Freshwater Restoration in Agricultural Landscapes
Project Overview
This project will explore links between soil and freshwater carbon cycling in agricultural landscapes. Specifically, we ask “can fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM) be used to characterise soil and water carbon cycling in agricultural landscapes?” Using the low-topography, clay-dominated soils of southern Ontario as a case study, this project will include a field survey to characterize dissolved organic matter (DOM), soil and water quality attributes in agricultural soils and the tile drainage network along a gradient of agriculture conservation measures to explore DOM trends at the watershed scale.
Establishing relationships between DOM and management practices in the lower Great Lakes basin of Canada is especially critical as fundamental explorations at the agricultural farm-freshwater interface are focused on P-management. By examining DOM in context of other macronutrient cycles (e.g., P) we may provide critical insight for policy and management measures taking place across the Great Lakes basin
Objectives
Determine whether management practices affect DOM properties in agricultural soils by comparing FDOM signatures amongsuite of management practice categories
Determine whether DOM found within agricultural soils structurally differs from that exported from those soils to the associated drainage network.
Investments in soil are investments in water.
The connection between the land and the water is key for restoring our waterways.