ABSTRACT
Scientific researchers, resource managers, and water quality practitioners often become involved in the design, implementation, and interpretation of water quality studies. Such studies take many forms, including characterization of water quality conditions, monitoring to ascertain changes in condition over time, modeling of past or future changes in water quality in response to changes in key natural and human-caused drivers of water condition, and estimation of the amounts of pollutants that can trigger biological harm. These studies focus on a host of water pollutants from a variety of pollution source types. There are point sources of sulfur (S), nitrogen (N), and mercury (Hg) from power plants and industrial facilities and diffuse nonpoint sources of N and pesticides from agricultural development. There are emissions of N from motor vehicles. Some pollutants are introduced from the land, such as nutrients from an effluent pipe flowing from a wastewater treatment facility. Other pollutants affect lakes and streams via atmospheric transport of pollutants from the sources to the location of downwind sensitive soil, vegetative, and aquatic receptors. This book focuses on the study of pollutants derived from atmospheric transport and subsequent deposition from the atmosphere to the ground surface. These pollutants change the chemistry of soils and can affect the health of plant foliage and roots. Some also move through the soil and change the chemistry of drainage water, with consequent impacts on fish and other aquatic life-forms.
