Call for Papers

The organizing committee of the 2007 TRRMS and SC SETAC meeting welcomes submission of paper and poster abstracts. All abstracts must be formatted according to the example abstract below and submitted online at http://www.baylor.edu/trrmssetac beginning March 1, 2007. Abstracts over 300 words will be edited without author's review. Abstract submissions must be received on or before April 18, 2007.

Key Words: instream flows - effluent dependent streams - whole effluent toxicity - beneficial reuse - arid ecosystem - urban ecosystem

Author to Contact:
B.W. Brooks
Department of Environmental Studies
Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research
Baylor University
One Bear Place # 97266
Waco, Texas 76798, USA
Tel.: (254) 710 6553
Fax: (254) 710 3409
bryan_brooks@baylor.edu

Preference: (NOTE: Select One) Either Platform or Poster, Platform but Will Accept Poster

Student or Post-doctoral Fellow (NOTE: Select one)

I do/do not (NOTE: Select one) wish to be judged for a Best Student Paper Award.

In arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States and other parts of the world, flows of historically ephemeral streams are now perennially dominated by municipal and/or industrial effluent discharges, particularly in urbanized watersheds. Because effluent-dominated and dependent water bodies have previously received limited scientific study, we reviewed select contemporary topics associated with water quality of ephemeral streams receiving effluent flows. Our findings indicate that these ecosystems present numerous challenges to aquatic scientists and water resources managers, including: 1) appropriate ecosystems or upstream conditions used reference sites in biomonitoring are difficult to locate or do not exist; 2) water quality criteria, particularly for metals, are dramatically influenced by unique site-specific stream and land use conditions; 3) effluent-dominated streams represent worse-case scenarios for evaluating and predicting aquatic responses to emerging contaminants (e.g., pharmaceuticals and personal care products); 4) low-flow and drought conditions often preclude effective biomonitoring and water quality interpretation, or skew ambient assessment results; 5) chemical-physical water quality parameters (e.g., dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature) are dramatically altered by effluent and stormwater characteristics; and 6) beneficial reuse of reclaimed effluent waters potentially conflict with sustainability of ecological integrity. Subsequently, we recommend several water quality research priorities for effluent-dominated water bodies.