Source Identification of Nutrient Impairment in North Biscayne Bay, Florida, USA
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 9
Abstract
The limiting nutrient in North Biscayne Bay identified using the Redfield ratio does not correspond to a significant quantitative relation between measured concentrations of the identified nutrient and chlorophyll . Strategies for reducing chlorophyll could focus on the nutrients that are significantly correlated with chlorophyll . To identify the terrestrial sources of nutrient loads, a novel application of the load-duration curve (LDC) is shown to effectively differentiate between surface runoff and groundwater sources of nutrients in urban drainage canals. It is shown that septic tanks and stormwater-management exfiltration trenches can yield comparable nutrient loadings to groundwater, which might subsequently impact nutrient concentrations in the adjacent bay.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code used during the study were provided by a third party. These data include surface and ground water quality data, and flow-rate data in the canals. Direct request for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments
Data used in this study were mostly provided by Virginia Walsh of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, and various data were collected by DERM, SFWMD, and USGS. Manuel Arias was exceptionally helpful in uploading data and providing shape files for GIS analyses, and Omar Abdelrahman of DERM was generous in providing supplemental data.
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jan 1, 2020
Accepted: Apr 28, 2020
Published online: Jul 6, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Dec 6, 2020
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