01/23/2009

Monday: List of at least 5 journals that have aquatic topics

• Water quality

• Water pollution

• Water resources

• Lake management

Water quality

• Pure and essential character

• Utility of the water

○ Drinking water

○ Industry

○ Agriculture

Water pollution

• Human caused deviation from the norm that degrades its use
• Impairment of the suitability of water for any of its benifitial uses

(actual or potential) by human caused changes in the quality of the

water

Types of pollution

• Thermal

• Chemical

○ Toxins/metals

○ Nutrients

• Organic matter

• Sediment

• Pathogens

Point-source pollution

• Pollution that can be traced to a specific source

• Examples: storm water and sewer pipe

Non Point source pollution

• Agriculture

• Mining

• Forestry

Water quality criteria

• Value or limit associated that elicit a response

Water quality standards

• Criteria taken and done via rule making to establish requirements

• No human activity can result in an increase of ambient water

temperature by more than 5 degrees.

• No drop in oxygen by more than 5mg

• Done to assure criteria are met

 01/23/2009

1956 – Federal Water Pollution Control Act (first significant water

quality legislation)

• First attempt of the federal government to address water pollution

nationally

• Construction grants for sewage treatment facilities

• 5-year grants for research and planning for water quality control

• Federal Water Pollution Control Federation established (Cincinnati,

Ohio)

• Network established to collect water quality data

1965 – Water Quality Act

• Required states to develop and submit qater quality standards for

its interstate water and tributaries. And the federal government was

empowered to review and accept/reject states’ water quality

standards

• More $$ for treatment facilities, construction and technical

assistance
 01/23/2009

1972 – Federal water Pollution Control Act (earlier laws did not

address interastate waters and agriculture was not covered, modified several

times since).

• Section 101 – ambitious objective to restore and maintain the

chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nations waters.

○ Federal $ provided for treatment

○ Area-wide waste treatment management planning

○ $ for research and demonstration

○ Nodischarge into navigable waters

○ Fishable and swimmable waters by 1983 (since modified)

○ Prohibited discharge of toxic pollutants

• Section 303 – Water Quality Standards and Implementation Plants

(completed)

○ Required states to submit standards for EPA approval that

meet or exceed national standards

○ Continuous planning

• Section 304 – Information and Guidelines

 01/23/2009

○ Requires EPA to supply state agencies with guidelines for

identifying and evaluating the nature and extent of non-point

source pollutants

○ Established processes, procedures and methods to control

pollution resulting from non-point activities (agriculture,

forestry, mining)

• Section 402 – National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

(NPDES)

○ Permits required for discharge of pollutants

○ States develop their own programs that are approved by EPA

○ States must submit permit applications and recommendations

to EPA

• Section 404 – permits for Dredge and Fill Materials (wetland

protection included)

• Section 208 – Area-wide Waste Treatment Management

○ Designate problem areas

○ Continued planning and funding for non-point source control

 01/23/2009

• Section 315 – Clean Lakes

○ On a biennial basis each state must submit to EPA an

identification and classification of all publically owned lakes

○ Must describe procedures for pollution control

○ Must list lakes that do not meet water quality standards

○ Must assess trends in water quality

• Section 319 – non-point source management program (emphasis

on BMP = best management practices)

○ Where most comes from

Overally, greater federal power to set and enforce standards (inter and

intrastate). Plus, specifically addresses non-point pollution. Law has been

modified many times to adjust to scientific concerns and technology

 01/23/2009

2/3 of water that falls is transported elsewhere

Brazil 20% of global water

Residence time is how long a drop of water stays in a body of water

Ocean = 2,500 years

Atmosphere = 8 days

Streams/Rivers = 1 month

Lakes = depends on depth

Infiltration capacity

• Depends on

○ Amount of water already in soil

○ Type of landscape

 Wal-mart parking lot (will not infiltrate)

 Vegetation present

 Surface flow

• Figure 5-4 (runoff)

○ Rising limb
 01/23/2009

 Mostly surface runoff

 Dust, “urban slober”

 Picks up things

○ Falling limb

 Less surface runoff

 More subsurface flow

 Deposits things
 01/23/2009

○ Results

 Bar configuration changes

 Sand bars move

 Changed water chemistry (on decending limb)

Figure 5-2

• Clearcutting makes rain more of a problem

Figure 1.10

• Floodplain: when river hits peak flow and goes into floodplan it

spreads nutrients into the floodplain as well as collecting the

organic matter from the floodplains back into the river

• “reach” of a river

○ encompasses pools and riffles

 riffles

 where bedrock/gravel deposits make water go at

low flow as it travels over bedrock

 very little sand and clay

 01/23/2009

 Pool

 Zone of scour, deposits materials in it

Stream order classification

• 1, channel, doesn’t always have water

• 2, where two headwater streams come together

• 3, where two second order streams come together

• 4, (hinkson)

4x as many 1st order as 2nd etc etc

direct relationship between length of stream and order

on world scale, very few 8th order/ 9th order streams

Move from forested to impervious surfaces

• Decreased deep infiltration (i.e. aquifer refill) from 25% to 5%

• Increased runoff from 10% to 55%

• Decreased evapo-transpiration 40% to 30%

 01/23/2009

Ecosystem

• Def: Where chemicals cycles and energy flows within various

compartments

• Boundries?

