PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 6: Urban Ecology.
Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Changes in water quality across an urban-rural landscape gradient: The West Georgia project.
Schoonover, Jon*,1, Lockaby, B.1, Chaney, Philip2, 1 School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn, AL, USA2 Department of Geology and Geography, Auburn, AL, USA
ABSTRACT- An interdisciplinary approach is being used to examine relationships between economics, biotic and abiotic indicators, and anthropologic variables across the developing landscape of the Middle Chattahoochee Watershed in western Georgia. A two-phase, watershed-scale study was established to develop relationships between land use and water quality across an urban-rural gradient. During phase 1 (i.e. year one), biweekly grab samples were collected from pine, mixed forest, pastoral, developing, and urban watersheds ranging in size from 600-2500 ha. Nutrient loads, total suspended solid load, dissolved organic carbon, and fecal coliform counts have been determined. These data are being used to generate water quality prediction models that are based on relationships between percent land use within a watershed and water quality parameters. During the second phase (i.e. year two), the models will undergo calibration and testing by predicting water quality within the original database as well as newly chosen watersheds. Also, during the second phase, sediment origin will be estimated within the original 20 watersheds. The determination of sediment origin will be achieved through iron and textural analyses of sediment combined with channel morphology measurements taken in the headwaters of the streams. Preliminary data show that fecal coliform and chloride are tightly related to landuse, with values being the highest within the urban watersheds followed by pastured watersheds. Total dissolved solids are highest within the urban and developing watersheds, while nitrate is highest in both urban and pasture dominated watersheds.
Key words: nutrients, urbanization, sediment, fecal coliform