| dc.description.abstract | A number of rivers and watershed systems in Southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada have experienced an increase in eutrophication promoting nutrients over the past three decades. As a consequence, artificial eutrophication and algal blooms have gained prevalence within these local systems and have prompted concern over the environmental and human-health consequences surrounding them. Studies have shown that eutrophication can be correlated with land-use / land cover changes. Anthropogenically-induced eutrophication can result when an environment becomes inundated with excess nutrients, such as phosphorus, from residential, industrial or agricultural operations. These excess nutrients boost primary productivity and can cause algal blooms and increased plant growth. Due to high turnover-rates, the subsequent death and decays of these algae and aquatic plants can then result in increased biological oxygen demand and oxygen deprived environment, with a reduced capacity to support aquatic species.
This study examines the extent to which land-use / land cover change has occurred in the Carleton River Watershed and attempts to determine if there is a relationship between water quality and land-use / land cover change. Remote sensing imagery and geographic information systems (GIS) were used to analyze land-use / land cover change, ultimately using the ‘forest’ informational class as a proxy for land-use / land cover change. A secondary analysis of water quality data was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Inferential statistical test results show that there has been significant change with respect to the water quality indicators (total phosphorous, total nitrogen, nitrite-nitrate and pH), additionally showing that location is positively correlated with total phosphorus and nitrite-nitrate. Further analysis of landscape metrics using the FRAGSTATS software package, showed that the forest in Southern Nova Scotia is dynamic and has changed, in a ways that promote fragmentation, over the past 30 years. Ultimately land-use / land cover and water quality have both changed over the years, allowing for the conclusion that land-use / cover change within the Carleton River watershed has the potential to be related to changes in land-use / land cover | en_US |