○ There aren’t but it depends on what scope you want to use

○ Watershed is best use of limits

• Ecosystem obeys laws of thermodynamics

○ Lake Tahoe basin

 Ship food in

• Structure

○ Physical setting

○ Organization

 Food web

 Native community

 Introductions

 Exotics
 01/23/2009

○ Function

 How energy is transferred

 Green Plant Food Chain/Web

• Upland

○ Grass

 Bunny

 Coyote

• Primary

○ Herbivore

 Carnivore

 Lake

• Sun and nutrients (nitrogen and

phosphorous) lead to
 01/23/2009

- Primary producers

○ Algae (vary in size remarkably)

○ Macrophytes

○ Periphyton (attached algae)

- Herbivores

 Macroinvertebrates

 Zooplankton

 Water fleas

 Filtration feeders

 Fish

- Carnivores

 Bass

 Birds

Autochthonous energy

• Nutrients N + P > Primary > H > C > C

 01/23/2009

○ All contribute to dead OM which returns as N and P

watershed, nutrient cycling

○ Some herbivores also eat dead organic matter

• Bacteria are taking C-C-C and O2 and offputting CO2.

• Allochthonous energy

○ Energy produced outside the ecosystem and is transported in

as dead organic matter

○ Example:

 corn stock floating to a reservoir

 Decaying organic carbon

 Hog waste pool

○ Human impacts

 Organic carbon additions

 Add fish species

 Fertilizer runoff
 01/23/2009

○ We depend on nutrient income from year to year in order to

have primary production

○ Wet/dry year affects organic productivity

 Dry year could have 1/3 of organic production wet year

has

• How do lakes get on landscape?

○ Glacier

 Carves it out

 Huge chunks of ice breaking off being left behind

 Melting

 Caved in “kettle lake”

 Raisin cookie without the cookie

○ Oxbow lakes

○ Volcano lakes

 Alaska

 Indonesia
 01/23/2009

○ Dams

 4k year history

○ Landslide lakes

○ Techtronic lakes

 Lake Tahoe

 Faults cause movements

○ Sinkhole

 Karst topography

 Erodes out, limestone, collapses

○ Wind activity

 Playa lakes

 Nebraska sandhill lakes

Lake names

• Margin of lake is littoral

• Benthic is bottom

• Perfundal is near bottom

 01/23/2009

• Pelegic

• Trophogenic

○ Enough light for green plant production

 P/R > 1

 R is respiration

 P is production

 This level is determined by

 Water clarity

• Which is determined by density of algo cells

• Clay materials/ suspended particles

• Color

 Determines depth of light

 Hoping Production exceeds respiration

• Tropholytic

○ Example being ocean floor

○ Depends on rain of organic matter from surface

 01/23/2009

○ Below trophogenic

○ P/R < 1

• Light

○ Some bounces off

○ Some enters body of water

 Some of this scatters

 Some taken in by algae

 Absorption

 DOC

 (color)

 absorbs light

○ Long wavelengths absorbed in upper centimeters

 Thus warmer

○ Decrease in light with depth

Light meter reading

 01/23/2009

• One meter, half the light is gone

• 2 meters, half of that half if gone (25% of surface)

• etc

O -------------------100% 

(Z)

• Productivity is a surface phenomena

○ Light decreases exponentially in a lake

• Long wavelengths of light heat the lake but they are gone within a

couple centimeters

○ Wind energy distributes it

○ Mixed water column

 01/23/2009

○ Infrared molecules are absorbed at the surface

Color

• Green, nutrients, algae cells, Dissolved organic carbon absorbs blue

• Blue, less nutrients, etc

• Brown lakes: suspended clay

Water molecule

• Dipole molecule

• H+ H+

• O- (covalently bonded) to self, hydrogen bonded to each other

• break bonds to go from ice to water

○ ice tends to be fairly pure of chemicals compared to lake

water

○ add of heat stenches hydrogen bonds

Density
 01/23/2009

temp (see handout)

4 degrees C is max density of water

beyond that hydrogen bonds are stretched which makes less hydrogen

bonds in a given area

ice floats because perfect tetrahedral

cold water sinks

warm goes to surface

Why does lake look blue? (test question)

Figure 3-4

Iced over lake

 01/23/2009

1 meter ice

15%

depth

4 degrees

Melting

• Lake warms incrementally (spring overturn)

• 4,5,6,7

• sunny and not to winding will cause heat energy to not mix all the

way to the bottom

○ determined by

 depth

 color of water

 clear absorb more heat

 hills/orientation of lake in relation to wind direction

 01/23/2009

○ See figure 4-1

 Mixed water, above curve is called

 Epilimnion

 Metalimnion

• Also called Thermocline

 Hypolimnion

 In high temperatures a secondary thermocline can form

 Can effect algae

 Uv light destroying cells etc

 In early fall/ late summer

 Stratified lake

 Cooling of epilimnion

 Deepen epilimnion until thermal stratification is

eradicated

 Cool bottom to 4 degrees, cool surface, creates

ice

○ This kind of lake is called dimictic

 01/23/2009

 Winter stratification, cold over warm water

 Spring overturn, mixed

 Summer, warm over cold water

 Fall overturn then repeat

 North are usually dimictic

 South they usually are monometic

• Only stratified summer

• Rest of the year it mixes without ice cover

Inflow

• Most lakes have around 28-32C temp in summer

• inflow comes in cold and will sink to bottom water column or

interflow

• cold water sinks

Oxygen
 01/23/2009

• Mirrors productivity of lake

• Top of lake -------

• P/R (sent down lake as organic matter)

