Network publication summary: Sediment source fingerprinting

Publication
​Collins AL, Blackwell M, Boeckx P, Chivers C-A, Emelko MB, Evrard O, Foster I, Gellis A, Gholami H, Granger S, Harris P, Horowitz AJ, Laceby JP, Martinez-Carreras N, Minella J, Mol L, Nosrati K, Pulley S, Silins U, da Silva YJ, Stone M, Tiecher T, Upadhayay HR, Zhang Y. 2020. Sediment source fingerprinting: Benchmarking recent outputs, remaining challenges and emerging themes. Journal of Soils and Sediments.

Monica Emelko, Principal Investigator and Theme 3 Lead

Uldis Silins, Co-Principal Investigator and Theme 1 Lead

Micheal Stone, Theme 2 Lead

Monica Emelko and Micheal Stone are from the University of Waterloo, and Uldis Silins from the University of Alberta.This publication is an example of cross-theme collaboration in the Network.

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Brief summary
This research summarizes sediment source fingerprinting, the current state-of-the-art, remaining challenges and emerging themes. Accelerated soil erosion and sediment delivery threaten ecosystem services by delivering fine sediment into receiving waters. To be effective, watershed management policies that protect soil and water resources from sediment-associated contaminants require an understanding of key sediment sources. Fine-grained sediment is an especially important focus of most fingerprinting studies because it is the primary vector for the transport of nutrients, metals, and other contaminants that can be detrimental to water quality and aquatic ecosystem health. Sediment source fingerprinting is increasingly used globally, however, standardization and harmonization of the procedural details is needed. This paper calls for such standardization and provides a state-of-the-art overview of trends, challenges, and convergence of methodological details. 

Key messages
Fine sediment is a key driver of source water quality. In particular, it plays a key role in the transport of phosphorus, which is a limiting nutrient in freshwaters that promotes algal blooms. Although suspended solids are easily managed during drinking water treatment, fine sediment has been largely overlooked in drinking water reservoir management because it often makes up less than 5% of the total mass of sediment in aquatic systems. Fine sediment fingerprinting therefore, may offer opportunities for source water protection through the identification of key contaminant source areas, and the implementation and evaluation of remediation strategies focused on reducing sediment inputs to critical water supplies, thereby decreasing drinking water treatment costs and the potential for service disruptions.

Benchmarking of recent (2018 and 2019, inclusive) papers for use of critical methodological steps

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