Surface water quality refers to the physicochemical and biological characteristics of water in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, streams, and coastal zones as they relate to ecological integrity, human use, and regulatory standards. It encompasses parameters such as nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus), dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity, suspended solids, salinity, trace metals, organic contaminants, pathogens, and emerging pollutants (e.g., pharmaceuticals, microplastics). Research on surface water quality involves monitoring, modeling contaminant transport and transformation, assessing pollution sources (point and nonpoint), evaluating ecosystem and human health risks, and developing management and remediation strategies within hydrological and biogeochemical frameworks.
The system for assessing the health of England's rivers states that just 14% are in good ecological health but an independent report for Defra says this masks improvements in freshwater biodiversity—and has proposed an alternative ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2025
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Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a powerful new method to detect harmful blue-green algae in freshwater lakes. Their method, which involves advanced mass spectrometry technology, can identify toxin-producing ...
Ecology
Jul 28, 2025
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The San Luis Reservoir in Merced County—one of California's largest artificial lakes—not only irrigates Central Valley farmland and supplies drinking water across the Silicon Valley and the South Bay, but also draws swimmers, ...
Environment
Jul 27, 2025
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74
Urban water bodies—rivers, lakes and oceans—are in trouble globally. Large sewage volumes damage the open environment, and new chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds don't break down on their own. When they are released into ...
Environment
Jul 7, 2025
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Water quality scientists predict the harmful algae bloom on western Lake Erie this year will be relatively mild and less severe than last year.
Environment
Jun 27, 2025
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Years after wildfires burn forests and watersheds, the contaminants left behind continue to poison rivers and streams across the Western U.S.—much longer than scientists estimated.
Earth Sciences
Jun 23, 2025
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The clarity of Lake Tahoe—the famed alpine lake on California's border with Nevada, whose spectacular scenery draws millions of visitors a year and has spawned countless bumper stickers to "Keep Tahoe Blue"—is in the middle ...
Environment
Jun 17, 2025
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Scientists at the University of Stirling have developed a new method of monitoring the presence of pathogens in rivers polluted by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).
Environment
May 27, 2025
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Before Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. factories and cities could pipe their pollution directly into waterways. Rivers, including the Potomac in Washington, smelled of raw sewage and contained toxic chemicals. ...
Environment
Apr 22, 2025
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A study by researchers across multiple disciplines at the University of Kentucky has offered the most in-depth look at what's flowing through Kentucky's streams and rivers, and how these waterways can be safeguarded.
Environment
Mar 25, 2025
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