|
RESEARCH > Past Projects
Watershed Tea
Stroud scientists discovered that when rain water enters a stream, it carries with it a special blend of dissolved organic matter, which is then dispersed in the water much like tea from a tea bag. So specific is each watershed's "tea," that migrating salmon use it to find their way home at spawning time. The tea provides food for bacteria, and recent Stroud studies indicate that each watershed produces a community of bacterial species which are uniquely fitted to the local supply of watershed tea.
With water utilities turning increasingly to biological filtration to remove impurities from drinking water, the more we know about how bacteria consume organic matter, the better we can design and evaluate these purification systems. If they prove effective, water utilities will be able to reduce their dependence on chemical disinfectants, which will be more cost-effective for them and less harmful to consumers and the environment. Much of the organic matter ultimately ends up in the ocean, where over time it can be degraded to carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. By studying the interactions of bacteria and watershed tea, Stroud scientists hope not only to help provide clean drinking water in a world where it is in dangerously short supply, but also to understand how the organic matter that is delivered to oceans impacts global warming.
|
