An index to characterize the spatial distribution of land use within watersheds and implications for river network nutrient removal and export

Geophysical Research Letters

Volumn 42, Issue 16, 2015, Pages 6688-6695

  Mineau, Madeleine M ^a   Wollheim, Wilfred M ^a   Stewart, Robert J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE   (United States)

Author keywords

coastal watershed; land use; model; nitrogen; river; spatial distribution

Indexed keywords

LOCATION; MODELS; NITROGEN; NITROGEN REMOVAL; NUTRIENTS; RIVERS; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; WATERSHEDS;

COASTAL WATERSHEDS; IN-STREAM REMOVAL; NUTRIENT INPUTS; NUTRIENT REMOVAL; NUTRIENT SOURCES; RIVER NETWORK; SOURCE LOCATION; STREAM NUTRIENT;

LAND USE;

HEADWATER; LAND USE CHANGE; NITROGEN; NUTRIENT UPTAKE; POLLUTANT REMOVAL; QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS; RIVER SYSTEM; RUNOFF; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; WATERSHED;

EID: 84941687155     PISSN: 00948276     EISSN: 19448007     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL064965     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Alexander, R. B., P. J. Johnes, E. W. Boyer, and, R. A. Smith, (2002), A comparison of models for estimating the riverine transport of nitrogen from large watersheds, Biogeochemistry, 57 (58), 295-339.
2. Alexander, R. B., R. A. Smith, G. E. Schwartz, E. W. Boyer, J. V. Nolan, and, J. W. Brakebill, (2008), Differences in phosphorus and nitrogen delivery to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River basin, Environ. Sci. Technol., 42, 822-830.
3. Allan, J. D., D. L. Erickson, and, J. Fay, (1997), The influence of catchment land use on stream integrity across multiple spatial scales, Freshwater Biol., 37, 149-161.
4. Arnold, C. L., Jr., and, C. J. Gibbons, (1996), Impervious surface coverage: The emergence of a key environmental indicator, J. Am. Plann. Assoc., 62, 243-258.
5. Bagstad, K. J., G. W. Johnson, B. Voigt, and, F. Villa, (2013), Spatial dynamics of ecosystem service flow: A comprehensive approach to quantifying actual services, Ecosyst. Serv., 4, 117-125.
6. Beaulac, M. N., and, K. H. Reckhow, (1982), An examination of land use-nutrient export relationships, Water Res. Bull., 18, 1013-1024.
7. Behrendt, H., and, D. Opitz, (2000), Retention of nutrients in rive systems: Dependence on specific runoff and hydraulic load, Hydrobiologia, 410, 111-122.
8. Bernhardt, E. S., et al., (2005), Can't see the forest for the streams? In-stream processing and terrestrial nitrogen exports, BioScience, 55, 219-230.
9. Boyer, E. W., C. L. Goodale, N. A. Jaworski, and, R. W. Howarth, (2002), Anthropogenic nitrogen sources and relationships to riverine export in the Northeastern U.S.A., Biogeochemistry, 57 (58), 137-169.
10. Carpenter, S. R., N. F. Caraco, D. L. Corell, R. W. Howarth, A. N. Sharpley, and, V. H. Smith, (1998), Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen, Ecol. Appl., 8, 559-568.
11. Cloern, J. E., (2001), Our evolving conceptual model of the coastal eutrophication problem, Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 210, 223-253.
12. Cronan, C. S., J. T. Piampiano, and, H. H. Patterson, (1999), Influence of land use and hydrology on exports of carbon and nitrogen in a Maine River basin, J. Environ. Qual., 28, 953-961.
13. Crowell, M., S. Edelman, K. Coulton, and, S. McAfee, (2007), How many people live in coastal areas?, J. Coastal Res., 23, 3-6.
