scholarly journals Long-Term Nitrogen and Phosphorus Dynamics in Waters Discharging from Forestry-Drained and Undrained Boreal Peatlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 232 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mika Nieminen ◽  
Sakari Sarkkola ◽  
Eliza Maher Hasselquist ◽  
Tapani Sallantaus

AbstractContradictory results for the long-term evolution of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in waters discharging from drained peatland forests need reconciliation. We gathered long-term (10–29 years) water quality data from 29 forested catchments, 18 forestry-drained and 11 undrained peatlands. Trend analysis of the nitrogen and phosphorus concentration data indicated variable trends from clearly decreasing to considerably increasing temporal trends. While the variations in phosphorus concentration trends over time did not correlate with any of our explanatory factors, trends in nitrogen concentrations correlated positively with tree stand volume in the catchments and temperature sum. A positive correlation of increasing nitrogen concentrations with temperature sum raises concerns of the future evolution of nitrogen dynamics under a warming climate. Furthermore, the correlation with tree stand volume is troublesome due to the generally accepted policy to tackle the climate crisis by enhancing tree growth. However, future research is still needed to assess which are the actual processes related to stand volume and temperature sum that contribute to increasing TN concentrations.

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 177-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Sundblad ◽  
Andrzej Tonderski ◽  
Jacek Rulewski

Nitrogen and phosphorus concentration data representing samples collected once a month for nine months at 13 locations along the Vistula River are considered in a preliminary discussion of the sources of the nutrients transported to the Baltic Sea. Concentrations in relation to flow data indicated substantial differences between subbasins. Based on those differences, on the area-specific nutrient loss for a six-month period and on the wastewater discharge in each subbasin, four regions could be recognized in the river basin: i) the southern region with a large impact of point sources, ii) the south central region, where diffuse sources seemed to be of major importance, iii) the north central region with a combined effect of point and diffuse sources, and retention in two reservoirs, iv) the northern region where point sources seemed to be the dominating source, at least for phosphorus. Our results illustrate the importance of differences in phosphorus retention between the basins. Long-term retention along the course of the river, particularly in the two reservoirs, must be estimated to allow proper source apportionment in the Vistula basin. Concentration decreases in the Wloclawek Reservoir varied between 44 and 68% for P, and 11 to 37% for N, in the months with significant retention. In some months, however, concentrations increased, indicating a release of nutrients.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Reynolds ◽  
M. Renshaw ◽  
T. H. Sparks ◽  
S. Crane ◽  
S. Hughes ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stream water chemistry in the Cyff and Gwy subcatchments within the headwaters of the River Wye has been monitored regularly since 1980. In the Gwy, which is a predominantly semi-natural grassland catchment, land use has remained relatively static over the monitoring period, whilst the Cyff catchment is more buffered because of base cation inputs from agricultural improvement and ground water sources. Using a variety of statistical techniques, the long-term data are examined for evidence of trends after eliminating seasonal effects. The results highlight some of the difficulties associated with the analysis of longterm water quality data which show considerable variability over a variety of timescales. Some of this variability can be explained in terms of hydrochemical responses to climatic extremes and episodic events such as large atmospheric inputs of seasalts. The long-term fluctuations in solute concentration underline the continuing need for maintaining consistent long-term monitoring at sensitive upland sites if underlying trends related to gradual changes in pollutant deposition or climate are to be detected with any certainty.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2875
Author(s):  
Fajar Setiawan ◽  
Bunkei Matsushita ◽  
Rossi Hamzah ◽  
Dalin Jiang ◽  
Takehiko Fukushima

Most of the lakes in Indonesia are facing environmental problems such as eutrophication, sedimentation, and depletion of dissolved oxygen. The water quality data for supporting lake management in Indonesia are very limited due to financial constraints. To address this issue, satellite data are often used to retrieve water quality data. Here, we developed an empirical model for estimating the Secchi disk depth (SD) from Landsat TM/ETM+ data by using data collected from nine Indonesian lakes/reservoirs (SD values 0.5–18.6 m). We made two efforts to improve the robustness of the developed model. First, we carried out an image preprocessing series of steps (i.e., removing contaminated water pixels, filtering images, and mitigating atmospheric effects) before the Landsat data were used. Second, we selected two band ratios (blue/green and red/green) as SD predictors; these differ from previous studies’ recommendation. The validation results demonstrated that the developed model can retrieve SD values with an R2 of 0.60 and the root mean square error of 1.01 m in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia (SD values ranged from 0.5 to 5.8 m, n = 74). We then applied the developed model to 230 scenes of preprocessed Landsat TM/ETM+ images to generate a long-term SD database for Lake Maninjau during 1987–2018. The visual comparison of the in situ-measured and satellite estimated SD values, as well as several events (e.g., algal bloom, water gate open, and fish culture), showed that the Landsat-based SD estimations well captured the change tendency of water transparency in Lake Maninjau, and these estimations will thus provide useful data for lake managers and policy-makers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley J. Rust ◽  
Terri S. Hogue ◽  
Samuel Saxe ◽  
John McCray

