Water quality impacts from tidal flooding in the northeast coast of the U.S.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Macias-Tapia ◽  
Margaret Mulholland ◽  
Derek Loftis ◽  
Corday Selden ◽  
Peter Bernhardt
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Nitrogen Loading ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Nutrient Inputs ◽  
Tidal Flooding ◽  
Northeast Coast

<p>Little is known about the chemical and biological effects of tidal flooding on adjacent aquatic environments. Terrestrial systems accumulate various types of organic and inorganic matter that can be dissolved or carried into adjacent water bodies as floodwaters recede. In the northeast coast of the United States, the incidence and duration of coastal flooding has increased due to the high relative rates of sea level rise in the region.  Much of this flooding is tidal, occurring in the absence of rainfall during spring tides and/or when wind-induced Ekman transport is onshore.  While there are estimates of stormwater inputs into coastal systems, material (e.g., sediment, nutrients and contaminating bacteria) transported into the water bodies as tidal floodwaters recede have not been measured. Here, we will report estimates of nutrient loads transported in receding floodwaters during tidal flooding associated with perigean spring tides in 2017, 2018, and 2019. During each of the three years, at the highest point of the tide trained, citizen scientists were deployed to areas known to routinely flood in the Lafayette River watershed, a sub-tributary of the lower Chesapeake Bay, located in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). More than 100 samples were collected during each year as the flood waters retreated. Particulate carbon and nitrogen, total dissolved nitrogen, ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, urea, and phosphate were analyzed using standard colorimetric methods. Additionally, samples were analyzed for Enterococcus abundance each year. Results suggest that dissolved inorganic nitrogen loading during a single tidal flooding event exceeds the total annual load allocated for runoff in this sub-estuary.  Because tidal flooding is projected to increase in the future as sea level continues to rise, further research should proceed to better constraint the amounts and characteristics of loadings associated to tidal flooding events. Furthermore, these results suggest that managers should consider nutrient inputs via coastal flooding when setting restoration goals and targets.</p>

scholarly journals Outsized nutrient contributions from small tributaries to a Great Lake

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (45) ◽  
pp. 28175-28182
Author(s):  
Robert J. Mooney ◽  
Emily H. Stanley ◽  
William C. Rosenthal ◽  
Peter C. Esselman ◽  
Anthony D. Kendall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Nutrient Loading ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Nutrient Loads ◽  
Nutrient Inputs ◽  
Small Streams ◽  
Large Water

Excessive nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loading is one of the greatest threats to aquatic ecosystems in the Anthropocene, causing eutrophication of rivers, lakes, and marine coastlines worldwide. For lakes across the United States, eutrophication is driven largely by nonpoint nutrient sources from tributaries that drain surrounding watersheds. Decades of monitoring and regulatory efforts have paid little attention to small tributaries of large water bodies, despite their ubiquity and potential local importance. We used a snapshot of nutrient inputs from nearly all tributaries of Lake Michigan—the world’s fifth largest freshwater lake by volume—to determine how land cover and dams alter nutrient inputs across watershed sizes. Loads, concentrations, stoichiometry (N:P), and bioavailability (percentage dissolved inorganic nutrients) varied by orders of magnitude among tributaries, creating a mosaic of coastal nutrient inputs. The 6 largest of 235 tributaries accounted for ∼70% of the daily N and P delivered to Lake Michigan. However, small tributaries exhibited nutrient loads that were high for their size and biased toward dissolved inorganic forms. Higher bioavailability of nutrients from small watersheds suggests greater potential to fuel algal blooms in coastal areas, especially given the likelihood that their plumes become trapped and then overlap in the nearshore zone. Our findings reveal an underappreciated role that small streams may play in driving coastal eutrophication in large water bodies. Although they represent only a modest proportion of lake-wide loads, expanding nutrient management efforts to address smaller watersheds could reduce the ecological impacts of nutrient loading on valuable nearshore ecosystems.

scholarly journals Response of Storm-Related Extreme Sea Level along the U.S. Atlantic Coast to Combined Weather and Climate Forcing

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 3745-3769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Yin ◽  
Stephen M. Griffies ◽  
Michael Winton ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
Laure Zanna
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Storm Surge ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Climate Modeling ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
The U.S

