User talk:Skjaer/Thermal pollution

This is the messaging part of our sandbox? Vanpe022 (talk) 04:05, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

External Review
Hi Skjaer - My name is Jolie, and I'm the Project Coordinator for the WikiProject Limnology & Oceanography team. Your external reviewer for your article on Thermal Pollution doesn't have a Wikipedia account, so I'm posting their review on their behalf. If you have any questions about your review, or would like to clarify anything, please feel free to contact your reviewer using the email address listed at the end of the review. Thanks, and all the best as you wrap up your Wikipedia editing assignment!

EXTERNAL REVIEW - My name is Xavier Benito and I currently hold a postdoctoral fellowship at the Marine and Continental Waters Programme, IRTA (Spain). As an aquatic ecologist, I’m interested in fundamental and applied questions about the interaction between different levels of biological organization and their aquatic environment across space and time. I earned my PhD in 2016 investigating the coastal ecology and paleoenvironmental evolution of the Ebro Delta (Spain) using microbenthic assemblages. During my postdoctoral studies at the University of Nebraska I studied microbial biogeography of tropical South American freshwaters. At the University of Maryland, I was involved in a synthesis project aimed at quantifying ecological resilience of high-elevation lakes to anthropogenic and climatic stressors over millennial temporal scales.

In general, your edits incorporating a ‘biochemistry effects’ section seems reasonable, and I strongly support it. The information added is well supported by the references and I think this is the most important contribution to the thermal pollution Wikipedia article. However, a general comment from what it is written so far in the Biochemical effects draft section is that it is too physical oriented still. In the original version, the ecological effects/ warm water section pointed out some interesting facts about organism metabolism and enzyme denaturalization that could be re-used. Also, I think a section that explains the sources of thermal pollution and available methods to measure it (e.g. data loggers, remote sensing, etc) would be a great addition.

Another suggestion I would like to make is that both the old and new section are too focused on lakes. Although less studied, thermal pollution has been reported in running waters as well (rivers, streams, estuaries). Another section the Wiki page would benefit from is the synergistic effects of damming and thermal pollution on the ecology of freshwaters. Dams do slow down river flow increasing water temperature upstream, but water colds downstream.

Water temperature in effluent sites varies depending on the design and operation of power plants. Thinking about the management and solutions for thermal pollution, it would be informative to say something about water temperature increases and decreases (there is only one reference in the current version), and what kind of regulations are implemented. For instance, the European Union establishes a limit of 3ºC difference before and after water cools the power plant and return to the system.

Feel free to contact me at xavier.benito.granell@gmail.com with any questions.

JoGDelta (talk) 18:05, 8 April 2021 (UTC)