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

气候和人为压力因素对内陆沿海水域地下水输入的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-03686
• 负责人: Robinson, Clare
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=708177
• 关键词: Impact; climate; anthropogenic; stressors; groundwater

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.

内陆沿海水域对加拿大具有巨大的娱乐、经济和生态价值，但由于水质恶化，这一价值正在迅速下降。例如，据估计，将五大湖从目前受损的状态中恢复过来，仅休闲和旅游业就将带来 6.5-118 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，水质将继续恶化，这可能会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水质，政策制定者和监管者迫切要求对包括地下水排放在内的各种污染源的贡献进行指导。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，但人们对它对水质退化的影响知之甚少。例如，地下水占进入五大湖盆地地表水的水量的 50%，但地下水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。管理地下水污染物输入极具挑战性，因为实施土地利用变化或最佳管理实践与观察到沿海水质变化之间往往存在很大的时间延迟（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缓慢。由于这一延误，如果不基于强有力的科学认识和长期预测积极实施，旨在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发生大规模藻华，以及随后的沿海生态系统关闭）。 该研究计划将对人为（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）压力因素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科学理解。在接下来的五年中，将进行先进的计算机建模与新颖的现场和实验室研究相结合，以评估这些压力因素对地下水排放量以及随后向内陆沿海水域装载营养物和目标药物化合物的影响。该研究由1名博士后、5名研究生和5名本科生进行。他们将获得领先的跨学科培训，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。