william j. mitsch, ph.d. -...

Dealing with downstream effects of excessive

agricultural fertilizer use at a watershed scaleHow ecologically engineered wetlands can help

William J. Mitsch, Ph.D.

Eminent Scholar and Director,

Everglades Wetland Research Park

Sproul Chair for Southwest Florida Habitat Restoration

and Management

Florida Gulf Coast University

Naples Florida, USA

Editor-in-Chief, Ecological Engineering

• Water purification

• Flood

regulation/storm

protection

• Biodiversity islands

and corridors

• Climate regulation

(Carbon

sequestration)

• Locations for human

relaxation and nature

observation/education

Wetlands provide

valuable “ecosystem

services”:

Excess nitrogen and phosphorus are causing changes to aquatic ecosystems

far in excess of any changes we have seen so far due to climate

“More than 750 aquatic ecosystems worldwide currently suffer from degraded

ecosystem services due to urban and agricultural inputs that cause water

quality impairments such as hypoxic ‘dead zones’ and harmful algal blooms”

Prof. Jay Martin, Ohio State University

Source: World

Resource

Institute

Creating and Restoring

Wetlands for Reducing

Nitrogen Pollution of Coastal

Ecosystems

Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri (MOM)

Basin Restoration

Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park

at The Ohio State University

March 2012

Source: Mitsch et al. Ecol. Eng (Nov 2014)

g-N m-2 y-1

Nitrogen Budget

Denitrification

Annual Pattern

Batson et al., 2012.

J. Env. Qual. 41: 2024-2032.

Song et al., 2014

Ecol. Eng. 72: 40-46.

Better Fertilizer Management

Created/Restored

Wetlands

Restored

Riparian

Bottomlands

Mitsch et al. 2001

2 million ha of these ecosystems are needed

Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri (MOM) Basin Restoration

Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia

Our Recommendation

Published

Mid-term grades for the six large-scale wetland restorations*A = excellent; B = good; C = average; D = poor; F=failure; I = incomplete

*Mitsch, W.J. 2014. When will ecologists learn engineering and engineers learn

ecology? Eco. Eng. 65: 9-14.

Restoration

Case Study

Type of

restoration

Ecosystem

being

restored

Scale of

restoration,

km2

Ecosystem

services

sought

Mid-Term

Grade

Indian Ocean

Mangroves

(Post-Tsunami)

Coastal Mangrove

swamps 15,000

Coastal

protection C

Louisiana

(Mississippi

River) Delta

Coastal Mostly salt

marshes 36,000

Coastal

protection;

regional ecology

enhancement

D-

Delaware Bay

Salt Marshes

Coastal Salt marshes

670

Fisheries and

aquatic food

chain

enhancement

A-

Mississippi-

Ohio-Missouri

(MOM) River

Basin

Watershed Freshwater

wetlands and

riparian forests

20,000 Water quality

improvement I

Mesopotamian

Marshlands

Watershed Phragmites

marshes 20,000

Return of lost

culture and

landscape

A

Florida

Everglades


streams and

marshes

46,000

Water quality

and hydrologic

improvement

D+

Creating and Restoring

Wetlands to Protect the

Florida Everglades

The Greater Florida Everglades

Kissimmee

RiverLake Okeechobee

The Everglades

“River of Grass”Gulf of

Mexico

Big Cypress

Swamp

Coastal Mangroves

panorama of Miccosukee Indians

Florida Everglades

Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA)

“Everglades Forever”

"There are no other Everglades in

the world. They are, they have

always been, one of the unique

regions of the earth; remote,

never wholly known. Nothing

anywhere else is like them..."

Everglades: River of Grass (1947)

Marjory Stoneman Douglass

Restoring the Florida Everglades

Mid-term grades for the six large-scale wetland restorations*A = excellent; B = good; C = average; D = poor; F=failure; I = incomplete

*Mitsch, W.J. 2014. When will ecologists learn engineering and engineers learn

ecology? Eco. Eng. 65: 9-14.

Restoration

Case Study

Type of

restoration

Ecosystem

being

restored

Scale of

restoration,

km2

Ecosystem

services

sought

Mid-Term

Grade

Indian Ocean

Mangroves

(Post-Tsunami)

Coastal Mangrove

swamps 15,000

Coastal

protection C

Louisiana

(Mississippi

River) Delta

Coastal Mostly salt

marshes 36,000

Coastal

protection;

regional ecology

enhancement

D-

Delaware Bay

Salt Marshes

Coastal Salt marshes

670

Fisheries and

aquatic food

chain

enhancement

A-

Mississippi-

Ohio-Missouri

(MOM) River

Basin


wetlands and

riparian forests

20,000 Water quality

improvement I

Mesopotamian

Marshlands

Watershed Phragmites

marshes 20,000

Return of lost

culture and

landscape

A

Florida

Everglades


streams and

marshes

46,000

Water quality

and hydrologic

improvement

D+

Cladium jamaicense

sawgrass

from Reddy et al., 1993

Typha domingensis

cattail

Stormwater

Treatment

Areas (light

green)

Treatment Wetlands in the Everglades

aka Stormwater Treatment Area (STA’s)

Lake

Okeechobee

Everglades

Agricultural

Area

23,000 ha of

these wetlands

have been

created

Everglades National Park

Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) upstream of Everglades

Stormwater Treatment Areas (all 6 STAs)


STA 1W Phosphorus


Stormwater Treatment Areas (all 6 STAs)

Mitsch et al.

2000

0,00

0,20

0,40

0,60

0,80

1,00

1,20

1,40

1,60

1,80

2,00

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Pho

sp

horu

s r

eta

ine

d, g

-P m

-2 y

r-1


!

" !

#!

$!

%!

&! !

&" !

&#!

