Commentary: Achieving phosphorus reduction targets for Lake Erie

Wilson, Robyn S.; Beetstra, Margaret; Reutter, Jeffrey M.; Hesse, G; Fussell, Kristen M. DeVanna; Johnson, Laura T.; King, Kevin W.; LaBarge, Gregory A.; Martin, Jay F.; Winslow, Christopher

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2018.11.004

Cited by 57 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In the western basin of Lake Erie, well over 80% of nutrient loading comes from non-point source landscape runoff, where the majority of acres are agricultural (Wilson et al, 2019). Thus, in order to improve water quality in the region, there is a distinct need to reduce and/or mitigate nutrient rich non-point source runoff.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the potential for saturated buffers in northwest Ohio to remediate nutrients from agricultural runoff

Jacquemin

McGlinch

Dirksen³

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Nutrient loading from nonpoint source runoff in the Midwest has emerged as one of the largest threats to water quality as the frequency of harmful algal blooms, hypoxic zones, and issues associated with human-resource interactions have risen abruptly over the past several decades. In this study, a saturated buffer ~500 m in length located in the western basin of the Lake Erie watershed was evaluated for its potential to reduce edge of field runoff and nutrient loading. Saturated buffers reduce runoff by routing subsurface tile drainage water into the riparian zone, providing an opportunity for drainage volume as well as nutrient reduction of runoff waters. Over a 12-month study period, controlled drainage was used to redirect nearly 25% of the total tile flow into the riparian zone from a subwatershed in corn/soybean rotation with near complete reductions of dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus from tile inflows averaging 4.7 and 0.08 mg/L, respectively, as well as total reduction of suspended sediments (average 10.4 mg/L). This study provides additional evidence that riparian areas are an important part of nutrient reduction strategies as they can act as both controlled drainage points by raising water tables in fields as well as nutrient sinks which couple to help mitigate nutrient runoff in the region.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the potential for saturated buffers in northwest Ohio to remediate nutrients from agricultural runoff

Jacquemin

McGlinch

Dirksen³

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…This does not imply that solutions to the problem of low water quality in the watershed are impossible to achieve. In fact, there are multiple ongoing efforts to tackle the problem that leverage the expertise of actors to design strategies to reduce phosphorus loading to levels that would contribute to a significant decline in the severity of HABs (Wilson et al 2019). Yet we believe that these initiatives would be more likely to succeed were they anchored in a formal governance structure in which the vertical coordination that we observed was paired with greater levels of coordination at a watershed scale and a higher level of communication among actors operating in the different states that share the watershed.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chief among them is that actors in charge of promoting best management practices in nutrient applications, which include soil testing, nutrient management planning, and the use of crop consultants with specialized knowledge on fertilizer use, are more active in the coordination network, i.e., they coordinate the activities of other members of the network to a greater extent than those who do not promote these BMPs. It is not easy to determine why only this BMP dummy variable achieved significance, but Wilson et al (2019) show that the one BMP practice in the western Lake Erie Basin that receives the most support among farmers is the application of the right amount of fertilizer based on consistent soil testing. Our finding might simply reflect that actors who are more active as coordinators recognize this preference and make it an important part of their advising portfolios.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic coordination and the problem of seasonal harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie

Berardo¹,

Turner²,

Rice³

2019

E&S

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The management of natural resources may potentially be improved when governance structures in social-ecological systems enable coordination among multiple actors who may operate on the same or different geographic and/or governmental scales. In this article, we analyze the network of formal coordination ties that link governmental and nongovernmental actors in the Maumee River watershed, which is the largest source of phosphorus loading into Lake Erie, one of the five Laurentian Great Lakes of North America. Since the 1990s, Lake Erie has seen a return of the seasonal harmful algal blooms (HAB) that were common in the 1960s and 1970s, and considerable research suggests that they might be triggered by excessive amounts of phosphorus produced by agriculture. Analyzing an assortment of documents that collectively detail how stakeholders relate to each other on the topic of nutrient management in the watershed, we examine who are the actors that are more likely to fulfill coordination roles, and the scales at which coordination takes place (vertically vs horizontally). Results suggest that coordination has been formalized vertically, with actors who operate at higher governmental levels being more likely to coordinate the activities of actors at lower levels. In addition, we see evidence of horizontal coordination but only in the confines of the individual state jurisdictions that share the watershed. We see this as a potentially important obstacle to solving the HABs problem in Lake Erie, given that the management of interjurisdictional watersheds is likely to be ineffective in the absence of proper coordination across the different jurisdictions that share the watershed.

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“…In the Western Lake Erie basin, for example, only 35% of producers delay fertilizer applications to avoid potential wash‐off of nutrients by rain storms (Zhang et al, 2016). Educating producers about the on‐farm economic impact of nutrients lost from fields to receiving water could be one of the most cost effective methods for improving their willingness to change the rate or timing of fertilizer applications (Wilson et al, 2014, 2019). …”

Section: Understanding and Addressing Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Latitudes, Attitudes, and Platitudes of Watershed Phosphorus Management in North America

et al. 2019

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Phosphorus (P) plays a crucial role in agriculture as a primary fertilizer nutrient—and as a cause of the eutrophication of surface waters. Despite decades of efforts to keep P on agricultural fields and reduce losses to waterways, frequent algal blooms persist, triggering not only ecological disruption but also economic, social, and political consequences. We investigate historical and persistent factors affecting agricultural P mitigation in a transect of major watersheds across North America: Lake Winnipeg, Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay, and Lake Okeechobee/Everglades. These water bodies span 26 degrees of latitude, from the cold climate of central Canada to the subtropics of the southeastern United States. These water bodies and their associated watersheds have tracked trajectories of P mitigation that manifest remarkable similarities, and all have faced challenges in the application of science to agricultural management that continue to this day. An evolution of knowledge and experience in watershed P mitigation calls into question uniform solutions as well as efforts to transfer strategies from other arenas. As a result, there is a need to admit to shortcomings of past approaches, plotting a future for watershed P mitigation that accepts the sometimes two‐sided nature of Hennig Brandt's “Devil's Element.” Core Ideas North American P mitigation experiences spanning 26 degrees of latitude are explored. Uncertainty and lag times create schisms in mitigation programs. One‐size‐fits‐all approaches cannot account for management trade‐offs. Acknowledging shortcomings in messages and approaches is imperative to moving on. Unified P mitigation provides a framework and eliminates solution singularities.

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Commentary: Achieving phosphorus reduction targets for Lake Erie

Cited by 57 publications

References 42 publications

On the potential for saturated buffers in northwest Ohio to remediate nutrients from agricultural runoff

On the potential for saturated buffers in northwest Ohio to remediate nutrients from agricultural runoff

Systemic coordination and the problem of seasonal harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie

The Latitudes, Attitudes, and Platitudes of Watershed Phosphorus Management in North America

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