Monitoring the eutrophication of freshwaters

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to thanks to the cooperation between Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry and National Chiao Tung University for giving me a precious chance to my research in wonderful country like Taiwan It brings me abundant honor to work and submit my thesis for graduation I really want to show my deeply grateful to Prof Dr Chihpin Huang for his generous and useful suggestions during the planning and development of my research work His pleasure to give his time so valuable to help me finished my internship in Taiwan I sincerely thanks to Dr Do Xuan Luan for his conscientious contribution, enthusiastic attitude and precious critiques of this research work and after I arrived to Taiwan, helping me to understand how to complete proposal and gave me thesis structure I am also thankful to Ms Hsiao-Fen and Mr Ngo Dinh Ngoc Giao for teaching me various techniques and methods used in water analysis field They were very helpful in providing me constructive feedback and suggestions on my project and helping me to successful complete several of my experiments and report Without them help and devotion, I afraid that I would not able to catch this stage I feel really lucky to be a part in Prof Dr Chihpin Huang’s lab Thanks to all the members in Professor Huang’s laboratory who willing give me a hand when I work in there I also show deep gratitude to my family for giving me emotional, encouragement and physical and financial support At last, I would like to thank all those other persons who supported me in finishing this report Due to my lack of knowledge, the mistake is inevitable, I am so thankful if I obtain the comments and opinions from teachers and others to contribute my report Sincerely, Le Thi Huong Mai iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLE vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research rationale 1.2 Research’s objectives 1.3 Research question 1.4 Limitations PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Eutrophication 2.2 Eutrophication Index 2.3 Eutrophication assessment in Taiwan PART III MATERIALS AND METHODS 3.1 Water sampling and analysis 3.2 Water quality assessment 10 3.2.1 Estimation of Chlorophyll-a: 10 3.2.2 Analyze Suspended Solids (SS) 11 3.2.3 Analyze the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) index 13 3.2.4 Measurement of the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) index: 14 iv 3.2.5 Measure pH and ORP values 15 3.2.6 Measure Transparency 15 3.2.7 Ammonia Nitrogen measurement 16 2.3.8 Analyze the Total Phosphorous (TP) index: 17 3.2 Calculation RPI and CTSI 17 PART IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 Water Quality Assessment 20 4.2 River Pollution Index 25 4.2.1 Calculation of the RPI 25 4.2.2 Calculation of CTSI 27 PART V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 30 5.1 Conclusion 30 5.2 Recommendation 30 REFERENCES 32 v PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research rationale Eutrophication is a harmful environmental issue because it leads to a deterioration of water quality and is one of the biggest impediments to achieving the quality objectives established by the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) at the European level Following the Survey of the State of the World's Lakes- a promoted project by the International Lake Environment Committee announced that eutrophication affects on 54% of Asian lakes, 53% of those in Europe, 48% of those in North America, 41% of those in South America and 28% of those in Africa (www.lescienze.it) All water parts are impacted by a natural and slow eutrophication process, which consists of a continuously growing in the contribution of nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus (organic load) up to it overloads the capacity of the water body (i.e the capacity of a lake, river or sea to purify itself), resulting in structural changes in the waters That circumstance has gone through a very rapid progression in the last few decades because of the appearance of human as well as their activities Eutrophication also occurs naturally over thousands of years as the lakes grow old and filled with sediments Besides, human activities have sped up the degree and rate of eutrophication through both minimal source and maximal source discharges of the chemical nutrients (phosphates and nitrates) into aquatic systems Some of the consequences of eutrophication include threatens the survival of fish and other aquatic life forms; deterioration of water quality and limits access to safe drinking water; poisoning and impact on human health; endangers fishing and degradation of recreational opportunities Remarkeable, one of the major effects of eutrophication is algal blooms that barrier light from getting into the water and harm the fauna and flora that need it If the overgrowth of algae increase, it can prevent oxygen from getting into the water, making it hypoxic and causing a dead zone where no organisms can survive The sun provides the numerous resource for creating green and sustainable electricity without toxic contamination or global warming discharges Solar energy systems/power plants not generate air pollution, water pollution, or greenhouse gases Using solar energy can have a positive and indirect influence on the environment when it improves or decreses the use of other energy sources that have larger impacts on the environment However, many conflict that solar panels are not that clean since they require energy to produce and sometimes use harmful chemical during the processing Therefore, lots of research and projects are set up to assess the impact of solar panels on the environment where they are installed Taiwan is a country that focuses on the assurance and steady state of the environment So, the influence of eutrophication and the solar panels on the water environment is a concern of this country Allowing for all aspects and problems that I mentioned above, I suggest research: “Monitoring eutrophication of freshwater” 1.2 Research’s objectives - The objective of my research was to assess the eutrophication and manage the water quality in local areas (two regions in North and South) of Taiwan - In addition, evaluating the possible effects of solar panels on the research water environment where they are installed This study used parameters of Water Quality Index and calculated by River Pollution Index equations 1.3 Research question - How does eutrophication take place at two research sites? - Is the solar panel having any impact on water quality in two research regions? 