Nutrient overenrichment (especially with nitrogen and phosphorus) of coastal waters as a result of anthropogenic activities represents a significant and widespread environmental problem on both national and global scales. In recent years there has been an increase in nutrient loading to the Great Bay Estuary in southeastern New Hampshire, due primarily to discharges from recently constructed waste water treatment plants and sewer lines combined with an increase in the population in the Great Bay Estuary watershed over the past three decades.
There is increasing evidence that atmospheric deposition of nitrogen may represent a substantial portion of the total input to some estuarine and coastal areas. One of the problems associated with accurately measuring this source of pollution is the high cost associated with sampling at the proper frequencies. This project is developing an innovative automatic atmospheric sampler capable of collecting and preserving 14 samples over any predetermined time period (e.g. 6 hours, 12 hours, daily). Though the system will be initially designed to monitor and quantify nitrogen, although the sampling system can potentially be used to monitor many other atmospherically derived contaminants such as trace metals and toxic organic compounds. More frequent contaminant data, combined with weather pattern information, can be extremely useful in identifying sources of airborne contaminants and targeting remediation strategies.
The Primary project outcome will be the development and rigorous testing of a stand alone automatic aerosol sampler that would be beneficial to the study of a wide variety of atmospherically derieved contaminants in esturies and coastal zones. All of this would be possible because of the funding provided by CICEET.