Browsing by Author "Flanagan, Kyla Martine"

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    Evaluating the Potential Impacts of Municipal Wastewater Effluent on Benthic Macroinvertebrates in the Upper Bow River
    (2024-04-29) Sutherland, Aphra; Wrona, Frederick John; Flanagan, Kyla Martine; Scrimgeour, Garry Joseph; Hanisch, Justin
    Municipal wastewater effluent (MWWE) is a common, high-volume, point source effluent that is commonly released to urban aquatic systems. MWWE is a complex mixture containing nutrients and many emerging chemicals of concern (ESOCs), which may vary due to treatment type, receiving environments, and the population served. Outputs of MWWE have been associated with nutrient enrichment (eutrophication) but as populations grow and knowledge of ESOCs improves, it is crucial to understand how nutrient enrichment, and potential interactions of nutrients and ESOCs affect aquatic ecosystems. This study provides updated data on the basal aquatic food web of the Bow River in urban areas of its higher reaches (Canmore and Calgary) through characterizations of the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the mainstem and experimental stream systems associated with Calgary’s Pine Creek wastewater treatment plant. Changes to benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages on a longitudinal gradient and cumulative exposure to MWWE in the Bow River were statistically significant and were generally associated with nutrient enrichment (particularly phosphorus). Through the use of different sampling methodologies, MWWE exposures in the experimental streams suggest that the high-quality treated effluent produced by the Pine Creek facility causes consistent, but divergent, cumulative effects in relation to background Bow River source water. In both projects, community metrics that identify types of taxa found in assemblages also described changes to communities more effectively than traditional metrics of urban disturbance such as diversity and richness.