Chemical and Physical Properties of the Wetlands

Abstract

Sediment and water quality data demonstrate that natural reference wetlands (REF) and natural wetlands adjacent to agriculture (AG) typically have higher concentrations of macronutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, more sediment organic matter, and more saturated sediments than are found in industrial wetlands. Conversely, conductivity, total dissolved solid, chloride, sulfate, sodium, iron, alkalinity, naphthenic acid, and boron concentrations are typically highest in process-affected wetlands in keeping with their higher inputs of tailings and industrial process water. Concentrations of these variables are intermediate in OSREF wetlands, consistent with the intermediate levels of industrial activity characteristic of OSREF wetlands. Wetland sites are organized along three principal axes of environmental variables. The most important axis is dominated by conductivity and related parameters such as total dissolved solids, sodium, alkalinity, naphthenic acids, and boron. The second axis is a macronutrient and primary productivity gradient dominated by nitrogen indices, phosphorus, chlorophyll a, and dissolved organic carbon. The third axis is primarily an ionic gradient dominated by calcium, magnesium, total suspended solids, and sulfate. The combination of low concentrations of macronutrients, low organic carbon content in sediments, high conductivity and related variables, and compact, consolidated sediments has implications for the long-term ecological health of industrial wetlands.

As crude a weapon as the cave man’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962