• O2

• O2 decreases with depth

○ Depletion of O2 relates to increase of organic matter

○ Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water

○ Oxygen could go up with depth if bottom is colder and lakes

lack organic matter

• Oligotrophic

○ Low in nutrients, low in biomass, low in organic material

○ Tend to be clear, no alpha cells

○ O2 with depth

• Eutrophic

○ Low clarity
 01/23/2009

○ High nutrients

○ O2 depleation with depth

• Mesotrophic

○ Between the two

○ 60% resivours in Missouri

○ 20% are Eutrophic

○ 10% are Oligotrophic

• Hypereutrophic

○ Think about it

• Problem

○ Warm surface, O2 depleation with depth

○ Increase temp 10 degrees, double metabolic activity

(bacteria)

Water concentrations

• Mg/l ppm (part per million)

 01/23/2009

○ 0.040 mg/L P (phosphorous)

• Mg/l ppb (parts per billion)

○ 40gm/L P

Total

Particulate

Dissolved

40 mg/L PO4-P

• -P means weight of Phosphorous

40 mg/L PO4

Turbidity

• NTU

○ Measure of tingle effect of light

 Hinkson data

 8
 01/23/2009

 20  (rain started before this sample)

 100

 80

 54

 stable flow

 10

 12

 13

 10

 11

 variance of hinkson

 3 to 300 NTU

 TP 2-718 ug/c

• LOTO

○ 1980

 15 ug/c TP

 18 ug/L
 01/23/2009

○ 1981

 47 ug/L

 168 ug/L

Cations in water sample

• Ca

○ 15 mg L

• Mg

○ 4.1 mg L

• Na

○ 6.3 mg L

• K

○ 2.3 mg L

Ozark

• Ca

○ 24 mg L

• Mg

○ 9 mg L
 01/23/2009

• Na

○ 3 mg L

• K

○ 2 mg L

Anions

• HCO3

○ 58 mg L

• SO4

○ 11 mg L

• Cl

○ 8 mg L

Ozark

• HCO3

○ 64 mg L

• SO4

○ 9 mg L

• Cl

○ 4 mg L
 01/23/2009

meq/L

• charge measurement via its weight

Na+

Cl-

• Good indicators of mammalian contamination

Hinkson

• Highest turbidity

○ Lowest conductivity

Ecological consequences of artificial night lighting

•
 01/23/2009

1998 – EPA sets goal for states to have criteria by 2003

• 50% of monitored surface waters impacted by excess nutrients

• nutrients most common impairment causing pollutant

2003

• No states meet deadline

○ Nutrients are naturally occurring

○ Nutrients are not direct cause of impairments

○ Nutrients/algae are required for a healthy aquatic ecosystem

○ Diverse population of water bodies with multiple uses

2005

• MoDNR and EPA agree on plan of action in July, with first

stakeholders meeting in October

○ Focus on lakes/reservoirs first, followed by streams/rivers

then wetlands
 01/23/2009

○ Stakeholders include agency personnel, industry and

agriculture representatives, environmental groups, scientists

and general public

2007

• Scientific sub-committee formed in January

○ After 15 months many ideas had been discussed but none

accepted by stakeholders

2008

• Approach for setting nutrient criteria for reservoirs submitted to MO

• Clean Water Commission in April

Suggested Approaches

• Impairment-based Approach

○ Reduce nutrients to levels that eliminate impairments

associated with high concentrations of algae.

 01/23/2009

 Designate use

 Identify impairment

• Relate impairment to Algal Chlorophyll

(biomass)

○ Correlate Algal Chlorophyll to Nutrient

Concentration

• Problems

○ Difficult to identify impairments for some uses

○ Impairments that are identifiable do not always relate to algal

chlorophyll levels

 Drinking water odor problems

Nutrient scale

• Low nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations

○ Optimal range of water quality for swimming

 Really low

○ Optimal range of water quality for fish production

 mid to mid-high

Reference Approach
 01/23/2009

• Reduce nutrient levels to match those that existed prior to human

impacts.

○ Reference water bodies with little to no human impact

 Use this data to set criteria

 For example

 16 lakes designated as pristine

• take 75% percentile sets phosphorous

criteria

• If reference lakes are not available or numerous enough, criteria

may be set using distribution of data from population of lakes or

using EPA’s regional data.

Reservoirs

• Focus on phosphorus

○ Consider differences in reservoirs

 Surface area = 10 – 53,800 acres

 Mean Depth = 4 – 62 feet

 Watershed = 80 – 4,000,000 acres

 01/23/2009

 Forest = 0-95%

 Grass = 0-78%

 Crop = 0 – 74%

 Urban 0 – 96%

• Ecoregions

○ Decision Matrix for Phosphorus

 Influence of morphology, hydrology and watershed

 Identify “reference” phosphorus levels

○ Plains, highlands and border

 88 reservoirs in plains

 37 in highlands

 16 in border

• Decision Matrix

○ Influence of morphology, hydrology and watershed

 Plains

 % Historic Prairie, Dam Height and Residence

Time
 01/23/2009

 because

• Historic prairie land cover provides a

measure of the inherent nutrient levels

found in the soil in which reservoirs were

built

• Shallow reservoirs mix sporadically,

increasing internal loading of nutrients,

deeper reservoirs have a large volume of

water that acts to dilute nutrient inputs

• Residence Time is a theoretical measure of

how long it takes inflows to move through a

reservoir

○ Residence time = reservoir volume /

average annual inflow volume

○ 300/100 = residence time of 3 years

 (measured in acre/feet)

 logner residence time means

 01/23/2009

 increased sedimentation

of nutrients

 increased de-nitrification

 increased dilution of

nutrient inputs

 Residence Times in

Missouri reservoirs range

from <1 month to >6

years.

