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| Titel |
Is nitrogen loading in wastewater more important than phosphorus? A historic review of the relationship between algae and macrophyte biomass and wastewater nutrient loading in the Bow River |
| VerfasserIn |
Nadine Taube, Jianxun He, Cathy Ryan, Caterina Valeo |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250094072
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-9409.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The role of nutrient loading on biomass growth in wastewater-impacted rivers is important in
understanding how to most effectively optimize wastewater treatment to avoid excessive
biomass growth in the receiving water body. Nutrient loading is also affected by the nature of
the effluent mixing in the river. This paper relates ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3) and total
phosphorus (TP) from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to epilithic algae and
macrophyte biomass for determination of impacts of the WWTP on the Bow River ecosystem
in Calgary, Alberta.
Annual macrophyte biomass data and WWTP effluent nutrient data was analyzed for the
years from 1981 – 2011. Locally Weighted Scatterplot Smoothing (LOWESS) was used to
remove the influence of the river discharge from the biomass. The LOWESS method indicates
that macrophytes do not grow beyond a maximum annual discharge of 300m3s-1. Algae
biomass was most significantly correlated to daily mean discharge on sampling date and the
LOWESS method indicates that they do not grow well beyond a daily mean discharge of
100m3s-1. Correlation analysis suggests that biomass in the Bow River is nitrogen limited.
Epilithic algae are significantly correlated (p |
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