Quantifying atmospheric transport and deposition of contaminants into water resources
Location
Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu
Start Date
4-2-2014 1:00 PM
End Date
4-2-2014 1:15 PM
Description
Water resources have been contaminated by many pollutants such as pesticides and nutrients. To develop strategies for effective watershed management, one of the greatest challenges facing both scientists and policy makers is to identify the sources of pollutants and to determine the relative contributions of different sources to a specific watershed. The contaminants in a watershed have local sources such as leaching and surface runoff from nearby poorly managed agricultural fields, as well as regional and even global sources from which pollutants can be emitted and transported through the atmosphere and deposited in the watershed. However, quantifying the long-range transport and deposition of pollutants has been an outstanding challenge for watershed management. To fill the gaps, we developed a multi-media chemical transport modeling system that has become a useful tool for quantifying the transport and deposition of pesticides from remote agroecosystems to sensitive watersheds. Since multi-pollutant interactions can significantly affect their fate and transport, this system also simulates other gaseous pollutants, particles, and radicals, such as particulate matter (PM; aerosols), NH3, NOx, O3, and OH radicals, and addresses chemical and physical interactions among them. The modeling system has been applied to identify major pesticide sources and to quantify the contributions of these sources to the contamination of the Great Lakes.
Quantifying atmospheric transport and deposition of contaminants into water resources
Eccles Conference Center
Water resources have been contaminated by many pollutants such as pesticides and nutrients. To develop strategies for effective watershed management, one of the greatest challenges facing both scientists and policy makers is to identify the sources of pollutants and to determine the relative contributions of different sources to a specific watershed. The contaminants in a watershed have local sources such as leaching and surface runoff from nearby poorly managed agricultural fields, as well as regional and even global sources from which pollutants can be emitted and transported through the atmosphere and deposited in the watershed. However, quantifying the long-range transport and deposition of pollutants has been an outstanding challenge for watershed management. To fill the gaps, we developed a multi-media chemical transport modeling system that has become a useful tool for quantifying the transport and deposition of pesticides from remote agroecosystems to sensitive watersheds. Since multi-pollutant interactions can significantly affect their fate and transport, this system also simulates other gaseous pollutants, particles, and radicals, such as particulate matter (PM; aerosols), NH3, NOx, O3, and OH radicals, and addresses chemical and physical interactions among them. The modeling system has been applied to identify major pesticide sources and to quantify the contributions of these sources to the contamination of the Great Lakes.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2014/2014Abstracts/54