Urban disruption of the land-sea connection : understanding stormwater and river inputs from Metro Vancouver and particulate organic matter composition in Burrard Inlet British Columbia
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Oceans and Fisheries, Institute for the
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Lye, Sadie L. R.
issued: 2025-04-28T20:07:54Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Urbanization has disrupted the movement of freshwater and the materials it transports, altering the primary biogeochemical link between land and sea. Coastal ecosystems are subsidized by terrestrial organic matter and nutrient inputs; however, inputs have increased or been altered due to land-use change. Urbanization has increased impervious surfaces, changed vegetation abundance and composition, and introduced novel inputs via wastewater and stormwater. To investigate freshwater and stormwater organic matter and macronutrients (silicate, phosphate, and nitrate), I compared these constituents in Metro Vancouver river water and stormwater to literature values. I estimated the flux of these biogeochemical parameters transported to Burrard Inlet via stormwater annually and identified tracers of stormwater using stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) and fatty acids. The concentrations of these biogeochemical parameters were high and generally significantly different between river and stormwater samples. There were higher concentrations of nitrate and silicate in river samples and higher concentrations of phosphate, dissolved organic carbon, particulate organic carbon, and particulate nitrogen in stormwater samples. To investigate the composition of particulate organic matter (POM) in the surface water of Burrard Inlet, I used a Bayesian mixing model approach (MixSIAR) to quantify the relative contributions of phytoplankton, macrophyte, freshwater, and wastewater across 5 basins and 3 seasons. POM is a basal resource for marine food webs and a key component of zooplankton diet, which transfers energy to higher trophic level organisms. Thus, understanding how urbanization changes the composition of POM is important for understanding the productivity and functioning of marine ecosystems. Across all basins and seasons, phytoplankton contributed the most (average = 80 %), followed by macrophytes (average = 7.9 %), wastewater (average = 6.1 %), and freshwater (average = 5.8 %…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90873
note: URBAN DISRUPTION OF THE LAND-SEA CONNECTION: UNDERSTANDING STORMWATER AND RIVER INPUTS FROM METRO VANCOUVER AND PARTICULATE ORGANIC MATTER COMPOSITION IN BURRARD INLET BRITISH COLUMBIA by Sadie L. R. Lye B.Sc., University of British Columbia, 2022 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Oceans and Fisheries) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2025 © Sadie L. R. Lye, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Urban disruption of the land-sea connection: understanding stormwater and river inputs from Metro Vancouver and particulate organic matter composition in Burrard Inlet British Columbia submitted by Sadie Lye in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Oceans and Fisheries Examining Committee: Briant Hunt, Associate Professor, Oceans and Fisheries, UBC Supervisor Rachel Scholes, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Sophie Johannessen, Research Scientist, Institute of Ocean Sciences, DFO Supervisory Committee Member Ali Ameli, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UB Additional Examiner iii Abstract Urbanization has disrupted the movement of freshwater and the materials it transports, altering the primary biogeochemical link between land and sea. Coastal ecosystems are subsidized by terrestrial organic matter and nutrient inputs; however, inputs have increased or been altered due to land-use change. Urbanization has increased impervious surfaces, changed vegetation abundance and composition, and introduced novel inputs via wastewater and stormwater. To investigate freshwater and stormwater organic matter and macronutrients (silicate, phosphate, and nitrate), I compared these constituents in Metro Vancouver riv…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448614
language: eng
degree discipline: Oceans and Fisheries
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hunt, Brian P. V.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90873