 Shorter residence time,

higher phosphorous

 Higher residence time,

lower phosphorous

 Ozark Border and Ozark Highlands

 Dam Height

Reference phosphorus levels

• No point sources of CAFOs within the watershed

• <20% of watershed in combined crop and urban coverage

• >50% of watershed in dominant historic land cover

 01/23/2009

Took these water values

• Protect last 10% of range with least phosphorus

• Listed past 75% as above expected level of phosphorous

Zone A

• Reservoirs that are either below 10th percentile line or predicted to

be below said line

• Phosphorus levels are lower than measured in most regional

reservoirs – protect from degrading

• Site specific phosphorus criterion set on long-term mean

Zone B

• Reservoirs that are between 10th and 75th percentile lines or are

predicted to be above 75th percentile line.

• Phorphorus levels are comparable to most regional reservoirs –

take no action

• Phosphorus criterion will be set at 7th percentile value or predicted

value (which ever is highest)

 01/23/2009

Nitrogen and Chlorophyll

• Base nitrogen and chlorophyll criteria on phosphorus criteria and

desired relationship between parameters.

P= 1degree

R= CCC to

• CO2

• O2

P/R < 1

• Lots of respiration

• Depends on outside

P/R> 1

• Fixing carbon
 01/23/2009

• Net producer of organic material

First order stream

• Light limited, canopy cover, depends on outside nutrients

• Fairly low nutrients in headwaters

Bigger stream

• Outside of canopy cover

• Autochonous growth of organic material

• More fine particulate material

Wet Lands

• Values

○ Habitat

○ Water quality
 01/23/2009

• Defined: wet soil and adapted vegetation

• Major plants:

○ mosses

○ Grasses – sedges (seagass)

○ Reeds – (cattail, common reed)

○ Trees ( mangroves, cypress, water willow, tupelo)

• Hydrology – open and closed (peat?)

• Wetland types

○ Bog mosses (closed, accumulate organic matter)

○ Marsh – grasses (open, not much buildup, washed away)

 Extremely biologically productive

○ Swamp – trees (open)

• Water quality

○ Slow water movement

○ High productivity

○ Nutrient demand
 01/23/2009

 Helps reduce nutrients

○ Organic matter

 Biomass, living and dead, provides surface area to filter

pollutants

○ Microbial activity

Hydrophyte

• Water loving plants

Stream ecosystems

• Nutrient spiraling

○ Nutrients = nitrogen, phosphorous, inorganic carbon

○ Energy = reduced carbon

○ Nutrients being picked up, transported and eventually

deposited downstream

• Rocky bottom of streams

○ Rocks flowing with nutrients

○ With light coming in

○ Algae develops, covers rocks

 01/23/2009

○ Reason: light, nutrients and stability

○ Bubbles in algae growth

 Photosynthesis

 Taking in CO2, releasing O2

 A tension develops on bubble

 Lower cells get shaded out by algae growing on top of

it.

 Lift occurs

 Paraphyte chunk lifts and hits turbulence of

stream

 Break apart

 Able to reproduce in stream

○ Benthic

 Attached

○ Suspended algae

 In the stream

○ Relationships
 01/23/2009

 Benthic algae and nutrients

 Can correlate

 Can not relate due to

• Light limitation

• Grazing by snails etc

• Flow

○ Flood can scour rocks, eliminate

growth

 Forested streams

 Agriculture/row crop uplands

 Some increase over time

 Discharge from effluents

 Massive increase over

time

 Does increased phosphorous and nitrogen increase algal

growth on rocks?

 Phosphorous
 01/23/2009

• some increased growth

 Nitrogen

• Most increased growth

 Both

• Less

 % forest increase

 decrease in phosphorous, nitrogen

○ Watershed area

 Surrogate for time in the system

 More algae per unit phosphorous

• Has spent more time growing algal cells

• Has grown into resources

 Forest and nutrients

• If area is calculated compared to % forest

and % cropland

○ Can predict chlorophyll levels

○ Can explain 90% of variation

○ World wide
 01/23/2009

 Area relating to time algae cells has spent in stream

 Levels out

 Lake v. streams

 A lot more chlorophyll in lake than streams at

every level of phosphorus

• Less light limitation

• Less flush from storms

• Stream must wait for benthic to be seed for

in stream growth

• Agriculture

○ Per person per year

 1,000 kg of water for 1kg for corn

 2,000 kg of water for 1kg of rice

 620,000 gallons of water to sustain each American per

year

○ Ag biggest polluter

 Provides
 01/23/2009

 Sediment

• 21 metric tons lost from ag land per hectare

 nutrients

• fertilizer

• CAFO – confined animal feeding operation

○ Hogs

○ Poultry

 Grown on marginally productive

land

 Cheap land

 Food for animals

transported in from iowa,

illinois, north missouri

 Produces animal waste

 sulfur waste pits

 01/23/2009

 dumped as nutrient

amendment on land

 sometimes crop land,

pasture land.