14. Daley, M., J. Potter, E. Difranco, and, W. H. McDowell, (2010), Nitrogen assessment for the Lamprey River Watershed, Report for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. [Available at http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/coastal/documents/unh-nitrogenassessment.pdf.]
15. Dodds, W. K., W. W. Bouska, J. L. Eitzman, T. J. Pilger, K. L. Pitts, A. J. Riley, J. T. Schlosser, and, D. J. Thornbrugh, (2009), Eutrophication of U.S. freshwaters: Analysis of potential economic damages, Environ. Sci. Technol., 43, 12-19.
16. Fekete, B. M., C. J. Vörösmarty, and, R. B. Lammers, (2001), Scaling gridded river networks for macroscale hydrology: Development, analysis, and control of error, Water Resour. Res., 37, 1955-1967, doi: 10.1029/2001WR900024.
17. Foley, J. A., et al., (2005), Global consequences of land use, Science, 309, 570-574.
18. Fry, J., G. Xian, S. Jin, J. Dewitz, C. Homer, L. Yang, C. Barnes, N. Herold, and, J. Wickham, (2011), Completion of the 2006 National Land Cover Database for the Conterminous United States, Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens., 77, 858-864.
19. Galloway, J. N., A. R. Townsend, J. W. Erisman, M. Bekunda, Z. Cai, J. R. Freney, L. A. Martinelli, S. P. Steizinger, and, M. A. Sutton, (2008), Transformations of the nitrogen cycle: Recent trends, questions, and potential solutions, Science, 320, 889-892.
20. Goodridge, B. M., and, J. M. Melack, (2012), Land use control of stream nitrate concentrations in mountainous coastal California watersheds, J. Geophys. Res., 117, G02005, doi: 10.1029/2011JG001833.
21. Green, M., W. Wollheim, N. Basu, G. Gettel, P. S. Rao, N. Morse, and, R. Stewart, (2009), Effective denitrification scales predictably with water residence time across diverse systems. [Available from Nature Precedings http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2009.3520.1.]
22. Hale, I. L., W. M. Wollheim, R. G. Smith, H. Asbjornsen, A. F. Brito, K. D. Broders, A. S. Grandy, and, R. J. Rowe, (2014), Pushing the boundaries: A conceptual framework for assessing the environmental impacts of expanding local agriculture, Sustainability, 6, 8432-8451, doi: 10.3390/su6128432.
23. Hall, R. O., Jr., M. A. Baker, E. J. Rosi-Marshall, and, J. L. Tank, (2013), Solute specific scaling of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus uptake in streams, Biogeosciences, 10, 6671-6693.
24. Howarth, R. W., A. Sharpley, and, D. Walker, (2002), Sources of nutrient pollution to coastal waters in the United States: Implications of achieving coastal water quality goals, Estuaries, 25, 656-676.
25. Kenny, J. F., N. L. Barber, S. S. Hutson, K. S. Linsey, J. K. Lovelace, and, M. A. Maupin, (2005), Estimated use of water in the United States in 2005, USGS Circular 1344.
26. King, R. S., M. E. Baker, D. F. Whigam, D. E. Weller, T. E. Jordan, P. F. Kazyak, and, M. K. Hurd, (2005), Spatial considerations for linking watershed land cover to ecological indicators in streams, Ecol. Appl., 15, 137-153.
27. Lin, L., J. R. Webster, T. Hwang, and, L. E. Band, (2015), Effects of lateral nitrate flux and instream processes on dissolved inorganic nitrogen export in a forested catchment: A model sensitivity analysis, Water Resour. Res., 51, 2680-2695, doi: 10.1002/2014WR015962.
28. Morse, N. B., and, W. M. Wollheim, (2014), Climate variability masks the impacts of land use change on nutrient export in a suburbanizing watershed, Biogeochemistry, 121, 45-59, doi: 10.1007/s10533-014-9998-6.
29. Mulholland, P. J., et al., (2008), Stream denitrification across biomes and its response to anthropogenic nitrate loading, Nature, 452, 202-206.
30. Peterson, B. J., et al., (2001), Control of nitrogen export from watersheds by headwater streams, Science, 292, 86-90.
31. Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (2012), Environmental data report. [Available at http://prep.unh.edu/resources/pdf/2013%20SOOE/2012%20PREP%20Env%20Data%20Report%20FINAL%20Compressed%20Adobe6.pdf.]
32. Pretty, J. N., C. F. Mason, D. B. Nedwell, R. E. Hine, S. Leaf, and, R. Dils, (2003), Environmental costs of freshwater eutrophication in England and Wales, Environ. Sci. Technol., 37, 201-208.
33. Royer, T. V., J. L. Tank, and, M. B. David, (2004), Transport and fate of nitrate in headwater agricultural streams in Illinois, J. Environ. Qual., 33, 1296-1304.
34. Seitzinger, S. P., R. V. Styles, E. W. Boyer, R. B. Alexander, G. Billen, R. W. Howarth, B. Mayer, and, N. Van Breemen, (2002), Nitrogen retention in rivers: Model development and application to watersheds in the Northeastern U.S.A., Biogeochemistry, 57 (58), 199-237.
35. Sponseller, R. A., E. F. Benfield, and, H. M. Valett, (2001), Relationships between land use, spatial scale and stream macroinvertebrate communities, Freshwater Biol., 46, 1409-1424.
36. Stewart, R. J., W. M. Wollheim, M. Gooseff, M. A. Briggs, J. M. Jacobs, B. J. Peterson, and, C. S. Hopkinson, (2011), Separation of river network scale nitrogen removal among main channel and two transient storage compartments, Water Resour. Res., 47, W00J10, doi: 10.1029/2010WR009896.
37. Stewart, R. J., W. M. Wollheim, A. Miara, C. J. Vorosmarty, B. Fekete, R. Lammers, and, B. Rosenzweig, (2013), Horizontal cooling towers: Riverine ecosystem services and the fate of thermoelectric heat in the contemporary Northeast, Environ. Res. Lett., 8, 025010, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/025010.
38. Strayer, D. L., R. E. Beighley, L. C. Thompson, S. Brooks, C. Nilsson, G. Pinay, and, R. J. Naiman, (2003), Effect of land cover on stream ecosystems: Roles of empirical models and scaling issues, Ecosystems, 6, 407-423.
39. Tank, J. L., E. J. Rosi-Marshall, M. A. Baker, and, R. O. Hall Jr., (2008), Are rivers just big streams? A pulse method to quantify nitrogen demand in a large river, Ecology, 89, 2935-2945.
40. Terblanche, A. P. S., (1991), Health hazards of nitrate in drinking water, Water SA, 17, 77-82.
41. Van Sickle, J., and, C. B. Johnson, (2008), Parametric distance weighting of landscape influence on streams, Landscape Ecol., 23, 427-438.
42. Vorosmarty, C. J., C. A. Federer, and, A. L. Schloss, (1998), Evaporation functions compared on US watersheds: Possible implications for global-scale water balance and terrestrial ecosystem modeling, J. Hydrol., 207, 147-169.
43. Wollheim, W. M., C. J. Vörösmarty, B. J. Perterson, S. P. Seitzinger, and, C. S. Hopkinson, (2006), Relationship between river size and nutrient removal, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06410, doi: 10.1029/2006GL025845.
44. Wollheim, W. M., C. J. Vorosmarty, A. F. Bouwman, P. A. Green, J. Harrison, E. Linder, B. J. Peterson, S. Seitzinger, and, J. P. M. Syvitski, (2008a), Global N removal by freshwater aquatic systems: A spatially distributed, within-basin approach, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 22, GB2026, doi: 10.1029/2007GB002963.
45. Wollheim, W. M., B. J. Peterson, C. J. Vorosmarty, C. Hopkinson, and, S. A. Thomas, (2008b), Dynamics of N removal over annual time scales in a suburban river network, J. Geophys. Res., 113, G03038, doi: 10.1029/2007JG000660.
46. Wollheim, W. M., M. B. Green, B. A. Pellerin, N. B. Morse, and, C. S. Hopkinson, (2013), Causes and consequences of ecosystem regionalization in a coastal suburban watershed, Estuaries Coasts, 38, 19-34, doi: 10.1007/s12237-013-9646-8.