Environmental impacts of complex effluent release to a model prairie aquatic network

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The release of chemically complex municipal and industrial effluents into aquatic environments is a global-scale issue that is rapidly increasing with population growth and increasing water consumption. Effluent release has complex and poorly-defined impacts on aquatic ecosystems, with potential to negatively impact public health. To address these uncertainties, we have designed a multidisciplinary research program that defines organismal to ecosystem responses to complex effluent loading in a socio-economically important watershed in southern Alberta. Like many effluent-receiving watersheds, the Frank Lake wetland in the Upper Little Bow River watershed represents a complex management scenario. Like other watersheds, this system is faced with degradation of habitat and water quality due to its long history of intensive land-use, and inputs of agro-industrial and municipal effluent. There is concern about the effects that inputs of nutrients and chemicals, which are largely uncharacterized, might have in the wetland, the river, and the downstream multi-use reservoir. Our project brings together partners from academic, industrial, and municipal sectors to generate novel information and data to guide water resource management, and answer pressing questions in watershed research regarding effluent fate, impacts, and the role of wetlands in effluent remediation. If well managed, aquatic habitats in the upper Little Bow River watershed will continue to provide decades-worth of ecosystem services in the coming years, which represents millions of dollars of services to stakeholders. Here, we will fill knowledge gaps to inform the management of this economically-important watershed. In turn this will help to maximize water treatment value to enhance other important ecosystem services in southern Alberta and throughout Canada. This research project serves as an important and cutting-edge model for similar effluent-receiving watersheds worldwide.