 High in phosphorous same

as dairy waste

 Low in nitrogen

 Animal equivalence

 Number of chickens to equal output of human

 Number of hogs equal to output of one human

• Sow

• Dairy cow

• Chicken

• Turkey

 Waste

 Rich in nutrients

 High in phosphorous
 01/23/2009

 75% of soils that have received manure to

provide nutrients

• saturated with phosphorous

• Previously

○ As recently as 25 years ago

 Smaller operations

 Part of grain produced were fed to animals

 People doing both row crop and animal husbandry

 Now

 Producing same number of hogs but in high

concentration

 Result

 Tremendous amount of nutrients added to

landscape

 Nitrogen application has ramped up production

• Can’t really apply it when plants need it the

most
 01/23/2009

• Peak of growing season

○ For corn: july-august

○ Applied in Winter

 NH4, bacteria nitrify it to NO3

 NO3 runs through soil,

really soluble

 Have to apply enough

nitrogen to account for

some loss and residual

nitrogen will be available

for plant

 Ag production in same area

 Factors for bumper crop

• Weather

○ Rain at right time

• Temp

 Bumper year produces

 01/23/2009

• Lower prices

 Adding little extra nitrogen provides best chances

for bumper crop

 We have moved from system of

 Grain produced

 Animals taken care of

 Waste put back in for grain production

 To piecing this system out

 Concentrating it

○ Little bit of nutrient slipping off farm is trivial economically

 Except, these amounts effect aquatic ecosystems

 Tragedy of the commons

○ High in phosphorous

 Low in nitrogen

 Trying to satisfy that demand

 Produces runoff of high phosphorus and low

nitrogen
 01/23/2009

• Danger: select for blue green algae that are

nitrogen fixers

• Really don’t want them in aquatic

ecosystem

○ We put more nitrogen on land than we harvest

Solutions

• Riparian forest buffer system

• Conservation Tillage

○ Harvest corn

○ Throw non-crop parts back to cover the soil

 Blunts rainfall

 Reduces sediment loss

CAFO contribution to water quality

Low flow – should be able to see it in nutrients such as potassium, etc

 01/23/2009

• Identified 100 streams with no cafos or cafos in next watershed

• Combination of forest and ag

• Picking up presence of CAFOs in streams, separate from cropland

○ Signs

 Nitrogen, phosphorous

 Enough effluent that we see saturation in some areas

• Conservation tillage

○ Harvest produce, leave residual on landscape, organic matter

on landscape

 Indication that it reduces sediment runoff

 Problem: not incorporating anything

 Tend to have surface runoff of fertilizers and

herbicides

 Hard to pickup at more than one watershed level

 Push to put it in as general practice to reduce

input into lake Erie

 Tragedy of the commons

 01/23/2009

• All these protection features can be put in

but hard to measure outcome

 Might change in 5-10 years

• Urban

○ Major push to deal with storm water runoff

○ Change in cities?

 Porous pavement, water will go through, still support

cars etc

 Need to reduce the loss of water off of the landscape in

cities, encourage infiltration

 Retention basins could help

 Encourages infiltration

 Taken out curbs and gutters, curved streets

 Drainages on either side, natural vegetation

 Local plants are ideal for water uptake when it is

needed

 STL using Seattle as a model

 01/23/2009

Great Lakes

• Impeded by

○ Sediments

○ Exotic species

 Sea lamprey

 Salmon introductions

 Zebra mussels

○ depletion of fish stocks

○ Polluted

• Understood must reduce TMDL

○ Canada and US agreed to reduce effluent and nutrient inflow

into these water bodies

○ Near shore phosphorous concentration is dropping

○ In certain drainages, watershed management plans, buy-in

from stakeholders, reducing loss of nutrients from agriculture

• Paleolimnology
 01/23/2009

○ Taken cores out of sediment

○ Can tack western expansion

○ From sediment increase in diatoms

○ Record of increase of fertility in lake from when Romans put

in road

○ During years of severe eutrification, shift away from diatoms

toward bluegreen algae and green algae, shift in remaining

diatoms toward ones tolerate toward enriched waters

○ Lower phosphorous and nitrogen, haven’t switched back

○ Still altered today

Zebra mussels

• Entire change of food system

• Move toward benthic fish away from plankton fish

• Zebra mussels filter water taking away plankton and providing quite

a lot of benthic food for those who can eat mussels

Nacy Radalaiss or Eugene Turner articles

• Read abstract, look at tables and figures, read discussion, results

○ Dealing with nitrate

 01/23/2009

○ Dealing with decrease in silica

○ Wetlands discussion

Gulf Hypoxia

• Lake conditions

○ Decreasing O2 with depth

○ Falling Organic Matter

○ Temp decline

○ Salinity cline

 Fresh water flowing over top of ocean water

 Move nutrients off land into water, generating algal

bloom

 In productive areas of the planet, historic hypoxia

• Streams

○ Output of nitrogen of upper Midwest killing off benthic fish in

gulf
 01/23/2009

○ Increased input of nitrogen down Mississippi river

○ Tied to use of nitrogen fertilizer

 ½ of total

○ Costal waters, nitrogen limited

 Algal biomass and algal chlorophyll linked to nitrogen

• Costal zone, rich in sediments, rich in phosphorous

○ Get rid of it?

 Go anoxic

 We supply phosphorous in costal zones

 Because

• Shallow

• Surface goes anoxic

 Nitrogen going downriver (tied to fertz)

 Delivering less silica to coasts

 %BS

• percent biogenic silica

 01/23/2009

○ define:

