ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WASTEWATER © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WASTEWATER Applied limnology and pollutant effects E.B.Welch Professor of Environmental Science Department of Civil Engineering University of Washington Seattle, Washington, USA With a contribution on Hydrographic Characteristics by T.Lindell Centre for Image Analysis Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC First published 1980 by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge Second edition 1992 E & FN Spon is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 1980 Cambridge University Press; 1992 E.B.Welch ISBN 0-203-03849-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20427-1 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0 412 34940 X (Print Edition) Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction only in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK, or in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the appropriate Reproduction Rights Organization outside the UK. 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A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC CONTENTS Preface Part One General Concepts of Aquatic Ecosystems 1 Ecosystem function and management 1.1 Ecosystem composition and energy sources 1.2 Energy flow and nutrient cycling 1.3 Efficiency of energy and nutrient use 1.4 Management of ecosystems 2 Standing crop, productivity and growth limitation 2.1 Pyramid of biomass 2.2 Productivity 2.3 Efficiency of energy transfer 2.4 Population growth and limitation 3 Hydrographic characteristics 3.1 Types of flow 3.2 Boundary layers 3.3 Physical factors controlling wastewater distribution 3.4 Density effects 3.5 Density currents 3.6 Thermal properties of lakes 3.7 Origin of lakes 3.8 Thermal cycle in a typical mid-latitude lake 3.9 Classification of lakes by temperature regime 3.10 Water movements 3.11 Surface waves 3.12 Wind-driven currents 3.13 Seiches © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC 3.14 Tidal effects 3.15 Water movements in large lakes 3.16 Thermal bar 3.17 Measurement of water movements 3.18 Dispersal processes 3.19 Sedimentation 4 Nutrient cycles 4.1 Phosphorus 4.2 Nitrogen 4.3 Sulphur 4.4 Carbon 5 Characteristics of wastewater 5.1 Domestic sources 5.2 Urban runoff 5.3 Industrial wastes 5.4 Agricultural wastes Part Two Effects of Wastes in Standing Water 6 Phytoplankton 6.1 Seasonal pattern 6.2 Population growth kinetics and concept of limitation 6.3 Effects of light and mixing 6.4 Effects of temperature 6.5 Nutrient limitation 7 Eutrophication 7.1 Definition 7.2 Phosphorus mass balance models 7.3 Trophic state criteria 7.3.1 Nutrients, productivity, biomass and transparency 8 Zooplankton 8.1 Population characteristics 8.2 Filtering and grazing 8.3 Zooplankton grazing and eutrophication 8.4 Temperature and oxygen © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC 9 Macrophytes 9.1 Habitats 9.1.1 Running water 9.1.2 Standing water 9.2 Significance of macrophytes 9.3 Effects of light 9.4 Effects of temperature 9.5 Effects of nutrients 9.6 Nutrient recycling 10 Lake and reservoir restoration 10.1 Pre-restoration data 10.2 External control on P 10.3 In-lake controls on P 10.4 In-lake controls on biomass Part ThreeEffects of Wastes in Running Water 11 Periphyton 11.1 Significance to productivity 11.2 Methods of measurement 11.3 Factors affecting growth of periphytic algae 11.4 Grazing 11.5 Organic nutrients 11.6 Periphyton community change as an index of waste type 11.7 Effects of toxicants 11.8 Nuisance 12 Benthic macroinvertebrates 12.1 Sampling for benthic macroinvertebrates 12.2 Natural factors affecting community change 12.3 Oxygen as a factor affecting community change 12.4 Temperature 12.5 Effect of food supply on macroinvertebrates 12.6 Effect of organic matter 12.7 Effects of toxic wastes 12.8 Suspended sediment 12.9 Recovery 12.10 Assessment of water quality © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC 13 Fish 13.1 Dissolved oxygen criteria 13.2 Temperature criteria 13.3 Temperature standards 13.4 Comments on standards 13.5 Toxicants and toxicity Appendices Appendix A Description of benthic macroinvertebrates and comments on their biology Appendix B Study questions and answers Appendix C Glossary References © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC PREFACE The purpose of this book is to convey a broad, but in some respects still detailed, account of the effects of several important substances in wastewater on aquatic ecosystems. To cope with expanding knowledge, there is an increasing need for synthesis and integration of pertinent information in many areas. This is especially true with effects of wastewater in aquatic ecosystems which is a prime example of an area requiring broad, interdisciplinary study. However, many pollution problems may each require a separate treatise in order to cover the recent literature fully. Although much detail must be sacrificed in a book such as this, its value is in introducing the reader to the basic concepts involved with several pertinent problems all under one cover. The emphasis is on conveying an understanding of cause and effect in assessment rather than an assessment of the national or world-wide state of the various problems. Material is presented at a level that hopefully appeals to scientists and engineers with and without a biological background. In this regard, a course, which has the same title as this book, has been successful in drawing from upper division undergraduate and graduate students from several different disciplines at the University of Washington for twenty years and is offered conjointly between Civil Engineering and Fisheries. Many of the concepts presented have been formulated over that time and this second edition is an update adding pertinent literature published over the past 12 years, as well as a rewriting and restructuring of most of the original content. Scientists and engineers with pollution enforcement and resource agencies, and in industries involved in pollution assessment/ mitigation, should find this new edition worthwhile. The reader will find a much improved organization, with division into general concepts, standing waters and running waters. Although much progress has occurred in the control of water pollution and improvement in water quality in developed countries over the past two decades, the degradation of water resources by waste substances continues in developed and developing countries alike. Eutrophication, the problem to which much of this book is devoted, has been controlled in several, well-publicized point-source problems in larger lakes. But degradation continues in countless small and medium-sized lakes in developed countries through non-point sources of nutrients such as urban © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC and agricultural runoff, and the control of excess algal biomass in streams is poorly understood. In that regard, the first three-quarters of the book could be called applied limnology. While thermal effects due to waste heat from power plants never reached a problem of large magnitude due to the insistence on cooling facilities, it threatens to reappear through global warming. Acidification of freshwaters continues to be a near global problem although reductions in emissions may occur on a broad base. Toxicants in the environment currently receive the major attention and although groundwater is most impacted by seepage from landfills, some surface waters are also affected. Problem emphasis changes, but the response of ecosystems to various levels of wastewater substances does not change. For instance, trout will respond in a predictable way to increased temperature whether from a power plant effluent or from future global warming. Thus, there is need for people in environmental protection in general and water quality control in particular to understand the basic concepts regarding the assessment of aquatic ecosystem degradation. It is to this end that I have revised and rewritten this book. I am indebted to many for encouragement in this endeavour, including the following: countless suggestions and assistance from students; reviews by Gunnel Ahlgren (temperature effects on phytoplankton), Gertrude Nürnberg (eutrophication), Dimitris Spyridakis (phosphorus and carbon cycles), Jean Jacoby (periphyton) and James Buckley (toxicants and toxicity); many discussions with colleagues, such as Ingemar Ahlgren, Barry Biggs, Dennis Cooke, John Quinn, Rich Horner, Brian Mar and Dimitris Spyridakis; and finally the contribution by Tommy Lindell on hydrographical characteristics. E.B.Welch Seattle, Washington, USA © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC Part One General Concepts of Aquatic Ecosystems © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group LLC