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Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake

Reducing nonpoint source pollution is an ongoing challenge in watersheds throughout the world. Implementation of best management practices, both structural and nonstructural, is the usual response to this challenge, with the presumption that they are effective. However, monitoring of their efficacy...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Steinman, Alan D., Hassett, Michael, Oudsema, Maggie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210285/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30257513
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102111
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author Steinman, Alan D.
Hassett, Michael
Oudsema, Maggie
author_facet Steinman, Alan D.
Hassett, Michael
Oudsema, Maggie
author_sort Steinman, Alan D.
collection PubMed
description Reducing nonpoint source pollution is an ongoing challenge in watersheds throughout the world. Implementation of best management practices, both structural and nonstructural, is the usual response to this challenge, with the presumption that they are effective. However, monitoring of their efficacy is not a standard practice. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of two wetland restoration projects, designed to handle runoff during high flow events and serve as flow-through retention basins before returning flow further downstream. The Macatawa Watershed is located in west Michigan, is heavily agricultural, and drains into Lake Macatawa, a hypereutrophic lake with total phosphorus concentrations usually exceeding 100 µg/L. We measured turbidity, total phosphorus, and soluble reactive phosphorus both upstream and downstream of these wetland complexes during base flow and storm events. While both turbidity and phosphorus increased significantly during storm events compared to baseflow, we found no significant difference in upstream vs. downstream water quality two years following BMP construction. We also measured water quality in Lake Macatawa, and found the lake remained highly impaired. Possible reasons for the lack of improved water quality: (1) The restored wetlands are too young to function optimally in sediment and phosphorus retention; (2) the scale of these BMPs is too small given the overall loads; (3) the locations of these BMPs are not optimal in terms of pollutant reduction; and (4) the years following postconstruction were relatively dry so the wetlands had limited opportunity to retain pollutants. These possibilities are evaluated.
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spelling pubmed-62102852018-11-02 Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake Steinman, Alan D. Hassett, Michael Oudsema, Maggie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Reducing nonpoint source pollution is an ongoing challenge in watersheds throughout the world. Implementation of best management practices, both structural and nonstructural, is the usual response to this challenge, with the presumption that they are effective. However, monitoring of their efficacy is not a standard practice. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of two wetland restoration projects, designed to handle runoff during high flow events and serve as flow-through retention basins before returning flow further downstream. The Macatawa Watershed is located in west Michigan, is heavily agricultural, and drains into Lake Macatawa, a hypereutrophic lake with total phosphorus concentrations usually exceeding 100 µg/L. We measured turbidity, total phosphorus, and soluble reactive phosphorus both upstream and downstream of these wetland complexes during base flow and storm events. While both turbidity and phosphorus increased significantly during storm events compared to baseflow, we found no significant difference in upstream vs. downstream water quality two years following BMP construction. We also measured water quality in Lake Macatawa, and found the lake remained highly impaired. Possible reasons for the lack of improved water quality: (1) The restored wetlands are too young to function optimally in sediment and phosphorus retention; (2) the scale of these BMPs is too small given the overall loads; (3) the locations of these BMPs are not optimal in terms of pollutant reduction; and (4) the years following postconstruction were relatively dry so the wetlands had limited opportunity to retain pollutants. These possibilities are evaluated. MDPI 2018-09-25 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6210285/ /pubmed/30257513 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102111 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Steinman, Alan D.
Hassett, Michael
Oudsema, Maggie
Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title_full Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title_fullStr Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title_short Effectiveness of Best Management Practices to Reduce Phosphorus Loading to a Highly Eutrophic Lake
title_sort effectiveness of best management practices to reduce phosphorus loading to a highly eutrophic lake
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210285/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30257513
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102111
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