Why does the study examine loads?
|Back to Top| Although the SPARROW model predicts both loads and concentrations in streams, this study focuses on an interpretation of the model predictions of nutrient loads (units of kilograms per year) in streams and the loads delivered to the Gulf of Mexico from watersheds in the Mississippi and Atachafalaya River Basins. The study also reports the “delivered yield”, which is the nutrient mass per unit of drainage area that is delivered to the Gulf (units of kilograms per km2 per year). Information on loads and yields is needed to understand how human sources and natural processes affect the supply and transport of nutrients in watersheds and nutrient delivery to receiving waters such as the Gulf, where excessive nutrients cause eutrophication and hypoxia. This information is critical for managing nutrient reductions in contaminant sources and their effects on the chemical and biological integrity of downstream aquatic ecosystems. Load is also referred to as a “mass flux”, which is
