THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHOSPHORUS AND NITROGEN CONCENTRATIONS, ALGAL GROWTH, AND NUTRIENT SOURCES IN THE MEDUXNEKEAG RIVER WATERSHED

Excess nutrients from both point and non-point sources commonly impair rivers and contribute to the formation of nuisance algal blooms that can cause aesthetic issues and decrease dissolved oxygen concentrations. The Meduxnekeag River in Aroostook County, Maine has historically experienced nuisance filamentous algal blooms and low dissolved oxygen concentrations during summer months, raising concern about possible nutrient enrichment within the river. In addition to nutrient inputs from agriculture, the river receives effluent from a starch plant and then flows through downtown Houlton, where it receives stormwater runoff and effluent from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The primary objectives were to determine spatial and temporal trends in nutrient concentrations and loads, assess algal coverage within the river and determine its relationship to nutrient concentrations, and to determine which nutrient sources within the watershed pose the greatest risk to the water quality. I investigated the relationship between nutrients, algal growth, and land use within the Meduxnekeag River watershed. Fourteen sites in a 34 kilometer reach of the river were sampled biweekly in 2004 and 2005 from May until October. Samplin