Table Of ContentECOLOGICAL 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
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© 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
