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Water of Life

Water of Life. Justin Borevitz Prairie Ecosystems 4/17/07. Wetlands. Fish biodiversity as a biomarker of water quality Flooding bring in fertility Diverse habitats == diverse life forms Niche exploitation

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Water of Life

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  1. Water of Life Justin Borevitz Prairie Ecosystems 4/17/07

  2. Wetlands • Fish biodiversity as a biomarker of water quality • Flooding bring in fertility • Diverse habitats == diverse life forms • Niche exploitation • Foods are part of the prairie drainage of the Rockies and part of the ecosystem evolution

  3. Ephemeral Pools • Water provides constant flux • El nino, heavy rains, floods, fill new lakes • Ox-box lakes, connect isolated regions • Mixing of biodiversity • La nina, drought, lakes dry • isolation of ecoregions • life concentrates in deeper reserves • Prairie Potholes

  4. Wetlands Wetlands are areas that are periodically or permanently inundated by surface or ground water and support vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.

  5. What do wetlands do? Wetland Functions Habitat nesting, spawning, rearing and resting sites for aquatic and land species, food chain production Hydrology protection of other areas from wave action and erosion, storage areas for storm water and flood water, ground and surface water aquifer recharge Water water quality protection, water filtration and Quality purification, treatment of nonpoint source runoff

  6. DCM Wetland Classification • DCM Wetland Types: • Swamp Forest • Bottomland Hardwood • Pocosin • Pine Flat • Hardwood Flat • Managed Pine • Freshwater Marsh • Salt/Brackish Marsh • Estuarine Scrub Shrub • Estuarine Forest • Maritime Forest • Headwater Swamp • Human Impacted Modifiers: • Partially Drained/ Ditched • Cut-over • Cleared

  7. Why are wetlands important? Wetland Values • maintain biodiversity • provide habitat for animals • maintain water quality • support commercial fishing, forestry • reduce flood damage • hiking, fishing, hunting, • bird watching, boating • aesthetic value Did you know? Nationwide, an estimated 50 million people spend approximately $10 billion annually observing and photographing wetland-dependent birds.

  8. Environmental Law & Policy Center Wetland and Water Quality Trading: Limits and Trade-Offs Albert F. Ettinger Senior Attorney Environmental Law and Policy Center aettinger@elpc.org Feb. 16, 2006

  9. Environmental Law & Policy Center Legal Framework – TMDLs • Under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act a total maximum daily load (TMDL) study must be completed for impaired waters • NPDES permits cannot be granted that are inconsistent with a TMDL

  10. Environmental Law & Policy Center Legal Framework – 40 CFR §122.4(i) • No permit may be issued: (i) To a new source or a new discharger, if the discharge from its construction will cause or contribute to the violation of water quality standards. The owner or operator of a new source or new discharger proposing to discharge into a water segment that does not meet applicable water quality standards … must demonstrate … (1) There are sufficient remaining pollutant load allocations to allow for the discharge; and (2) The existing dischargers into that segment are subject to compliance schedules designed to bring the segment into compliance with applicable water quality standards.

  11. Environmental Law & Policy Center Controls should be place on nutrient pollution now • Impose permit limits under antidegradation rules – New pollution is not necessary to accommodate important social or economic development under 40 CFR 131.12(a)(2) if it can be avoided through affordable controls • Enforce narrative standards as required by law • Develop numeric nutrient standards asap

  12. Environmental Law & Policy Center Nutrient Controls • Nutrient limits are already in place in Great Lakes, in discharges to many other lakes and in discharges to some rivers • Illinois just established a 1 mg/L P limit for major new or increasing discharges

  13. Environmental Law & Policy Center Using Wetlands to reduce nutrient loadings • Nitrogen farming clearly seems to be a way to reduce nitrogen pollution • Jury still out on phosphorus • Environmentalists certainly will generally support wetlands restoration

  14. Environmental Law & Policy Center Enforceability 2 • How do we detect violations if a discharger has bought a credit? • Does monitoring of performance of the wetland credit appear on the discharger’s DMRs? • How do we quantify and report the reduction of pollution created by the wetland? • Will it be possible to take enforcement action against the discharger if the wetland fails to produce the expected pollution reduction?

  15. Environmental Law & Policy Center The Environment must win • Either persons benefiting from trading should pay for it through fees or a substantial “fee” should be charged by the state in the form of a much larger reduction being required than 1:1 • We generally cannot allow Peter to be robbed to help Paul

  16. Notice: The views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Scientists in EPA have prepared the EPA sections, and those sections have been reviewed in accordance with EPA’s peer and administrative review policies and approved for presentation and publication. The EPA contributed funding to the construction of this website but is not responsible for it's contents. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

  17. Hydrologic Modification Sedimentation Dissolved oxygen Contaminant toxicity Vegetation alteration Eutrophication Acidification Turbidity Thermal Alteration Salinity Stressor Checklist

  18. Plant-based IBI metrics - S. Miller • Tested over 40 potential plant metrics • Selected 8 to build IBI • Adjusted FQAI • % Annuals • % Non-natives • % Invasives • % Trees • % Cryptogams (ferns and fern allies) • % Cover of tolerant plant species • % Cover of Phalaris arundinacea

