1. Nutrient Criteria to Protect Aquatic Life of Streams and Lakes in Intensive Agricultural Watersheds
2. Landscape controls on diffuse nutrient transfers in agricultural catchments
3. Managing Urban Stormwater Quality in a Changing Climate: Science, Engineering and Policy
4. Management Practices to Reduce Nutrient Loss from Agricultural Systems: Research Results Establishing Effective and Non-effective Conservation Practices
5. Emerging Contaminants in Groundwater and Surface Water: Selected Substances, Sources, Monitoring, Risk Assessment and Management
6. Water Quality Trading: Pre-requisite Analyses
Back to the Open Workshops Introduction
Nutrient Criteria to Protect Aquatic Life of Streams and Lakes in Intensive Agricultural Watersheds
Paper published in Water 21, February 2011 Magazine of the International Water Association
This workshop is the first of two linked workshops to bring together scientists studying the response of aquatic life to excess nutrients (N and P) and those scientists studying methods to reduce nutrient loading from agricultural systems. In this workshop we will specifically discuss the strategies and methods being developed to identify those aquatic ecosystems requiring protection and to characterize the range of nutrient levels (concentrations and loads) that limit the survival of these ecosystems. Discussion will be initiated by speakers (from Canada and the United States) having experience with the scientific and regulatory constraints which impact the process of establishing nutrient criteria/targets/standards. Critical questions to which answers will be discussed include:
- Are there nutrient levels which indicate an unquestionably healthy aquatic ecosystem regardless of the geographic setting?
- How can the effects of nutrients on aquatic ecosystems be effectively classified and realistically assessed—in terms of water quality, biodiversity, individual species or ecosystem health?
- How can we apply knowledge of trophic conditions for lakes to establishing nutrient criteria for streams and rivers?
- Can we define nutrient criteria that unquestionably indicate an unhealthy aquatic ecosystem?
- How can we apply knowledge of trophic conditions for lakes, to establishing nutrient criteria for streams and rivers?
- Can we define nutrient criteria that unquestionably indicate an unhealthy aquatic ecosystem?
- How do we account for variability in geographic conditions when setting nutrient criteria?
- Do you have existing nutrient targets or criteria for aquatic life in streams and lakes in your region? If so, what strategies were/are being used to define them?
- What are the social, political, and economic barriers to adopting effective nutrient criteria in agricultural regions?
Chair: Michael Burkart, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, U.S.A., mburkart@iastate.edu
Secretary: Brook Harker, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Invited Talks:
1 – Patricia Chambers *, Scientifically credible nutrient criteria for aquatic ecosystems in Canadian lakes and stream.
2 – Kenneth S Lubinski **, Scientific basis for designating important aquatic ecosystems and the nutrient levels need to protect them.
* Environment Canada, National Water Research Institute, Project Chief, Biogeochemistry Research, Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
** U.S. Geological Survey, Acting Chief, River Ecology Branch, and Coordinator, Fishers and Farmers Partnership of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center , La Crosse, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
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