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Course Overview
The
objective of this course is to provide exclusive training to
professionals on basic concepts involved in biogeochemical
cycling of nutrients and other contaminants in wetlands, as
related to soil, water, and air quality.
Wetland soils serve as
sinks, sources, and transformers of nutrients and other
chemical contaminants, and as such they can have a
significant impact on water quality and ecosystem
productivity. The primary driver of these processes is the
ecosystem biogeochemistry, which includes chemical,
biological and physical processes in the soil and water
column. Often, these processes are ignored and the ecosystem
is treated as a "black box" and a simplified input-output
analysis is used to address water quality issues. This
traditional empirical approach is inadequate for effective
evaluation of an ecosystem’s performance.
Biogeochemistry is an
interdisciplinary science, which includes the study of
interactive biological, geological and chemical processes
regulating the fate and transport of nutrients and
contaminants in soil, water and atmospheric components of an
ecosystem. Biogeochemistry also provides a framework to
integrate physical, chemical and biological processes
functioning in an ecosystem at various spatial and temporal
scales.
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