Managing nutrients in Denmark’s aquatic environment : a critique and a way forward for Danish management of re-created wetlands
(2018) In Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science MESM02 20181LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- Abstract
- Anthropogenic use of nitrogen and phosphorus causes a risk to aquatic ecosystems and hence the livelihood of humans. To tackle this issue, the European Union have imposed environmental obligations on its member states to higher the quality of the aquatic environment. As a member state, Denmark is partly fulfilling these objectives by re-creating wetlands in the landscape, which retain and remove nutrients from agricultural runoff. However, it has been identified that there is a risk of phosphorus leaking from the wetlands re-created on phosphorus rich soils. The biogeochemical processes regarding phosphorus mobilization in wetlands are of high complexity, making it hard to predict potential phosphorus leakage from a wetland. This makes... (More)
- Anthropogenic use of nitrogen and phosphorus causes a risk to aquatic ecosystems and hence the livelihood of humans. To tackle this issue, the European Union have imposed environmental obligations on its member states to higher the quality of the aquatic environment. As a member state, Denmark is partly fulfilling these objectives by re-creating wetlands in the landscape, which retain and remove nutrients from agricultural runoff. However, it has been identified that there is a risk of phosphorus leaking from the wetlands re-created on phosphorus rich soils. The biogeochemical processes regarding phosphorus mobilization in wetlands are of high complexity, making it hard to predict potential phosphorus leakage from a wetland. This makes management difficult as there is high uncertainty regarding the impact of decisions. This thesis maps and evaluates the management practice of the Danish government regarding re-creation of wetlands through interviews with governmental officials, conversations with experts and a literature review. Finally, it is discussed how an implementation of adaptive management could improve the long-term management of Danish wetlands regarding potential phosphorus leakage. The results show that the current management practice uses a phosphorus model to risk assess potential phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. This model has limitations regarding the variables used in the model and it is not dynamic over time. The model does currently not include aluminium, sulphur and calcium, which is shown to be important in assessing the risk of phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. Furthermore, the results suggest that the combination of high uncertainty in terms of low knowledge level on biogeochemical processes and high controllability in terms of carefully planned projects makes adaptive management a promising management option, which over time can reduce uncertainty and thereby make management more sustainable. The thesis concludes that management can be improved through an implementation of adaptive management in Denmark and that long-term monitoring of nutrient loads from wetlands are key to gain a better understanding, which can ensure a sustainable management of re-creation of wetlands in Denmark. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8943206
- author
- Korsgaard Andersen, Ebbe LU
- supervisor
-
- Murray Scown LU
- organization
- course
- MESM02 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- re-created wetlands, phosphorus, sustainability science, adaptive management, social-ecological systems
- publication/series
- Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
- report number
- 2018:002
- language
- English
- id
- 8943206
- date added to LUP
- 2018-06-01 09:42:03
- date last changed
- 2018-06-01 09:42:03
@misc{8943206,
abstract = {{Anthropogenic use of nitrogen and phosphorus causes a risk to aquatic ecosystems and hence the livelihood of humans. To tackle this issue, the European Union have imposed environmental obligations on its member states to higher the quality of the aquatic environment. As a member state, Denmark is partly fulfilling these objectives by re-creating wetlands in the landscape, which retain and remove nutrients from agricultural runoff. However, it has been identified that there is a risk of phosphorus leaking from the wetlands re-created on phosphorus rich soils. The biogeochemical processes regarding phosphorus mobilization in wetlands are of high complexity, making it hard to predict potential phosphorus leakage from a wetland. This makes management difficult as there is high uncertainty regarding the impact of decisions. This thesis maps and evaluates the management practice of the Danish government regarding re-creation of wetlands through interviews with governmental officials, conversations with experts and a literature review. Finally, it is discussed how an implementation of adaptive management could improve the long-term management of Danish wetlands regarding potential phosphorus leakage. The results show that the current management practice uses a phosphorus model to risk assess potential phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. This model has limitations regarding the variables used in the model and it is not dynamic over time. The model does currently not include aluminium, sulphur and calcium, which is shown to be important in assessing the risk of phosphorus leakage from re-created wetlands. Furthermore, the results suggest that the combination of high uncertainty in terms of low knowledge level on biogeochemical processes and high controllability in terms of carefully planned projects makes adaptive management a promising management option, which over time can reduce uncertainty and thereby make management more sustainable. The thesis concludes that management can be improved through an implementation of adaptive management in Denmark and that long-term monitoring of nutrient loads from wetlands are key to gain a better understanding, which can ensure a sustainable management of re-creation of wetlands in Denmark.}},
author = {{Korsgaard Andersen, Ebbe}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science}},
title = {{Managing nutrients in Denmark’s aquatic environment : a critique and a way forward for Danish management of re-created wetlands}},
year = {{2018}},
}