 In river

 Higher nutrients

 Less flow

 = more algae

• diatoms algae

○ silica cells

○ result: recent sediments

 increased depositing of BS into

sediments of river beds

 Mississippi river is carrying less

silica than previously

 Taken up by algae

 Algae settle out

 01/23/2009

 Lots of nitrogen and not

as much silica, more

organic matter heading to

gulf than previously

 Not normal kind a of algae

 More green and bluegreen

 From upper Midwest

 Nitrogen, phosphorous silica

 Diatoms lowering silica content

 As it flows

 Increase in diatoms

 Coast

 Deposit out due to size and salinity

• Result: increase in organic matter

○ Pipeline of nitrogen toward coast, a by

default nitrogen limited system

○ Most coast waters, nitrogen limited

 01/23/2009

 Because: denitrafication

 Dumped organic matter

• Results in less silica

• Results in different algae to grow

• Benthic system arises

• Fueling of green and bluegreen

 Humans

 Doubling cycling of nitrogen

 Intensified agriculture

 Think of it as eutrification of the coasts

 Maybe tilting toward toxic algal forms

• Solutions

○ fertilizer

 admit, “we’re a big part of the problem”

○ reduce broadscale use of anhydrous ammonia

○ can reduce nitrogen off landscape if land put back in wetlands

○ $100 billion for harvestable cropland

○ reduce 20-30% of chlorophyl runoff

 01/23/2009

• How do you convince farmer that there is collective problem from

his economically unimportant loss of nitrogen?

• reduce anoxia

• Hypoxia

○ 2-3 mg/L of oxygen

• caused by

○ increased productivity

○ reduced oxygen

Mississippi River

• increase in

○ Nitrogen and phosphorous

○ Algal growth

• Results in

○ Using SO2

Gulf

• Algal growth sent to gulf

 01/23/2009

Solution

• Limit nitrogen

• Decrease nitrogen use in agriculture

• Put wetlands back on landscape

• Riparian buffer

Chances of

• Reducing chlorophyll in gulf

• Duration of time oxygen present

Dinoflagalate

• Human contributions

○ Coastal eutrofication

○ Change in fish demographics

○ Disappearance of top predator fish

○ Response to coastal enrichment

○ Runoff from hog lagoons

 01/23/2009

• Discovered in Chesapeake Bay

○ Has aerosol nuerotoxin

Red tide

• Dioflagalate

○ Puts out toxins

• Increased by coastal eutrophication

Toxic dioflagalates have increased throughout the globe

Freshwater toxins

• Cyanobacterial Blooms and the potential for Toxins

Early in season

• Ions in water

• Nitrogen in water

• Small algal cells

Late in season

• Sucked down nitrogen

 01/23/2009

• Precipitated and diluted calcium out of system

• Shift to blue greens and large bluegreens

• Net Chlorophyll is going up Microcystin is going up as well

Conclusions

• Common in Midwest

• Seasonal patterns are unique

• Max doesn’t occur in any one season

• No nice relationship between environmental relationships and algal

toxins

Research needs

• Consistent sampling protocols

• Predictive models

• Able to shut down beaches

• Methods for early detection

 01/23/2009

Biochemical Oxygen demand

• How much oxygen it takes to break all the carbon bonds

Organic matter

• C-C-C

○ input oxygen

○ output CO2

Water oxygen saturation during the summer, 8 milligrams / L

Concentrated sewage

• 1000mg/L Total suspended solids

• 500 = 200 mg/L Biochemical Oxygen (BoD)

• 200
 01/23/2009

Would result in water going anoxic due to oxygen demand

Treatment breakdown (important)

• Primary treatment (results in taking out 1/3 of BoD)

○ Screen out materials

○ Skim out floating materials

○ Settle

• Secondary treatment (biological, 2/3rds of BoD)

 01/23/2009

○ Put oxygen in contact with organic matter (dissolved organic

matter)

 Pushes off CO2.

Sprinkle filter

• Rocks

○ Zoogleal bacteria

 Grow on rocks, huge demand on carbon, don’t grow

much protoplasm

○ Protozoans

○ Sewage worms

• Spray arms, water pushed over rocks

• Denitification occurs

• Don’t flood it with BoD demand, would go anaerobic

Huge biochemical oxygen demand

• Want to oxidize to produce CO2

• Product bacterial bodies

 01/23/2009

Activated sludge

• Water removed from primary treatment

• Fill tank of up with fresh load of sewage water

• Zoogleal bacteria in tank

○ Blows off CO2, infused with oxygen from jets

• Jets of air oxygenizing water

• Protozoan feeds on zoogleal bacteria

• Turn off jets and all things settle

○ 2/3rds of bacteria goes to sludge dealing

○ reuse 1/3rd of bacteria goes through trickle filter or holding

facility

• vulnerable to shock

○ PH shifts or pesticides

 Bacteria will not perform to expectations

 Bacteria might do “bulking”

 01/23/2009

 Single cells instead of snot strands

 Engineers borrow activated sludge to re-seed

What to do with the sludge?

• Stick in tank and go anaerobic

• Eternal flame, methane coming off

• Liquids head to activated sludge

• Dry solids material

○ Methane used to run the plant or send to city gas supply,

natural gas

○ Land apply solids

 Milwaukee

 Minneapolis, St. Paul

○ Not done as much because of heavy metals concentrated in

sludge
 01/23/2009

 Copper, chromium, mercury

Tertiary treatment (3)

• 200 mg / L of BoD

• 10% left after 1st and second treatment

• 20mg/L NH4 > N03

• solution

○ put in pond

○ spiny wheel

○ membrane filter

○ trickle filter

• can

○ reduce BoD

○ Phosphorous reduction

 Waste waster usually has 5mg/L

 Get rid of it?

 01/23/2009

• Microbial uptake (treat with bactera/algal

uptake)

• Alum (Al+3PO+4) treatment

• Wetlands

○ Phosphorous uptake limited

○ Nitrogen reduction

 Ammonium (NH4) (toxic to fish)

 How?

