Acid Rain Mitigation Plans for the 13 priority watersheds for Southern Upland Salmon in Nova Scotia: development of a sub-plan to address the aluminum problem.

Ionic aluminium (Ali) is toxic to Salmo salar and is known to be a key cause of population declines. Increases in ionic aluminum concentrations in rivers are caused by chronic acid rain pollution.

A major problem is that the mitigation activities for acid rain, in-stream and catchment liming, may not address the threat of aluminum, or indeed may worsen it if not done properly.

This problem can be avoided by mapping where in the watershed the aluminum levels are the highest, and where the pH is below approximately 4.8, and targeting the liming activities in particular sub-basins, or choosing whole-catchment liming rather than riparian zone liming.

Here we propose to create a sub-plan for the Southern Upland Watershed Acid Rain Mitigation Plan that will address the aluminium problem. A student in Dr. Sterling’s research group, Marley Geddes, began this Southern Upland Watershed Acid Rain Mitigation plan in 2014, and it is planned to continue in 2015.

Contact: Dr. Shannon Sterling, 902-494-7741, Shannon.sterling@dal.ca