Projected precipitation increases are bad news for water quality

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://carnegiescience.edu/news/projected-precipitation-increases-are-bad-news-water-quality

Projected precipitation increases are bad news for water quality

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Washington, DC— If climate change is not curbed, increased precipitation could substantially overload U.S. waterways with excess nitrogen, according to a new study from Carnegie’s Eva Sinha and Anna Michalak and Princeton University’s Venkatramani Balaji published by Science. Excess nutrient pollution increases the likelihood of events that severely impair water quality. The study found that impacts will be especially strong in the Midwest and Northeast.

Rainfall and other precipitation washes nutrients from human activities like agriculture and fossil fuel combustion into rivers and lakes. When these waterways get overloaded with nutrients, a phenomenon called “eutrophication,” the results can be dangerous.

Harmful, toxin-producing algal blooms can develop, as well as dangerous low-oxygen dead zones called hypoxia. Over the past several years, dead zones and algal blooms in coastal regions across the United States—including the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay, and around Florida—have received extensive news coverage.

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They found that if trends in greenhouse gas emissions follow a “business-as-usual” scenario, the resulting changes in climate would alter precipitation patterns in the U.S. and increase nutrient pollution by one-fifth by the end of the century. The effects would be particularly strong in the Corn Belt and in the Northeast.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aan2409