Browsing by Subject "eutrophication"
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Item Coupling of ecological and water quality models for improved water resource and fish management(2009-05-15) Tillman, Dorothy HamlinIn recent years new ideas for nutrient management to control eutrophication in estuarine environments have been under consideration. One popular approach being considered in the Chesapeake Bay Program is called the ?top down? approach based on the premise that restoring algal predators, such as oysters and menhaden, will limit excess phytoplankton production and possibly eliminate costly nutrient control programs. The approach is being considered to replace or use in conjunction with the ?bottom up? approach of reducing nutrient loads. The ability to model higher trophic levels such as fish, as well as the eutrophication processes driving production of primary producers in an aquatic ecosystem is needed. CE-QUAL-ICM (ICM) and Ecopath were two models selected for this research. ICM is a time- and spatial-varying eutrophication model that uses nutrient loads to predict primary producers, while Ecopath is a static mass balance model representing an average time period (e.g., season or year) and uses values of primary producers and other groups to predict fish biomass. Linking the two models will provide the means of going up the food chain by trophic levels. The Chesapeake Bay was chosen as the study site since both models are in use there. Before coupling ICM and Ecopath, common links between the two models were found. Ten groups were identified with such variables as production rates, consumption rates, and unassimilated food/consumption. A post-processor/subroutine was developed for ICM to aggregate output data from 3-D to 0-D to be used in Ecopath. Two Ecopath runs were developed with data from ICM and the Chesapeake Bay (CB) Ecopath model to see how network interactions differed with data representing the same system. Four additional runs were made, creating perturbations (i.e., increased phytoplankton production) using the CB Ecopath model and replacing the primary producers with data from ICM. Final runs of ICM were conducted looking at adjusting three parameters to try to restore the Bay back to 1950 conditions. It was demonstrated that ICM data can be coupled with Ecopath to study management strategies in eutrophication. Because of model formulations there was no data exchange from Ecopath back to ICM.Item Modeling Nutrient Dynamics in Coastal LagoonsTurner, Evan L.Item Nitrogen nutrition of Alexandrium tamarense : using δ¹⁵N to track nitrogen source used for growth(2009-05) Smith, Christa Belle; Erdner, Deana L.; Pease, Tamara Kaye; McClelland, James W.Alexandrium tamarense is a harmful algal species that can produce saxitoxins, a suite of powerful neurotoxins that bioaccumulate up the food chain and can have severe economic and health impacts. With harmful algal blooms increasing temporally and spatially, it is important for us to understand the relationship between harmful algal blooms and nutrients, particularly nitrogen from anthropogenic sources. To this end, the stable nitrogen isotopic composition (δ¹⁵N) of medium nitrate, algal cells and toxin in both nitrogen-replete and nitrogen-limited batch cultures of A. tamarense were measured in order to assess the potential for using the δ¹⁵N of the toxin as a tracer of the nitrogen source used for growth. A. tamarense cells grown under nitrate-replete conditions were depleted by 1.5‰ relative to the growth medium, and saxitoxin was depleted by 1.5‰ relative to the whole cells. Under nitrate-limiting conditions, the isotopic difference between cells and saxitoxin changed as nitrate in the growth medium was depleted, indicating uncoupling of toxin synthesis and cell growth rates under changing external nutrient conditions. Determination of the absolute magnitude of the isotopic differences between the medium nitrate and either the cells or the saxitoxin was confounded by 1) using two different nitrate sources – one nitrate source was used to grow the inoculum and a different nitrate source was used for the experimental medium - with different ‰ values and 2) the presence of an unidentified, isotopically-light, nitrogen blank in the low-nitrate medium samples. I conclude that STX nitrogen isotope values have the potential to be used as nitrogen source indicators. However, overall fractionation between whole cells and STX is unknown due to the uncoupling between cell growth and STX synthesis observed during my nitrogen-limited experiment. Based on previous research on cell growth and toxin production dynamics under different nutrient regimes, it is also reasonable to assume that the observed results here may differ if a different nitrogen source was utilized by the cells for STX production. Further research could include isotope analysis of cultures grown on different nitrogen sources, such as ammonium and urea; isotopic analysis of additional compounds, such as amino acids; or use of additional stable isotopes, such as C or O.Item Phosphorus reduction in dairy effluent through flocculation and precipitation(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Bragg, Amanda LeannPhosphorus (P) is a pollutant in freshwater systems because it promotes eutrophication. The dairies in the North Bosque and its water body segments import more P than they export. Dairies accumulate P-rich effluent in lagoons and use the wastewater for irrigation. As more P is applied as irrigation than is removed by crops, P accumulates in the soil. During intense rainfall events, P enters the river with stormwater runoff and can become bio-available. Reducing the P applied to the land would limit P build up in the soil and reduce the potential for P pollution. Since wastewater P is associated with suspended solids (SS), the flocculants, poly-DADMAC and PAM, were used to reduce SS. To precipitate soluble P from the effluent, NH4OH was added to raise the pH. Raw effluent was collected from a dairy in Comanche County, TX, and stored in 190-L barrels in a laboratory at Texas A&M University. Flocculant additions reduced effluent P content by as much as 66%. Addition of NH4OH to the flocculated effluent raised the pH from near 8 to near 9, inducing P precipitation, further reducing the P content. The total P reduction for the best combination of treatments was 97%, a decrease from 76 to 2 mg L-1. If this level of reduction were achieved in dairy operations, P pollution from effluent application would gradually disappear.Item The Combined Effect of Ocean Acidification and Euthrophication on water pH and Aragonite Saturation State in the Northern Gulf of Mexico(2013-04-10) Garcia Tigreros, FenixRising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are increasing the rate at which anthropogenic CO2 is accumulating in the ocean, and thereby acidifying ocean water. However, accumulation of anthropogenic CO2 is not the only process affecting coastal oceans. Anthropogenic inputs of nutrients to coastal waters can result in massive algal blooms, a process known as eutrophication. Microbial consumption of this organic matter depletes bottom waters of oxygen and increases acidity through the release of CO2. This study assesses the synergistic effect of ocean acidification and eutrophication in the coastal ocean using data from six cruises to the northern Gulf of Mexico. In addition, this study investigates the effect of the 2011 Mississippi River flood on coastal pH and aragonite saturation states. Data from a model simulation using data collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico indicates that eutrophication is contributing to acidification of subsurface waters and plays a larger role than acidification from atmospheric CO2 uptake. Furthermore, results from the model simulation show that the decrease in pH since the industrial era is 0.04 units greater than expected from ocean acidification and eutrophication combined. The additional decrease was attributed to the reduced buffering capacity of the region and may be related to the uptake of atmospheric CO2 into O2-depleted and CO2-enriched waters, the addition of atmospheric CO2 into O2-rich and CO2-poor waters, the input of CO2 via respiration into waters in equilibrium with high atmospheric CO2, or a combination of all three processes.