Environmental impacts of complex effluent release to a model prairie aquatic network

复杂污水排放到模型草原水生网络的环境影响

• 批准号: 570812-2021
• 负责人: Bogard, MatthewMJ
• 金额: $ 14.5万
• 依托单位: University of Lethbridge
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=744510
• 关键词: Environmental; impacts; complex; effluent; release

The release of chemically complex municipal and industrial effluents into aquatic environments is a global-scale issue that is rapidly increasing with population growth and increasing water consumption. Effluent release has complex and poorly-defined impacts on aquatic ecosystems, with potential to negatively impact public health. To address these uncertainties, we have designed a multidisciplinary research program that defines organismal to ecosystem responses to complex effluent loading in a socio-economically important watershed in southern Alberta. Like many effluent-receiving watersheds, the Frank Lake wetland in the Upper Little Bow River watershed represents a complex management scenario. Like other watersheds, this system is faced with degradation of habitat and water quality due to its long history of intensive land-use, and inputs of agro-industrial and municipal effluent. There is concern about the effects that inputs of nutrients and chemicals, which are largely uncharacterized, might have in the wetland, the river, and the downstream multi-use reservoir. Our project brings together partners from academic, industrial, and municipal sectors to generate novel information and data to guide water resource management, and answer pressing questions in watershed research regarding effluent fate, impacts, and the role of wetlands in effluent remediation. If well managed, aquatic habitats in the upper Little Bow River watershed will continue to provide decades-worth of ecosystem services in the coming years, which represents millions of dollars of services to stakeholders. Here, we will fill knowledge gaps to inform the management of this economically-important watershed. In turn this will help to maximize water treatment value to enhance other important ecosystem services in southern Alberta and throughout Canada. This research project serves as an important and cutting-edge model for similar effluent-receiving watersheds worldwide.

将化学复杂的城市和工业废水排放到水生环境中是一个全球范围的问题，随着人口的增长和水消耗的增加，这一问题正在迅速加剧。废水排放对水生生态系统具有复杂且不明确的影响，并可能对公众健康产生负面影响。为了解决这些不确定性，我们设计了一个多学科研究计划，该计划定义了阿尔伯塔省南部一个具有社会经济重要意义的流域的有机体对生态系统对复杂污水负荷的反应。与许多污水接收流域一样，小弓河上游流域的弗兰克湖湿地代表着复杂的管理方案。与其他流域一样，由于长期集约化土地利用以及农工业和城市污水的输入，该系统面临着栖息地和水质的退化。人们担心营养物质和化学物质的输入可能对湿地、河流和下游多用途水库产生影响，而这些影响在很大程度上是未知的。我们的项目汇集了来自学术、工业和市政部门的合作伙伴，生成新颖的信息和数据来指导水资源管理，并回答流域研究中有关废水归宿、影响以及湿地在废水修复中的作用的紧迫问题。如果管理得当，小弓河上游流域的水生栖息地将在未来几年继续提供价值数十年的生态系统服务，这对利益相关者来说意味着数百万美元的服务。在这里，我们将填补知识空白，为这一具有重要经济意义的流域的管理提供信息。反过来，这将有助于最大限度地提高水处理价值，以增强艾伯塔省南部和整个加拿大的其他重要生态系统服务。该研究项目为全球类似的污水接收流域提供了重要且前沿的模型。