&$!

&%!

" ! !

" " !

" #!

" $!

" ! ! % " ! ! ' " ! &! " ! && " ! &"

STA 1W Phosphorus (last 5 years)


10 ppbAVERAGE INFLOW 191 ppb

AVERAGE OUTFLOW 35 ppb

AVERAGE REDUCTION 82%

240

200

160

120

80

40

0

2008 2010 2012

Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) mesocosm experiment

The Mesocosm Experiment

Plant Community Treatments1. Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense)

2. Cattail (Typha domengensis)

3. Water lily (Nymphaea odorata)

4. Water lily-Eleocharis sp. mixed community

5. Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) including

Najas guadalupensis, Chara sp.

6. Control- soil without introduction vegetation**Through the first two years of the study, the control system became dominated by

Najas guadalupensis and Chara sp. It is sometimes referred to by us as the

“self-design” treatment.



Last 6 months, September 2012 – March 2013

Sierra Club EndorsementJanuary 11, 2015

Larry E. Fink, M.S., Waterwise Consulting, LLC

For those who think I have engaged in hyperbole as regards my claim

that SFWMD systematically under-designed the STAs, here is a hot

off the presses analysis by William Mitsch, formerly at Ohio State

University and now at Florida Gulf Coast University, et al., who, in

the paper, "Protecting the Florida Everglades Wetlands with

Wetlands: Can Stormwater Phosphorus be Reduced to Oligotrophic

Conditions?" concludes as follows:

"-- Achieving 10 ppb phosphorus concentrations consistently from

created wetlands in the Florida Everglades remains problematic but

this research confirms that it may be possible with low loading rates,

the right vegetation communities, and low-nutrient soils.”

Restoring the Black Swamp in

Ohio for Mitigating Harmful

Algal Blooms (HABs) in Lake

Erie

Satellite Image from Sept 3, 2011 of Western Lake Erie (Michalak et al. 2013) PNAS

Lake Erie

Algal Blooms

“Nutrient

impairment

continues to

plague Lake Erie,

impacting an

$11.5 billion

tourism industry” Ohio Lake Erie

Phosphorus Task Force

(Nov 2013)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Mayor says water crisis is similar to 9/11Both were wake-up calls, led to second-guessing

BY TOM TROY, BLADE POLITICS WRITER

Mayor D. Michael Collins said on Monday that the water emergency that crippled

Toledo’s water supply Aug. 2 was like the terrorist attack suffered by the United

States on Sept. 11, 2001 — a wake-up call to community action.

And Toledo City Council’s utilities committee on Monday delved into the Aug. 2-4

crisis that made Toledo a national byword for the health threat posed by blooming

algae.

Mr. Collins said in an interview with The Blade’s editorial board and a Blade

reporter that just as 9/11 created a change in Americans’ attitude toward terrorism

preparedness, so the great algae bloom of 2014 should not be ignored.

Source: Dolan and Chapra (2012) J. Great Lakes Res, 38, 730-

740

Sources of Phosphorus

to Lake Erie, 2003-2011

Metric tons

P/yr

Non-point source inputs 6,183

Point-source inputs 1,884

Atmospheric inputs 525

Inputs from upstream Lake

Huron

336

TOTAL 8,929

Source: Scavia et al (2012) J. Great Lakes Res

The western basin received approximately

60% of the 2003-2011 average TP loads

Most of that load

comes from the

Maumee River Basin

Source: Mitsch et al. Ecol. Eng (Nov 2014)

Wetlands in Lake Erie Watershed in Ohio, 1780s

Wetlands in Lake Erie Watershed in Ohio, today

Restoring the Black Swamp to Save

Lake Erie

By William J. Mitsch

Sept. 4, 2014 Water Environment Federation

The harmful algal blooms in western Lake Erie for the past few years and the toxic

algae that caused Toledo Ohio to shut down the municipal water supply in August 2014

are symptomatic that there is something very wrong with the way we are managing our

landscapes. Nutrients, especially phosphorus are pouring into this shallowest (18 m

average) portion of the shallowest Great Lake, mostly as runoff from agricultural fields,

are causing seasonal bursts in algal production with their accompanying problems of

slimy aesthetics, dissolved oxygen depletion in bottom waters, fish kills, and toxicity.

www.wef.org

COULD WE SOLVE THE LAKE ERIE ALGAL BLOOMS BY RESTORING THE

GREAT BLACK SWAMP?

• Wetlands can be designed to remove significant amounts of

nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural runoff in large-scale

watersheds. Concentrations on the order of 20-30 ppb of total

phosphorus and 1 ppm total N are reasonable expectations

but lower concentrations can be achieved.

• While 10 ppb of phosphorus from treatment wetlands is a

challenging goal in the Florida Everglades, it may be possible

for storm waters from the Everglades Agricultural Area to

achieve those levels if extensive wetlands downstream of the

current stormwater treatment wetlands (STAs) are

implemented.

• Another strategy in the Florida Everglades is to simply

recognize that the current water conservation areas and other

basins south of the STAs may already be providing that

ecosystem service.

Conclusions

• The fact that wetlands do improve water quality (and

sequester carbon) sustainably does not automatically mean

that they will be implemented. There are large land

requirements and some land managers still fear committing to

wetlands for a variety of non-scientific reasons.

• Wetland restoration and creation are not easy. They require

attention to Mother Nature (self-design) and Father Time

(new wetlands take time to reach their potential).

Conclusions

Available on line at John

Wiley and Amazon.com

Mitsch, W.J. and J.G.

Gosselink. 2015.

Wetlands, 5th ed. John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.,

Hoboken, NJ. 744 pp.

Thanks!

[email protected]

fgcu.edu/swamp

william j. mitsch, ph.d. -...

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