 NH4 – NO3 – N2 (BoD)

• Let go anaerobic

• Without oxygen goes to next best oxyidizing

agent

○ NO3 Releases CO2 and N2

 Ammonium can kill fish at high ph

• Ammonium leads to algal blooms and high

BoD

• which raises ph
 01/23/2009

Putting effluent into lake results in oxygen sag

• Lowers oxygen in stream until bacteria satisfy the remaining BoD

and oxidize the ammonium to nitrate

• Extent of oxygen sag curve depends on

○ Volume of effluent

○ Volume of stream

• Not much effect of

○ Low effluent high flow

• Nutrients

○ High unless tertiary treatment

○ Oxidation

○ Uptake

 In short, algae growth

○ Curve goes from low prior to effluent input, peaks and

declines in a curve due to decreasing and uptake

• Extreme conditions

○ Anoxic
 01/23/2009

 Sewage fungus can grow

 Algal growth downstream

 Change in macroinvertibrates

Inverts

• Tolerant – EPT

• Community > index to fe

• Subjective score

○ %taxa

• taken in comparison to region

○ habitat structure

○ water quality

 both effect population structure

• Prairie streams

○ Not a wonderful index

 Some extremely tolerant of harsh conditions.

 01/23/2009

○ Nutrient enrichment

 Response seen most in algae

 Secondarily in invertebrates

 Response will be little dampened in fish

 Can migrate

Bottled water

• When it entered the market, unregulated

• Tap water is regulated

Water treatment

• Sand filter

○ Bottom – coarse gravel

○ Top – decreasing grain size

• Result

○ Bacterial growth
 01/23/2009

 Binds up particles

 Bacteria is going to feed off of dissolved organic carbon

 Reduces carbon

 Traps bacteria

 Traps viruses and protozonians

 Less particulate resulting water

• Hit it with chlorine to keep bacteria down, reduce bacterial regrowth

○ Destroys cell membranes

 Oxidizes bacteria

Drinking water desires

• Plentiful

• No disease

• No taste

• No order

• Cheap
 01/23/2009

Sand filter

• Chlorine/uv light

○ Off into consumers

Water supply from surface waters

• Algal cells

• Algal blooms occasional

• PH bump up

• Requires

○ Activated carbon

 Has bonding sights

 Attaches to dissolved organic carbon

○ Yellow drinking water?

 High dissolved organic carbon

 Caused by tanic acids

 01/23/2009

Adding chlorine to water with high dissolved organic carbon

• Problem:

