Improving Surface Water Quality in Agricultural Landscapes

Constructed and restored wetlands have become a popular management practice to improve water quality in agricultural landscapes and have been shown to act as effective sinks for phosphorus and other pollutants. At the landscape level, wetlands serve as a critical interface between uplands and adjacent water bodies, providing a last line of defense in protecting down-gradient aquatic ecosystems from nutrient excesses. The retention of phosphorus is of particular concern due to its limiting status and role in promoting algal productivity. I have a keen interest in phosphorus biogeochemistry and have conducted studies from the landscape scale, examining the effects of agriculture on eutrophication of surface waters, to field and laboratory studies examining the bioavailabity and fate of phosphorus in agricultural runoff as it moves off fields, through wetlands and into river systems.