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Fig. 10.2. Watersheds and oxidized nitrogen airsheds for five major eastern US waterbodies
(from EPA, 2011).
models with regional airshed models to pre-
dict pollution effects through space and time
(EPA, 2011).
Changes in climate are anticipated to create
greater extremes in the weather, which will likely
lead to larger 'flushing' events. The concentration
in the air and water during these events will often
exceed the assimilation capacity of the environ-
ment. In the case of water quality, this would
result in increasing hypoxic zones. In the case of
air quality, the diffusion of high pollutant concen-
trations will increase airshed boundaries, result-
ing in deposition of pollutants from one watershed
into multiple watersheds. Over time, as the
hydrologic cycle rotates pollutants attached to
water vapour through water movement, eva-
poration and precipitation, pollutants will spread
more and more widely throughout the world.
These developing concerns for our environ-
ment support the need for greater integration of
air and water quality issues. This type of integra-
tion can only be addressed through complex
process-level modelling. For livestock agricul-
ture, this must begin at the farm. Producers ulti-
mately control their production systems. They
are normally good stewards of their land and
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