| High-quality golf courses require the application of pesticides and fertilizers, leading to questions concerning their fate and environmental impacts. Therefore, I studied the movement of pesticides and fertilizers from golf courses into adjacent surface waters via run-off and the subsequent impact on benthic macroinvertebrate communities.; Water samples were collected for pesticide, nitrate, and phosphorus analysis from streams adjacent to mid-Atlantic golf courses; concentrations of these chemicals from sites upstream and downstream of the courses were compared. Higher concentrations of several pesticides and phosphorus in run-off samples indicated contamination of surface waters by these chemicals. However, monthly sampling of golf course streams did not reveal increased nutrient concentrations downstream of the courses, despite contamination by phosphorus during run-off events. Therefore, fertilizer applications do not appear to contribute to long term stream nutrient enrichment.; Benthic macroinvertebrate communities of golf course streams were sampled to determine if golf course management practices (including chemical applications) impacted these organisms. Total abundance, taxa richness, and Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera richness increased at sites downstream of golf courses. However, there were no significant shifts in other measures of community structure and function between the sites, and the abundance and richness increases could not be connected to the presence of fertilizers and pesticides. Therefore, golf course management practices did not appear to impact the macroinvertebrate communities of adjacent streams.; Finally, processing of organic matter in the presence of commonly applied fungicides was studied to determine if fungicides applied to golf courses have sublethal impacts on benthic macroinvertebrates. In general, the processing of organic matter was not effected by fungicides at concentrations lower than the recommended application rate.; In conclusion, while pesticides and phosphorus were occasionally found to be moving into golf course streams through run-off, they were not found to be impacting the benthic macroinvertebrate communities. However, the streams in this study eventually feed into the Chesapeake Bay, which is known to have problems with pesticide contamination and enrichment. Therefore, golf course management practices which minimize the movement of chemicals should be identified to help eliminate golf courses as a source contamination of surface waters including the Chesapeake Bay. |
