Cumulative impacts on water-quality functions of wetlands

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6922228

Hemond, H F; Benoit, J

Cumulative impacts on the water-quality function of wetlands are impacts whose total effect cannot be predicted from the sum of the effects of individual impacts. The wetland is not a simple filter; it embodies chemical, physical, and biotic processes that can detain, transform, release, or produce a wide variety of substances. Because wetland water-quality functions result from the operation of many individual, distinct, and quite dissimilar mechanisms, it is necessary to consider the nature of each individual process. Given knowledge of the various wetland processes, it is possible to make more-guided judgments about the effects a suite of impacts is likely to have. When considered in this light, many common wetland alterations seem likely to involve cumulative impact. The wetland manager may be guided further by appropriate field measurements at specific sites; such data can aid in predicting cumulative impact or assessing the results of past wetland management.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (USA). Dept. of Civil Engineering
• OSTI ID: 6922228
• Report Number(s): PB-90-186180/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
AROMATICS
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
ECOLOGY
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FOOD CHAINS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROLOGY
MASS TRANSFER
NUTRIENTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PESTICIDES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POLLUTION
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
RUNOFF
WATER POLLUTION
WATER QUALITY
WETLANDS