Question

Use the passage to answer the question.

What does the passage offer as evidence for the claim that excess nitrogen and phosphorus damage aquatic ecosystems?

(1 point)
Responses

They make fish and other aquatic creatures grow larger and healthier.
They make fish and other aquatic creatures grow larger and healthier.

They leak into waterways and deplete oxygen.
They leak into waterways and deplete oxygen.

They make humans sick when they contaminate water supplies.
They make humans sick when they contaminate water supplies.


To feed the world and then some, farms and pastures take up a lot of space — 40 percent of all land globally is used for agriculture — and inevitably take a significant toll on the environment.

Agricultural practices generated 10 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2019. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus — standard soil nutrients found in manure or chemical fertilizers — can leak from croplands into nearby waterways and eat up the oxygen in aquatic ecosystems, sometimes killing the creatures that call them home, and even making humans sick.

Meanwhile, as the costs of fertilizer, equipment and land itself rise, “farmers have to farm more and more acres” to make ends meet, said landscape ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore. As it becomes increasingly difficult for farm operations to be profitable enough to sustain people’s livelihoods, there are fewer and fewer active farms, according to the USDA’s Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years.
They help purify the water by breaking down harmful chemicals.

Answer 1

They leak into waterways and deplete oxygen. The passage says excess nitrogen and phosphorus "can leak from croplands into nearby waterways and eat up the oxygen in aquatic ecosystems, sometimes killing the creatures that call them home."