Wildfires are increasing in size and severity in forested landscapes across the Western United States. Not only do fires alter land surfaces, but they also affect the surface water quality in downstream systems. Previous studies of individual fires have observed an increase in various forms of nutrients, ions, sediments and metals in stream water for different post-fire time periods. In this research, data were compiled for over 24 000 fires across the western United States to evaluate post-fire water-quality response. The database included millions of water-quality data points downstream of these fires, and was synthesised along with geophysical data from each burned watershed. Data from 159 fires in 153 burned watersheds were used to identify common water-quality response during the first 5 years after a fire. Within this large dataset, a subset of seven fires was examined further to identify trends in water-quality response. Change-point analysis was used to identify moments in the post-fire water-quality data where significant shifts in analyte concentrations occurred. Evaluating individual fires revealed strong initial increases or decreases in concentrations, depending on the analyte, that are masked when averaged over 5 years. Evidence from this analysis shows significant increases in nutrient flux (different forms of nitrogen and phosphorus), major-ion flux and metal concentrations are the most common changes in stream water quality within the first 5 years after fire. Dissolved constituents of ions and metals tended to decrease in concentration 5 years after fire whereas particulate matter concentration continued to increase. Assembling this unique and extensive dataset provided the opportunity to determine the most common post-fire water-quality changes in the large and diverse Western USA. Results from this study could inform studies in other parts of the world, will help parameterise and validate post-fire water-quality models, and assist communities affected by wildfire to anticipate changes to their water quality.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Botter ◽  
Paolo Burlando ◽  
Simone Fatichi

Abstract. The hydrological and biogeochemical response of rivers carries information about solute sources, pathways, and transformations in the catchment. We investigate long-term water quality data of eleven Swiss catchments with the objective to discern the influence of catchment characteristics and anthropogenic activities on delivery of solutes in stream water. Magnitude, trends and seasonality of water quality samplings of different solutes are evaluated and compared across catchments. Subsequently, the empirical dependence between concentration and discharge is used to classify different solute behaviors. Although the influence of catchment geology, morphology and size is sometime visible on in-stream solute concentrations, anthropogenic impacts are much more evident. Solute variability is generally smaller than discharge variability. The majority of solutes shows dilution with increasing discharge, especially geogenic species, while sediment-related solutes (e.g. Total Phosphorous and Organic Carbon species) show higher concentrations with increasing discharge. Both natural and anthropogenic factors impact the biogeochemical response of streams and, while the majority of solutes show identifiable behaviors in individual catchments, only a minority of behaviors can be generalized across catchments that exhibit different natural, climatic and anthropogenic features.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miho Ishizu ◽  
Yasumasa Miyazawa ◽  
Tomohiko Tsunoda ◽  
Tsuneo Ono

Abstract. In recent decades, acidification of the open ocean has shown consistent increases. However, analysis of long-term data in coastal waters shows that the pH is highly variable because of coastal processes and anthropogenic carbon inputs. It is therefore important to understand how anthropogenic carbon inputs and other natural or anthropogenic factors influence the temporal trends in pH in coastal waters. Using water quality data collected at 1481 monitoring sites as part of the Water Pollution Control Program, we determined the long-term trends in pH in Japanese coastal waters at ambient temperature from 1978 to 2009. We found that pH decreased (i.e., acidification) at between 70 % and 75 % of the sites and increased (i.e., basification) at between 25 % and 30 % of the sites. The rate of decrease varied seasonally and was, on average, −0.0014 yr−1 in summer and −0.0024 yr−1 in winter, but with relatively large deviations from these average values. While the overall trends reflect acidification, watershed processes might also have contributed to the large variations in pH in coastal waters. The seasonal variation in the average pH trends reflects variability in warming trends, while regional differences in pH trends are partly related to heterotrophic water processes induced by nutrient loadings.


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