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Mar 9, 2010
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Resource monitoring of soil and water quality as affected by the agriculture industry are important components of the AESA program. These programs are tools that identify and evaluate environmental challenges and opportunities facing the agriculture and food processing industry.
Soil Quality
The Soil Quality Resource Monitoring Program strives to determine the state of soil quality across the province and the risk of change in soil quality with various management practices. Maintaining soil quality is the key to maintaining healthy and productive landscapes. Soil quality is important to support and sustain crop, range and woodland production as well as water supplies. However, soil quality is difficult to define and measure since it varies due to many external factors such as land use, management, environmental interactions as well as variations in natural conditions. Measuring changes in soil quality across Alberta is a concern for both government and the public in order to increase awareness and understanding of environmental issues.
The AESA Soil Quality Program was established in 1997 and has several objectives:
- to determine the state of soil quality across Alberta
- to determine the risk of change in soil quality with various management practices and
- to determine the effect of landscapes on soil quality
Project partners include Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Alberta, Agri-business and Producers.
One of the project's major efforts is the establishment and monitoring of
42 soil quality benchmark sites across Alberta. At these sites, factors such as yield of grain or forage, soil fertility and bulk density are sampled and measured annually.
Water Quality
The role of the Water Quality Resource Monitoring Program has never been more crucial with the increasing public profile of water quality issues, especially in the context of the agriculture industry. The AESA Stream Survey is a long-term monitoring program that tracks water quality in 23 streams in agricultural areas across Alberta. Initiated in 1997, AESA Stream Survey is operated by Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Alberta Environment, Alberta Health and Wellness, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (PFRA). Whatever happens on the land: agriculture, forestry, mining, urban development or any other activities can affect water quality. Tracking changes in water quality in agricultural areas helps the agricultural industry to assess whether the changes it's making are having a positive effect on water quality.
Monitoring Methods:
AESA Stream Survey focuses on collecting accurate, representative water quality information for Alberta's small agricultural watersheds. A watershed, or drainage basin, is all the land that drains runoff to a lake or a point along a stream.
The program is long-term because water quality tends to be very variable; data must be collected over a long period to see if water quality is improving, unchanging, or deteriorating.
The program's 23 watersheds were selected to provide a cross-section of various types of natural and agricultural characteristics that are common to Alberta. Information on how the watersheds were selected is available in the factsheet Watershed Selection Process.
Water samples are collected at each monitoring site during both high and low flows every year, to ensure representative water quality data. The samples are tested for phosphorus and nitrogen, fecal bacteria, and about 40 pesticides. More information on sampling and analysis procedures is available in the factsheets Nutrient Monitoring, Pesticide Monitoring, and Fecal Bacteria Monitoring.
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