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Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project: Goals, Results & Links to PSNSRP
Citation:
Hooper, D., J. Lin, AND J. Compton. Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project: Goals, Results & Links to PSNSRP. Puget Sound Nutrient Forum, Olympia, Washington, June 04, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
This is an invited presentation to the Puget Sound Nutrient Forum June 4th. David Hooper, Jiajia Lin, Jana Compton are the presenters about the Nooksack Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen (NFT-N) research project. Dave is a Professor at Western Washington University, Jiajia Lin is an NRC post-doc with EPA-WED and Jana Compton is a WED ecologist. Dave is presenting the first 15 slides, then Jiajia steps in at 16 to present the nutrient budget. Jana will start on slide 27 to lead the discussion at the very end. The presentation will mention explicit links to Washington State's Puget Sound Nutrient Reduction Project (PSNSRP). This presentation represents the work on the ongoing effort in the Shared Scenarios Pathways work in SHC 4.61.4 which has a final product in 2019. Any new work on this project will be moved into SSWR Research Area 3 in 2020.
Description:
Spanning the border of U.S. and Canada, the Nooksack-Fraser transboundary area (2639 km2) is home to the communities of Lynden, Washington, and Abbotsford, British Columbia, with a strong base in farming, fisheries and outdoor recreation. Balancing these uses is a key issue in the area, where nitrogen (N) loading contributes to coastal eutrophication and prolonged contamination of groundwater. The Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen (NFT-N) project had an initial goal of creating a N budget using data on energy use, transportation, fertilization, wastewater treatment, livestock operations, and fisheries. Using local data, we estimated that livestock feed and fertilizer import were the two largest N input sources to the U.S. part of the watershed, averaging 3472 and 1131 metric tons (MT) N yr-1, respectively. Atmospheric deposition was the third largest source of N to the watershed, averaging 527 MT N yr-1. The import of human and pet food added 655 MT N per year to the watershed. The returns of adult salmon brought in 6 MT N yr-1 to the watershed. N loss through volatilization of manure averaged 2035 MT N yr-1, and denitrification losses were approximately 204 MT N yr-1. N fluxes in surface and ground water will be estimated using load simulation and mass balance approaches. Preliminary results for the U.S. side demonstrate the importance of N inputs from agriculture sector, indicating that careful management of agricultural fertilizers and manures is key to improving water quality. Results will be refined by integrating with an existing Canadian N budget to achieve a complete budget for the watershed, and used to understand connections between inputs and N fates in ground and surface water. The budget will be used as a foundation to develop an ecosystem model for management scenario simulation to support future efforts in developing sustainable N management plans in the region.