  19. r = -0.889 P < 0.001

  20. The Dead Zone: Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

  21. Condition that occurs in coastal waters where: • Little or no oxygen is present • Little or no marine life can survive The term for low oxygen is hypoxia. Hypoxia=<2 mg/l dissolved oxygen (DO) The term for no oxygen is anoxia. Anoxia =0 mg/l dissolved oxygen

  22. In the U.S., hypoxia occurs in coastal waters in New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana.

  23. Since 1985, the dead zone has ranged in size from about 100 square miles in 1988 to over 8,500 square miles in 2002, one of the largest coastal dead zones in the world In Louisiana, the dead zone occurs west of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers hypoxia occurs from late spring until late summer.

  24. Starfish, oysters, clams, sea cucumbers, brittlestars and anemone are all benthos Benthos • Stressed or die • Decreased diversity • Degraded environment

  25. Fisheries • Food base is reduced and/or lost • Habitat is reduced and/or lost • Recruitment is disrupted • Migratory patterns are disrupted • Species diversity is reduced • Mortality increases

  26. People • Commercial fisheries • Recreational fisheries • Tourism • Economy • The dead zone decreases the ability of the Gulf to produce seafood. This affects the local economy.

  27. Warm Temperatures Warm spring and summer temperatures heat the water surface.

  28. O2 Calm seas decrease oxygen exchange at the surface.

  29. Nutrients Warm fresh water and nutrients are delivered by the Mississippi River and float on the denser saltwater.

  30. A stratified layer is formed with lighter, fresher, warmer water at the surface and heavier, saltier, cooler water near the bottom limiting oxygen mixing throughout the water column. Lighter Fresher Warmer Water Stratified Layer No O2 mixing Heavier Saltier Cooler Water

  31. The Mississippi River drains 41% of the lower 48 United States. It carries water and sediment hundreds of miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Municipal & industrial runoff Atmosphere Fertilizers Cattle, pig and poultry farm runoff Wastewater treatment Nutrients include compounds which contain: • Phosphorus • Nitrogen • Silica

  32. Microscopic algae or phytoplankton use these nutrients to reproduce. Excess nutrients enable plankton populations to explode, causing a plankton or algal bloom.

  33. At the surface, plankton blooms occur when excess nutrients are present Plankton bloom

  34. When plankton die, they sink and decompose

  35. When plankton die, they sink to the bottom and decompose. During decomposition bacteria use up most or all of the available oxygen. Dead Plankton No O2 Decomposers

  36. Changes in land use from • Land use practices • • Fertilizer use • • Poor management practices Agriculture Industry Flood control Urban expansion Lead to: Loss of natural habitat

  37. Change flood control practices • Use fertilizers more efficiently • Control discharges of nitrogen • Create and restore wetlands • Reduce nutrient loading • Manage the whole system

  38. http://geog-www.sbs.ohio-state.edu/courses/G210/bmark

  39. Hydrological cycle accelerated (1) Mountain snow/ice lost (2) Trees removal increases runoff, reduces transpiration, affects water table and landscape salinity (3) Wetlands dried up or drained (4) Ground- and surface water used for irrigated agriculture (5,6) Dams alter flow and reservoirs increase evaporation (7,8) Industrial water coolers release water vapour (9) Transfers between basins (10) Urban, mining and construction areas alter water flows and quality (11) Coastal salt water intrudes inland (12) Impoundments reduce flows (13) Siltation, erosion and nutrient flows change coastlines and affect water quality (14) Levees and locks modify flows and channels (15) Settlements alter floodplain landscapes (16) Grazing affects runoff and water quality (17) Industry causes acid rain (18) Coastal waters polluted and species lost (19)

  40. Dams and the Environment Not only bad for migrating fish… • Loss of land, cultural & biological resources • Sediment traps • Reduce reservoir • Less sand for beaches • Change entire downstream river & organisms Hoover Dam, Source: US Bureau of Reclamations

  41. Case study: Edwards Dam removal

  42. Case study: Olentangy River • FLOW • Issues: water quality, habitat, recreation • Dams no longer useful • Project to demolish unused ‘low-head’ dam, with integrated OSU research-education opportunities • Increase species diversity, safer for recreation, better fishing, swimming(?) • Funded by ‘scenic-river’ license plates and donations • Sierra Club sued Columbus from sewage releases into Olentangy, settled to remove 5th Ave dam. • 11 remaining dams, EPA cites them as top threat to Olentangy

  43. NC Bay of Pigs • Hurricane Floyd, 1999 • Unrestricted pig farming…on floodplains…20 mil tons waste per year…in low cost “lagoons”

  44. Can wetlands help stop the “dead zone” in Gulf of Mexico? “Ecotechnology” Mitch et al., 2001

  45. Map of artificial wetlands project for treatment of agricultural wastewater at Avondale (near Phoenix) Arizona. © 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

  46. Coastal wetland loss and Katrina:losing a storm buffer (PHOTO BY ELLIS LUCIA / The Times-Picayune) Each year an area of marsh close to the size of Manhattan is lost.

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