○ High bladder/colon cancer

 Complex made by chlorine and organic carbon

 Limit 100 ppb

 Now

• 80 ppb

○ Fix: now use

 NH2Cl

 Or

 Ozone

 Uv radiation

○ TTHM also called DBP

 01/23/2009

Water softening

• Hard water

○ High concentrations of divalent metallic ions

• Soft water

○ Less calcium and magnesium

○ Less white crust

• Salt involved is sodium carbonate

○ Replaces calcium/magnesium in the water

○ Results in higher sodium in soft water

 Does not interact with soup

 Up sodium intake

MTBE

• Gasoline additive

○ Migrates rapidly through groundwater

 Cancer precursor

Arsonic

• Increases tumors
 01/23/2009

• Problem when in water

NO3 - nitrate

• 10 miligrams per liter

○ NO3 – N

 Goes to blood stream, binds up with bloodstream

 Cuts off oxygen as it gets to blood

Fecal coliform

• Bacteria indicative in GI tract

• Also environmental fecal

• As little as 1 fecal coliform per 100 milligrams of water

Geometric Mean Log 10

 01/23/2009

• 1000 3

• 100 2

• 10 1

average: 370 6/3

log average is 2 or 100

fecal coliform standard

• in guts of warm blooded animals

○ pretty good tracer of mammal contaminants in water

○ used as means of detecting potential contamination

 miner’s canary

 sign of potential other contaminants

○ fecal coliforms limit for swimming water

 200 cfu/100 ml

 no more than 10% of samples are supposed to have

>400cfu/100ml
 01/23/2009

○ 1000 cfu/100ml

E. coli standard

• More specific to human guts

Swim standards

• Fecal coliforms

○ 200/100ml

• E. Coli

○ 126/100ml

Lake Phewa, Hepal

• N Geometic Mean

Open lake 20 10/100ml

Lake shore 23 53

Wash sites 25 701

Stream 29 2

Pfirke 5 41,5000

Seti 5 6,000
 01/23/2009

0157:H7

• E. Coli bacteria problem

• Related to hamburger recalls

• Can kill

• Can be related to water supply

Water borne pathogens

• Cryptosporidium

○ Protozoan

○ Outbreak in Milwaukee

 400,000 infected, boil order

○ Occupies wall of intestine

○ Feeds on material going through intestine

○ Releases a toxin

○ Reproduces by fission
 01/23/2009

○ Forms cists

○ released out of feces

○ resistant to chlorination

○ survive in environment for awhile

○ 1976 realized could be problem in humans

○ ozone can cut cists numbers

○ more particles pass through during winter

 biofilter of sand doesn’t act as well

○ common in South America

○ fairly common, even in pristine waters

• Cyclospora

○ Causes diarrhea

○ Common on lettuce

• Giardia

○ Bigger, cists are about twice as large

○ First described by levenhook

○ Common in humans, beavers, mule deer etc

 01/23/2009

○ Protozon, releases cists, toxin

• Entamoeba – protozoan

○ Similar to Giardia

Bacteria

• Cholera – Vibrio

○ Humans are only known host

○ Toxins cause rapid loss of fluids and electrolytes

○ Treatment is lots of water and electrolytes

○ Can chlorinate and kill bacteria

• Salmonilla – Typhoid fever

○ Close cousin to Cholera

• Legionella

○ 1976

 200 year celebration of US

 over 200 people became ill

 via convention hotel

 01/23/2009

• pneumonia like

• fever like

 new genera of bacteria

 water borne

 likes moderately hot water

• associated with water vapor

○ inhaled

 dealing with it

 use hotter water

 don’t breath deeply in

weak shower temp

 no person to person

spread

 tends to use iron for energy

Viruses

• 65% of water borne disease are viruses

○ Hepatitis A
 01/23/2009

 Can be carried in water

 Common in North Chicago than South Chicago

 North treatment didn’t have sand filtration

○ Polio

○ Rhoto viruses

 Good water treatment

 Sand filtration

 Removes viruses

○ Associated with shallow wells

• Schistosomiasis

○ Worms, problem in parts of Africa

• Malaria

○ Water borne with insect host

○ 1million dead per year

Aquatic toxicology
 01/23/2009

• Toxic substances control act

○ Human made chemicals

 Kepone and Mirex

 Highly resistance box organic structure

 Lots of chlorine

 Used as ant bait in south

 Tossed waste products in river

 Don’t break down

 Persist for a long time

 Carcinogenic

 PCB

 Poly-chlorinated Bifenals

• Associated with hydraulic fluids

• Extremely long lived chemicals

 DDT

 Insect control

 Still used in many parts of the world

 01/23/2009

• Bad news bears

 Love Canal

 Chemical company putting drums of waste in

ground

• Result

Xenobiotics – foreign chemicals

Toxin > organism

Exposure

breaking down chemical, top priority for toxicologists

• want to know,

○ Does chemical degrade?

 Primary degradation

 Cleaving anything off original compound (breaking

integrity)

• DDT (breaks down in anaerobic conditions)

○ DDD

 Degraded DDT
 01/23/2009

 Changes it significantly

 Clear Lake, CA

 Plankton 250x DDD as the water

 Fish 12,000x DDD as the water

 Fish eating birds 80,000x DDD

as the water

 Ultimate degradation

 Breaking down into carbon, chloride, nitrogen

○ UV degradation

 Breaks down chemicals

○ Biodegradation

 Breaks down via organisms

 Often have to be acclimated to these new

chemicals

○ Influences to degradation

 PH

 Temperature

 Dissolved Oxygen
 01/23/2009

○ Water insoluble compounds

 Don’t break down in water

 Prefer lipids

 Tend to persist

 Attracted to clay surfaces

 Absorbed by organisms

○ Water soluble compounds

 Easily accessible

 Readily degraded

○ Branchy organism

 Persists more

○ Straight strain compounds

 Tend to break down

• ABS surfactant

○ Hardly degrade

• LAS linear surfactant

○ Straight chain, breaks apart on way to sewage treatment

plant
 01/23/2009

• Log concentration diagram

○ Straightens S curve

○ Y axis, response of population

○ X axis, concentration

○ LC50

 How much of chemical will kill 50% of organisms

 How toxic it is

 Use other markers chemicals to judge relative

toxicity

 Alter hardness of water

 Carbonate

• Calcium carbonate

• Magnesium carbonate

• Buffer ph changes

○ Buffers carbonic coming out of fish

○ Soft water, puts out acid, does not

buffer PH
 01/23/2009

○ EC50

 Zooplankton measure

 Effective concentration

• Poke them and they don’t move

• Toxicants

○ Not all animals are susceptible to toxicants

 Cold water fish tend to be more susceptible than warm

water species

 Tests use representative species

 Fathead minnow

• Represents warm water fish response

 Rainbow Trout

• Represents cold water fish response

• Acute exposure

○ Large amounts over short time

○ Effects are death or immobilization

• Chronic exposure

○ Small amounts over long time

 01/23/2009

○ Reduction in fecundity, etc

• Log

Plastics

• Toxic to aquatics

Dioxins

• Not intentionally released

Tributal 10

• Ship hauls

• If put in paint slows growth of barnacles

• Leaches out of paint

• Extremely toxic to mulluscs, oysters

Water naturally acidic, carbonic acid

• Picks up chemicals from smoke stacks

• Drops ph in rain

• -log of hydrogen ions (pH)

 01/23/2009

○ 10 fold from 6 - 7

 normal 6.8

 some pH 4.5

 high 3s

• drop in pH caused by

○ sulfuric acid (H2SO4)

 coal burning

○ nitric acid ( HNO3) > N2 > NOx

 automobiles

 NH3 from agriculture does neutralizing, but can become

nitric acid

○ hydrogen chloride (HCl)

 burning garbage, industry

• Prevailing winds, west to east

○ East Canada

○ Scandinavia

• Ca(HCO3)
 01/23/2009

• Result

○ Lost species diversity

○ No recruitment, older fish less affected

○ Shellfish and mulluscs are susceptible (pH shock)

 Rain drops

 Summer comes

 pH comes back up

 results in seasonal drop

○ eventual emitions controls

 scrubbers on smoke stacks

 burning garbage prohibited

○ limestone added to inflow

○ aquatic birds not effected by pH

 but effects food web

• management
 01/23/2009

○ lakes have been fertilized

 stimulates algal production

 increases pH

• Recovery

○ Follows foodweb

 Algae recover first

 Zooplankton

 Benthos

 Fish

• Paleolimnology

○ Track changes with

 Lake cores

 Diatoms

• Neutral to acidic to

•
 01/23/2009

• Hi Emily!