1.4 Limitations Due to the limited time of my internship in Taiwan, there are not many observations the fluctuation about the effects of eutrophication and solar panels factors on research regions PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Eutrophication Eutrophication is defined in several ways; there is general agreement on the following definition of eutrophication (Tusseau-Vuillemin 2001; Bukata 2005; Khan et al 2005): the nutrients enrichment from various sources into water body together with other factors (lights, temperature, oxygen, and retention time) causing increase in primary productivity of the ecosystem Presence of eutrophication is commonly associated with greenish slim layer (Khan et al 2005) which reduces light penetration as well as oxygen mixing with limit growth of other species in water body Eutrophication process is classified into various trophic states as described Firstly, Oligotrophic which nutrients content in the water body is low and not productive in terms of marine fauna and flora life Next, the Mesotrophic is intermediate nutrient level, fairly productive in phase of marine fauna and flora life and showing emerging status of water quality issues Then, Eutrophic which is the water part emerge as richness sign in nutrients, very productive in phase of marine fauna and flora life and showing increasing status of water issues The last one, Hypertrophic- that is very high nutrient concentrations in the water body where plant growth demonstrated by physical reasons; water quality issues are serious and almost continuous The above mentioned trophic states category is described in Table 2.1 as adopted from Chapman (1996) Table 2.1: Nutrient level, biomass and productivity of lakes at each trophic category Trophic category Ultraoligotroph ic Oligotrop hic Mesotroph ic Eutrophic Hypereutr ophic 2.2 Eutrophication Index Eutrophication Index (E.I) is among other Water Quality Indicates (WQIs) which have been developed for aquatic system (Giordani et al 2009) There are various methods to assess the eutrophication quality: (i) the trophic index TRIX (Vollenweider et al., 1998; Primpas and Karydis, 2011); (ii) chl-a biomass classification scheme (Simboura et al., 2005; Pagou et al., 2002); and (iii) eutrophication index (E.I.) (Primpas et al., 2010) TRIX was measured according to the equation based on Vollenweider et al (1998), whereas eutrophication ranges have been modified and applied following to Primpas and Karydis (2011): TRIX = log10 [(CPO4*CDIN*CChl-a*D%O2) +1.5]/1.2 The E.I was calculated by the following mathematical equation (Primpas et al., 2010): E.I = 0.279*CPO4 + 0.261*CNO3 + 0.296*CNO2 + 0.275*CNH4 + 0.261*CChl-a Where: CDIN is the concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (= CNO3+ CNO2+ CNH4); CPO4 is the concentration of phosphate; CNO3 is the concentration of nitrate; CNO2 is the concentration of nitrite; CNH4 is the concentration of ammonium -3 -3 (nutrient concentrations for TRIX in mg*m ; for E.I calculation in mmol*m ); CChl-a -3 is the concentration of phytoplankton chl-a (in mg*m ) D%O2 is the % deviation of the oxygen concentration from saturation conditions Table 2.2 shows the different methods used for the eutrophication estimation, the index used for each methodological tool, the classes of eutrophication status, and the eutrophication range Nutrient, DO and chl-a data were measured using standard methods and quality assurance protocol according to the ISO 17025 certification procedures (Mullin and Riley, 1955; Murphy and Riley, 1962; Holm-Hansen et al., 1965; Carpenter, 1965; Koroleff, 1970; Strickland and Parsons, 1977; Welschmeyer, 1994) Table 2.2: The methodological tools, indicators, and ranges are used for Greek coastal areas in the eutrophication assessment Methods TRIX a,b Chl-a biomass classification scheme c,d e E.I a Vollenweider et al (1998) b Primpas and Karydis (2011) c Simpoura et al (2005) fluctuates continuously However, the result shows that the change is not too much and can’t affect the transparency index During the sampling survey, the 21 maximum ammonia nitrogen detection value was 1.15 mg/L, the minimum value was 0.13 mg/L The ammonia nitrogen detection value is very low (7/8 samples under 0.8 mg/L) Besides, the maximum COD detection value was 32 mg/L, the minimum was mg/L COD concentration were found to be high in the middle of the sampling period Then gradually decrease at the next sampling before it increases again at the nearest sampling About dissolved oxygen: The maximum measured DO was 7.3 mg/L, the minimum value was 3.7 mg/L The first half of the survey, DO concentration was slightly low (less than or equal mg/L), then gradually increased to the next stage Next, the maximum detection value of BOD in water was mg/L, the minimum was 0.5 mg/L This result shows that the content of biodegradable organic matter in water is quite low The average value of the BOD test is less than mg/L, and the water quality is not affected Remarkable, the maximum total phosphorus detection value in water was 10,730 µg/L (about 10 mg/L), the minimum value was ND (