Acidification and Climate Linkages to Increased Dissolved Organic Carbon in High‐Elevation Lakes

Gavin, A. L.; Nelson, Sarah J.; Klemmer, Amanda J.; Fernandez, Ivan J.; Strock, Kristin E.; McDowell, William H.

doi:10.1029/2017wr020963

Cited by 36 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Other characteristics could also mediate the strength of the relationship between climate and water quality; for example, deep waters of small lakes have shown muted responses to warming because of lower physical mixing (Winslow et al, ). Because other variables are known to moderate the effects of climate change on lakes, and the effects of climate are expected to operate in a relatively homogenous way at broad spatial scales (Gavin et al, ; Lapierre et al, ), we hypothesize that the effects of climate will be most clearly expressed in regions with little temporal change in land use and land cover. We were not able to test these hypotheses in the current study, but future work should test these ideas more formally.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter Precipitation and Summer Temperature Predict Lake Water Quality at Macroscales

Collins

Yuan

Tan

et al. 2019

Water Resources Research

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Climate change can have strong effects on aquatic ecosystems, including disrupting nutrient cycling and mediating processes that affect primary production. Past studies have been conducted mostly on individual or small groups of ecosystems, making it challenging to predict how future climate change will affect water quality at broad scales. We used a subcontinental‐scale database to address three objectives: (1) identify which climate metrics best predict lake water quality, (2) examine whether climate influences different nutrient and productivity measures similarly, and (3) quantify the potential effects of a changing climate on lakes. We used climate data to predict lake water quality in ~11,000 north temperate lakes across 17 U.S. states. We developed a novel machine learning method that jointly models different measures of water quality using 48 climate metrics and accounts for properties inherent in macroscale data (e.g., spatial autocorrelation). Our results suggest that climate metrics related to winter precipitation and summer temperature were strong predictors of lake nutrients and productivity. However, we found variation in the magnitude and direction of the relationship between climate and water quality. We predict that a likely future climate change scenario of warmer summer temperatures will lead to increased nutrient concentrations and algal biomass across lakes (median ~3%–9% increase), whereas increased winter precipitation will have highly variable effects. Our results emphasize the importance of heterogeneity in the response of individual ecosystems to climate and are a caution to extrapolating relationships across space.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter Precipitation and Summer Temperature Predict Lake Water Quality at Macroscales

Collins

Yuan

Tan

et al. 2019

Water Resources Research

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“…Despite widespread occurrence of “brownification” of freshwater ecosystems (Gavin et al, ; Hruška et al, ; Monteith et al, ; SanClements et al, ), a growing body of literature has documented that DOC is unchanged or declines over time in many watersheds (Arvola et al, ; Clair et al, ; Raike et al, ; Rodríguez‐Murillo et al, ; Stackpoole et al, 2017), including the northeastern United States (Fahey et al, ; Navrátil et al, ). In the Lamprey River we observed a slight decrease in DOC concentrations over 15 years.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiyear Trends in Solute Concentrations and Fluxes From a Suburban Watershed: Evaluating Effects of 100‐Year Flood Events

et al. 2018

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Anthropogenic activities have increased solute concentrations and fluxes in rivers globally.Increases in salt, dissolved organic carbon, and inorganic nutrients have been attributed to changes in atmospheric deposition, road salt and fertilizer application, and urbanization. Extremely large flood events, which are increasing in frequency and duration, could also alter river chemistry by flushing various solute reservoirs within watersheds and effectively "resetting" the linkages between land and river. We evaluated changes in concentrations and fluxes of inorganic nutrients, dissolved organic matter, and salts and major ions across 12 to 15 years in a rural-suburban watershed in New Hampshire, USA. During this period, the human imprint on the landscape (impervious surfaces and population density) increased, but two 100-year flood events also occurred. We found that concentrations and fluxes of chloride and potassium, fluxes of all other major ions, and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon declined over time, but concentrations and fluxes of inorganic nutrients and dissolved organic nitrogen were unchanged. The minor declines in concentrations were of similar magnitude to declines previously observed in other watersheds that did not experience extreme flood events. We observed a shift in nitrate (NO 3 À ) concentration-discharge behavior from enrichment in the years prior to and including the floods to chemostasis after the floods, but for both time periods NO 3 À concentrations were weakly related to discharge. Our results suggest a limited role of extreme events in the biogeochemistry of urbanizing watersheds and emphasize the importance of long-term records and multiple analytical approaches to understand the dynamics of complex watersheds. Key Points:• Small decreases in concentrations and fluxes of salts and major ions were observed over 12 years despite an increase in the human footprint • Small (<1% of mean annual) decreases in DOC concentrations were observed over a 15-year period, but DOC did not respond to discharge • Occurrence of two 100-year flood events had little, if any, effect on multiyear trends in concentrations, fluxes, or C-Q relationships Supporting Information:• Figure S1

