Impact of climate and anthropogenic stressors on groundwater inputs to inland coastal waters

内陆沿海水域对加拿大具有巨大的娱乐、经济和生态价值，但由于水质退化，这一价值正在迅速减少。例如，据估计，将五大湖从目前的受损状态中恢复过来，仅从娱乐和旅游业就能带来65 - 118亿美元的直接经济效益。除非实施有效的政策和计划，否则随着内陆沿海地区受到越来越多的人类影响和气候变化的影响，水质将继续恶化，这可能导致不可逆转的生态和经济后果。为了恢复和保护内陆沿海的水质，政策制定者和监管机构迫切要求对包括地下水排放在内的各种污染源的贡献提供指导。虽然研究表明地下水可能是向沿海水域输送污染物的主要途径，但人们对其对水质退化的作用知之甚少。例如，地下水占进入五大湖流域地表水的50%之多，但地下水的输入仍然是长期水质预测和制定有效政策和计划的最大不确定因素之一。管理来自地下水的污染物是极具挑战性的，因为从实施土地利用变化或最佳管理做法到观察到沿海水质变化之间往往有很长的时间延迟（长达数十年）。这是因为污染物在含水层中的移动速度通常非常慢。由于这种延迟，如果没有基于强有力的科学理解和长期预测积极实施，针对管理地下水污染物输入的政策和计划将来不及防止水质危机（例如，伊利湖和温尼伯湖频繁出现大规模藻华，以及随后沿海生态系统的关闭）。***本研究项目将对人类活动（地下水抽水率、地下水污染源、土地利用活动）和气候（湖泊水位下降、季节性水位波动变化、降雨模式变化）对从地下水到内陆沿海水域的长期污染物负荷的影响进行战略性的科学理解。在接下来的5年里，将采用先进的计算机模型结合新的实地和实验室研究来评估这些压力源对地下水排放强度的影响，以及随后向内陆沿海水域加载的营养物质和目标药物化合物。本研究将由1名博士后、5名研究生和5名本科生参与。他们将获得前沿的跨学科培训，并通过与环境政策制定者和管理者的密切互动获得宝贵的现实经验

Inland coastal waters are of enormous recreational, economic and ecological value to Canada, yet due to degrading water quality this value is being rapidly diminished. For example, it is estimated that restoring the Great Lakes from their current impaired state will lead to direct economic benefits of USD $6.5-11.8 billion from recreation and tourism alone. Unless effective policy and programs are implemented, water quality will continue to degrade as inland coastal areas are exposed to increasing human impacts, and the climate changes - this could lead to irreversible ecological and economic consequences. To restore and protect inland coastal water quality, policy makers and regulators are urgently requesting guidance on the contribution of various pollution sources including groundwater discharge. While studies have shown that groundwater can be a major pathway for delivering pollutants to coastal waters, its contribution to degrading water quality is poorly understood. For instance, groundwater represents as much as 50% of the water entering surface waters in the Great Lakes Basin, and yet groundwater inputs remain one of the largest uncertainties for long term water quality predictions and in the development of effective policy and programs. Managing pollutant inputs from groundwater is extremely challenging because there is often a large time delay (up to decades) between when land use changes or best management practices are implemented, and when changes in coastal water quality are observed. This is because pollutants often travel very slowly in aquifers. Because of this delay, policy and programs targeted at managing groundwater pollutant inputs will be too late to prevent water quality crises (e.g., frequent massive algal blooms in Lake Erie and Lake Winnipeg, and subsequent shutdown of coastal ecosystems) if they are not proactively implemented based on strong scientific understanding and long term predictions.***This research program will develop strategic scientific understanding of the impact of anthropogenic (groundwater pumping rates, groundwater pollution sources, land use activity) and climate (decreasing lake water levels, changing seasonal water level fluctuations, varying rainfall patterns) stressors on long term pollutant loading from groundwater to inland coastal waters. In the next 5 years, advanced computer modeling combined with novel field and laboratory studies will be conducted to evaluate the impact of these stressors on the magnitude of groundwater discharge, and subsequent loading of nutrients and target pharmaceutical compounds to inland coastal waters. The research will be conducted by 1 postdoctoral fellow, 5 graduate students and 5 undergraduate students. They will obtain leading-edge interdisciplinary training and gain valuable real-world experience through close interactions with environmental policy makers and managers.***