeded in increasing the 

 abundance of plants and numbers of fish in a Nova Scotian stream with inor- 

 ganic fertilizers. Admittedly, the barren state of the stream provided an 

 excellent background for the experiment. However, these few isolated reports 

 of stream enrichment have been largely trial and error, and do not provide 

 sufficient information for adequate treatment of the subject, A great deal 

 remains to be learned about the enrichment of standing water before a sound 

 approach can be made to the fertilization of lotic habitats. Therefore, 

 the following report concerns only lenitic fresh water and the complexities 

 that relate to its artificial enrichment. 



INTRODUCTION 



The three essentials for protoplasmJ.c growth are light, heat, and raw 

 materials. Natural enrichment, the source of raw materials, occurs to a 

 certain degree in every body of water, by decomposition of organic matter 

 produced within the environment, by ion exchanges between water and sedi= 

 ments, and by nutrient increases from affluents carrying minerals and 

 humus leached out of the surrounding soils. Artificial fertilization, an 

 accessory to these natural proccesses, is a human-controlled operation 

 concerned with the addition of natural or manufactured fertilizers and 

 directed toward the increased production of fish. 



