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Impact of Surrounding Land Use on Water Quality in Northern Ethiopian Streams
Type of Session
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Scattered across the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia are some 19,000 church forests, the last few remaining fragments of indigenous Afromontane forests in Ethiopia. Within and around these forests are streams, used by local communities to obtain water for cooking, cleaning, drinking, etc. Streams may be polluted due to soil erosion and fecal waste. Our study examines whether streams in northern Ethiopia are more polluted from erosion when surrounded by agriculture, grazing, and urbanization as opposed to streams surrounded by church forests.
Our collaborators in Ethiopia have collected Total Suspended Solid water samples onto pre-ashed and weighed filters. Upon receiving these filters in the lab, our team weighed and calculated TSS. Once the filters were dry we placed them in a desiccator with hydrochloric acid (HCL) for 24 hours to remove inorganic carbon for subsequent analyses.
Field sampling results were then paired with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis to relate to TSS data and determine if the landscape cover impacts the amount of sediment pollution in nearby streams.
Findings suggest that the forest vegetation is filtering out the solid particles before entering the stream. We are continuing data in Ethiopia along with isotopic data once filters arrive. Processed filters have been sent to a Marine Biological Lab for stable isotope analysis for carbon and nitrogen to characterize sources, such as fecal waste or fertilizer.