AbstractStorm surge and coastal flooding caused by tropical cyclones (hurricanes) and extratropical cyclones (nor’easters) pose a threat to communities along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Climate change and sea level rise are altering the statistics of these extreme events in a rather complex fashion. Here we use a fully coupled global weather/climate modeling system (GFDL CM4) to study characteristics of extreme daily sea level (ESL) along the U.S. Atlantic coast and their response to global warming. We find that under natural weather processes, the Gulf of Mexico coast is most vulnerable to storm surge and related ESL. New Orleans is a striking hotspot with the highest surge efficiency in response to storm winds. Under a 1% per year atmospheric CO2 increase on centennial time scales, the anthropogenic signal in ESL is robust along the U.S. East Coast. It can emerge from the background variability as soon as in 20 years, or even before global sea level rise is taken into account. The regional dynamic sea level rise induced by the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation facilitates this early emergence, especially during wintertime coastal flooding associated with nor’easters. Along the Gulf Coast, ESL is sensitive to the modification of hurricane characteristics under the CO2 forcing.

Implications of a predicted shift from upland oaks to red maple on forest hydrology and nutrient availability

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 716-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather D. Alexander ◽  
Mary A. Arthur
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nutrient Availability ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Acer Rubrum ◽  
The United States ◽  
Net N Mineralization ◽  
Forest Hydrology ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Red Maple ◽  
Nutrient Inputs

Fire suppression has facilitated the spread of red maple ( Acer rubrum L.), a fire-sensitive, yet highly adaptable species, in historically oak-dominated forests of the eastern United States. Here, we address whether a shift from upland oaks to red maple could influence forest hydrology and nutrient availability because of species-specific effects on precipitation distribution and inorganic nitrogen (N) cycling. In eastern Kentucky, we measured seasonal variations in red maple, chestnut oak ( Quercus montana Willd.), and scarlet oak ( Quercus coccinea Münchh.) throughfall and stemflow quantity and quality following discrete precipitation events, and we assessed net N mineralization rates in underlying soils over a 2-year period (2006–2008). Throughfall was 3%–9% lower underneath red maple than both oaks, but red maple generated 2–3× more stemflow. Consequently, NH4+ throughfall deposition was less under red maple than chestnut oak, whereas stemflow-derived nutrient inputs were substantially larger for red maple than both oaks. Soils underlying red maple had 5–13× greater winter net nitrification rates than soils under both oaks and 20%–30% greater rates of seasonal net ammonification than soils under chestnut oak. These findings suggest a spatial redistribution of water and nutrients via precipitation as red maple dominance increases and point to stemflow as an important mechanism that may foster red maple competitive success, further bolstering the mesophication process in the United States.

scholarly journals Human Lives at Risk because of Eustatic Sea Level Rise and Extreme Coastal Flooding in the Twenty-First Century

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-132
Author(s):  
Yosuke Adachi
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Empirical Relationship ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coastal Flooding ◽  
First Century ◽  
Coastal Population ◽  
Common Scale

Abstract Sea level rise (SLR) is a topic of increasing importance, as global warming continues to drive it at the global level and other factors such as land subsidence also affect it at the local level. Economic and human-based approaches have been taken to assess its impact on society. However, quantifications of the effect of SLR on mortality have not been extensive. Therefore, the objective of this study is to quantify the relative impact of SLR on mortality due to extreme coastal flooding for 2011–2100. First, an empirical relationship between annual storm surges caused by tropical cyclones (TCs) and associated fatalities is established. Next, a conceptual framework is introduced to measure rises in sea level due to gradual SLR and temporary storm surges on a common scale called cumulatively raised sea level. An analysis applying SLR projections to this framework shows that, in addition to the deaths that occur because of coastal flooding due to TCs, at least 84–139 deaths due to extra coastal flooding caused by SLR may occur in the United States by 2100, in the absence of coastal population changes, adaptation, and protection failure. Higher-than-expected rates of SLR due to increased discharge from polar glaciers will raise this estimate to 277. Protection failure will also result in more fatalities. Conversely, adaptation, even when combined with coastal population increases, may lead to fewer fatalities.