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“…Moreover, base cation dilution and increases in organic acidity are also influenced indirectly by atmospheric deposition as reflected by soil base cation depletion resulting from enhanced acid leaching and by increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations resulting from declines in the acidity of atmospheric deposition (Gavin et al, 2018;Lawrence et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Responses to decreasing acid deposition may result in changes in the natural and anthropogenic drivers of episodic acidification, but not necessarily to changes in the magnitude of ANC depressions that occur during events (Kline et al, ), though decreases in episodic acidification have also been reported (Riscassi et al, ). Moreover, base cation dilution and increases in organic acidity are also influenced indirectly by atmospheric deposition as reflected by soil base cation depletion resulting from enhanced acid leaching and by increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations resulting from declines in the acidity of atmospheric deposition (Gavin et al, ; Lawrence et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic and episodic acidification of streams along the Appalachian Trail corridor, eastern United States

Burns

McDonnell

Rice

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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Acidic atmospheric deposition has adversely affected aquatic ecosystems globally. As emissions and deposition of sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) have declined in recent decades across North America and Europe, ecosystem recovery is evident in many surface waters. However, persistent chronic and episodic acidification remain important concerns in vulnerable regions. We evaluated acidification in 269 headwater streams during 2010–2012 along the Appalachian Trail (AT) that transits several ecoregions and is located downwind of high levels of S and N emission sources. Discharge was estimated by matching sampled streams to those of a nearby gaged stream and assuming equivalent daily mean flow percentiles. Charge balance acid‐neutralizing capacity (ANC) values were adjusted to the 15th (Q15) and 85th flow percentiles (Q85) by applying the ANC/discharge slope among sample pairs collected at each stream. A site‐based approach was applied to streams sampled twice or more and a second regression‐based approach to streams sampled once to estimate episodic acidification magnitudes as the ANC difference from Q15 to Q85. Streams with ANC <0 μeq/L doubled from 16% to 32% as discharge increased from Q15 to Q85 according to the site‐based approach. The proportion of streams with ANC <0 μeq/L at low flow and high flow decreased from north to south. Base cation dilution explained the greatest amount of episodic acidification among streams and variation in sulfate (SO42−) concentrations was a secondary explanatory variable. Episodic SO42− patterns varied geographically with dilution dominant in northern streams underlain by soils developed in glacial sediment and increased concentrations dominant in southern streams with older, highly weathered soils. Episodic acidification increased as low‐flow ANC increased, exceeding 90 μeq/L in 25% of streams. Episodic increases in ANC were the dominant pattern in streams with low‐flow ANC values <30 μeq/L. Chronic and episodic acidification remain an ecological concern among AT streams. The approach developed here could be applied to estimate the magnitude and extent of chronic and episodic acidification in other regions recovering from decreasing levels of atmospheric S and N deposition.

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Acidification and Climate Linkages to Increased Dissolved Organic Carbon in High‐Elevation Lakes

Cited by 36 publications

References 86 publications

Winter Precipitation and Summer Temperature Predict Lake Water Quality at Macroscales

Winter Precipitation and Summer Temperature Predict Lake Water Quality at Macroscales

Multiyear Trends in Solute Concentrations and Fluxes From a Suburban Watershed: Evaluating Effects of 100‐Year Flood Events

Chronic and episodic acidification of streams along the Appalachian Trail corridor, eastern United States

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