Defining subsidy–stress gradients for metals and relevance for US surface waters
Metals like iron, copper, and zinc are naturally occurring in soils and water, and they are important essential nutrients for animals and plants.
Metals like iron, copper, and zinc are naturally occurring in soils and water, and they are important essential nutrients for animals and plants. However, excessive amounts of metal can harm animals and plants, particularly those living in freshwater ecosystems. Humans can increase the amount of metal in the environment through mining, converting land to agriculture, urban development, and other economic activities. Rarely do scientists consider both the way metals act as nutrients (subsidy) and toxicants (stress) when exploring the potential effects of metals. This working group will bring together ideas about metals as essential nutrients and metals as toxicants to better understand the current role of metals in US river and stream ecosystems and make predictions for the future.
We will work to characterize US river and stream ecosystems as metal limited, metal stressed, or balanced and identify transition points where ecosystems may shift from being subsidized by metal to stressed. Over the next decades, economic demand for metals and associated pollution is expected to increase, and thus it is important to develop tools that can be used to prioritize ecosystems for surveillance, mitigation, and management.
Principal Investigators
David Costello (Kent State University)
Angela Peace (Texas Tech University)
Elizabeth Herndon (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Travis Schmidt (United States Geological Survey)
Metals like iron, copper, and zinc are naturally occurring in soils and water, and they are important essential nutrients for animals and plants.
Metals like iron, copper, and zinc are naturally occurring in soils and water, and they are important essential nutrients for animals and plants. However, excessive amounts of metal can harm animals and plants, particularly those living in freshwater ecosystems. Humans can increase the amount of metal in the environment through mining, converting land to agriculture, urban development, and other economic activities. Rarely do scientists consider both the way metals act as nutrients (subsidy) and toxicants (stress) when exploring the potential effects of metals. This working group will bring together ideas about metals as essential nutrients and metals as toxicants to better understand the current role of metals in US river and stream ecosystems and make predictions for the future.
We will work to characterize US river and stream ecosystems as metal limited, metal stressed, or balanced and identify transition points where ecosystems may shift from being subsidized by metal to stressed. Over the next decades, economic demand for metals and associated pollution is expected to increase, and thus it is important to develop tools that can be used to prioritize ecosystems for surveillance, mitigation, and management.
Principal Investigators
David Costello (Kent State University)
Angela Peace (Texas Tech University)
Elizabeth Herndon (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Travis Schmidt (United States Geological Survey)