Model projections of rapid sea-level rise on the northeast coast of the United States

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 262-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Yin ◽  
Michael E. Schlesinger ◽  
Ronald J. Stouffer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northeast Coast

scholarly journals Economic damages from Hurricane Sandy attributable to sea level rise caused by anthropogenic climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Strauss ◽  
Philip M. Orton ◽  
Klaus Bittermann ◽  
Maya K. Buchanan ◽  
Daniel M. Gilford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
East Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Sea Levels

AbstractIn 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in reported economic damage. The potential influence of climate change on the storm itself has been debated, but sea level rise driven by anthropogenic climate change more clearly contributed to damages. To quantify this effect, here we simulate water levels and damage both as they occurred and as they would have occurred across a range of lower sea levels corresponding to different estimates of attributable sea level rise. We find that approximately $8.1B ($4.7B–$14.0B, 5th–95th percentiles) of Sandy’s damages are attributable to climate-mediated anthropogenic sea level rise, as is extension of the flood area to affect 71 (40–131) thousand additional people. The same general approach demonstrated here may be applied to impact assessments for other past and future coastal storms.

scholarly journals The Metabolic Bone Disease X-linked Hypophosphatemia: Case Presentation, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 563
Author(s):  
Jon Vincze ◽  
Brian W. Skinner ◽  
Katherine A. Tucker ◽  
Kory A. Conaway ◽  
Jonathan W. Lowery ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin D ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 ◽  
Elevated Serum ◽  
Fractional Excretion ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vitamin D Supplementation ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Case Presentation ◽  
Serum Inorganic Phosphate

The authors present a stereotypical case presentation of X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) and provide a review of the pathophysiology and related pharmacology of this condition, primarily focusing on the FDA-approved medication burosumab. XLH is a renal phosphate wasting disorder caused by loss of function mutations in the PHEX gene (phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases on the X chromosome). Typical biochemical findings include elevated serum levels of bioactive/intact fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) which lead to (i) low serum phosphate levels, (ii) increased fractional excretion of phosphate, and (iii) inappropriately low or normal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25-vitD). XLH is the most common form of heritable rickets and short stature in patients with XLH is due to chronic hypophosphatemia. Additionally, patients with XLH experience joint pain and osteoarthritis from skeletal deformities, fractures, enthesopathy, spinal stenosis, and hearing loss. Historically, treatment for XLH was limited to oral phosphate supplementation, active vitamin D supplementation, and surgical intervention for cases of severe bowed legs. In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved burosumab for the treatment of XLH and this medication has demonstrated substantial benefit compared with conventional therapy. Burosumab binds circulating intact FGF23 and blocks its biological effects in target tissues, resulting in increased serum inorganic phosphate (Pi) concentrations and increased conversion of inactive vitamin D to active 1,25-vitD.

scholarly journals Alongshore Wind Forcing of Coastal Sea Level as a Function of Frequency

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 2173-2184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly F. Ryan ◽  
Marlene A. Noble
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Frequency Response ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Response Function ◽  
Wind Field ◽  
Frequency Response Function ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Coastal Sea ◽  
Alongshore Wind

Abstract The amplitude of the frequency response function between coastal alongshore wind stress and adjusted sea level anomalies along the west coast of the United States increases linearly as a function of the logarithm (log10) of the period for time scales up to at least 60, and possibly 100, days. The amplitude of the frequency response function increases even more rapidly at longer periods out to at least 5 yr. At the shortest periods, the amplitude of the frequency response function is small because sea level is forced only by the local component of the wind field. The regional wind field, which controls the wind-forced response in sea level for periods between 20 and 100 days, not only has much broader spatial scales than the local wind, but also propagates along the coast in the same direction as continental shelf waves. Hence, it has a stronger coupling to and an increased frequency response for sea level. At periods of a year or more, observed coastal sea level fluctuations are not only forced by the regional winds, but also by joint correlations among the larger-scale climatic patterns associated with El Niño. Therefore, the amplitude of the frequency response function is large, despite the fact that the energy in the coastal wind field is relatively small. These data show that the coastal sea level response to wind stress forcing along the west coast of the United States changes in a consistent and predictable pattern over a very broad range of frequencies with time scales from a few days to several years.

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