University of SaskatchewanHARVEST
  • Login
  • Submit Your Work
  • About
    • About HARVEST
    • Guidelines
    • Browse
      • All of HARVEST
      • Communities & Collections
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
      • This Collection
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
    • My Account
      • Login
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
      View Item 
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item

      Phosphorus cycling and water quality in an agriculural watershed

      Thumbnail
      View/Open
      GALUSCHIK-THESIS.pdf (2.137Mb)
      Date
      2015-05-01
      Author
      Galuschik, Noel
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
      Show full item record
      Abstract
      Excess rural and urban nutrient inputs have led to downstream water quality degradation. Landowners in a small watershed in south central Manitoba, Canada have installed small dams as flood control mechanisms. Previous work has shown these dams and reservoirs are effective at decreasing total phosphorus (P) export, however questions of permanence, daily P fluctuation, and mechanisms influencing P retention still remain. Sediment nutrient dynamics can exert an important control on water quality on daily, monthly, and yearly timescales. To help better understand spatial and temporal patterns of P retention, P sorption assays were constructed (equilibrium P concentration or EPC0) and compared monthly measurements of EPC0 in small dammed reservoirs with their natural analog, stream pools. Dammed reservoirs and stream pools both showed a strong capacity to sorb P from the water column and as such, sediment processes represent a P sink across much of the catchment. In situ high frequency P sensors were deployed to assess short-term changes in P concentrations in four dammed reservoirs. Diel changes were only apparent later in the summer (August) but what drives these changes is unknown. Dam design to optimize nutrient retention should consider factors affecting P retention, including sediment geochemistry, but also residence time, and water chemistry as potential controls on P sorption. Diel sampling results suggest that water quality monitoring regimes that rely on singular grab samples should aim to sample in the mid-morning, especially later in the summer, so as to not over or underestimate P concentrations in water bodies.
      Degree
      Master of Environment and Sustainability (M.E.S.)
      Department
      School of Environment and Sustainability
      Program
      Environment and Sustainability
      Supervisor
      Baulch, Helen
      Committee
      Lindenschmidt, Karl-Erich; Elliott, Jane; Jardine, Tim
      Copyright Date
      April 2015
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-04-2018
      Subject
      phosphorus cycling, water quality, biogeochemistry, diel cycles
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      University of Saskatchewan

      University Library

      © University of Saskatchewan
      Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy