Search for: All records

Freshwater is essential to human communities and stream ecosystems, and governments strive to manage water to meet the needs of both people and ecosystems. Balancing competing water demands is challenging, as freshwater resources are limited and their availability varies through time and space. One approach to maintain this balance is to legally mandate that a specified amount of stream flow be maintained for stream ecosystems, known as an environmental flow. But laws and regulations do not necessarily reflect what happens in practice, potentially to the detriment of communities and natural systems. Through a case study of Puerto Rico, we investigated whether water management in practice matches legislative mandates and explored potential mismatch drivers. We focused on two governance targets—equitable allocation and water use efficiency—and assessed whether they are enshrined in the law (de jure) and how they manifest in practice (de facto). We also explored agency accountability through identifying agency structure and whether consequences are enforced for failing to carry out responsibilities. Our results indicate there are mismatches between how freshwater is governed by law and what occurs in practice. This study suggests that agency accountability may be necessary to consider when developing environmental flow legislation that will effectively achieve ecological outcomes. 

Abstract Blood Falls is a hypersaline, iron‐rich discharge at the terminus of the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. In November 2014, brine in a conduit within the glacier was penetrated and sampled using clean‐entry techniques and a thermoelectric melting probe called the IceMole. We analyzed the englacial brine sample for filterable iron (fFe), total Fe, major cations and anions, nutrients, organic carbon, and perchlorate. In addition, aliquots were analyzed for minor and trace elements and isotopes including δD and δ¹⁸O of water, δ³⁴S and δ¹⁸O of sulfate,²³⁴U,²³⁸U, δ¹¹B,⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and δ⁸¹Br. These measurements were made in order to (1) determine the source and geochemical evolution of the brine and (2) compare the chemistry of the brine to that of nearby hypersaline lake waters and previous supraglacially sampled collections of Blood Falls outflow that were interpreted asend‐memberbrines. The englacial brine had higher Cl⁻concentrations than the Blood Falls end‐member outflow; however, other constituents were similar. The isotope data indicate that the water in the brine is derived from glacier melt. The H₄SiO₄concentrations and U and Sr isotope suggest a high degree of chemical weathering products. The brine has a low N:P ratio of ~7.2 with most of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen in the form of NH₄⁺. Dissolved organic carbon concentrations are similar to end‐member outflow values. Our results provide strong evidence that the original source of solutes in the brine was ancient seawater, which has been modified with the addition of chemical weathering products.