Effects of land use and riparian flowpath on delivery of dissolved organic carbon to streams

Findlay, Stuart E. G.; Quinn, John M.; Hickey, Christopher W.; Burrell, Greg; Downes, Malcolm T.

doi:10.4319/lo.2001.46.2.0345

Cited by 111 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Wetlands showed a positive correlation with respect to biotic integrity, as reported by other authors (Roth et al, 1996;Fitzpatrick et al, 2001). Vegetation in wetlands is important for freshwater ecosystems because it reduces excessive light and temperature, growth of algae and aquatic plants, loss of stability of the sediment, nutrient retention, changes in the quantity and quality of organic matter, and alteration of the trophic structure of the system (Findlay, Quinn, Hickey, Burrell, & Downes, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Pacheco-Díaz

Schmitter‐Soto

Schmook

et al. 2017

RBT

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Aquatic environments face a variety of threats in the Hondo River basin, Southeastern Yucatán Peninsula. Some of these impacts, like pollution by pesticides, may depend on land use and cover. Our objective was to assess the effect of land use/cover using a previously published index of biotic integrity (IBI), based on fishes and designed for shallow streams in the Hondo River basin. Our hypothesis was that land uses that cause deforestation and pollution, such as urbanization, cattle breeding, or sugar cane fields, would be reflected in low IBI values, at least at some spatial scales. The 23 sites originally used in [2008][2009] to estimate by electrofishing the relative abundance and other characteristics of selected fish species and guilds to construct the IBI, were revisited in February 2010, to validate by direct inspection the type of land use/cover suggested by landscape information in digital databases. We analyzed the effect of seven types of land use/cover (agriculture, pasture, human settlements, water bodies, wetlands, forest, and secondary vegetation) on the IBI values, at four spatial scales, i.e., the percent of every land use/cover at progressively larger circles (125, 250, 500, and 1 000 m diameter) centered on the water body where the IBI value was measured. Correlations were established among the percent land/use cover by scale around 23 sites, and with their corresponding IBI values. Then, Student's t tests were calculated to examine significant differences in land use/cover between groups of localities above and below the median IBI value, and Mann-Whitney's U tests were applied to compare IBI values between localities with and without a given landscape cover. Agriculture, human settlements, and secondary vegetation correlated negatively with the IBI; forests positively. Differences were significant (p<0.05) for forest (higher in sites with higher IBI values) and human settlements (lower in sites with higher IBI). Of all the landscape categories located in the Hondo River basin, with the exception of pasture, those of anthropogenic origin tended to be detrimental to aquatic biotic integrity. Rev. Biol. Trop. 65 (4): 1448-1458. Epub 2017 December 01.Key words: human impact, fishes, environmental risk, landscape dynamics, index of biotic integrity, aquatic diversity.Along the Mexican-Belizean Hondo River basin, most human settlements used to subsist on forestry, agriculture, livestock, and tourism (although since the early 2000s most of them rely on government subsidies and remittances from the United States or from Cancún and Playa del Carmen: Castellanos, 2010). Some of these activities threaten freshwater systems due to creation of waste, such as organic matter and pesticides, among others. Agriculture, transport, and urban residual water are the main sources of pollution (Buenfil-Rojas, Álvarez-Legorreta, & Cedeño-Vázquez, 2014;Sánchez, Álvarez-Legorreta, Pacheco, Carrillo, & González, 2016). Additionally, the presence of invasive species in the region, like tilapia Oreochromis mo...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Pacheco-Díaz

Schmitter‐Soto

Schmook

et al. 2017

RBT

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“…greater relative areas of peat soil and forestry (the Srahrevagh) were significantly higher than the other two monitoring sites, a difference that was consistent both seasonally and over the six years of the study. Colour, and therefore DOC, in these headwater rivers originates almost exclusively from the surrounding catchment soils and the quantity of DOC exported during the study was shown to be a function of catchment properties such as the extent of peat within catchments (Hope et al, 1997a), land use (Findlay et al, 2001), local runoff (Dillon and Molot., 2005) vegetation type (Sobek et al, 2007) and the 5 morphology and geology of the catchment landscape (Moore, 1998). Forestry is also known to influence DOC release from soils and it has been observed that both afforestation and forest clear-felling result in increased DOC concentrations and that these increases may continue for several years after the initial event (DeFries & Eshleman., 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrony in catchment stream colour levels is driven by both local and regional climate

Doyle¹,

Eyto²,

Dillane³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Streams draining upland catchments mobilise significant loads of carbon from terrestrial reservoirs to downstream freshwater and marine aquatic ecosystems and ultimately, via a range of biotic and abiotic processes, to the atmosphere. 5There are increasing concerns over the long-term stability of terrestrial carbon stores in blanket peatland catchments as a result of anthropogenic pressures and climate change. We analysed sub-annual and inter-annual changes in river water colour (a reliable proxy measurement of dissolved organic carbon (DOC)) using six years of weekly data (2011 to 2016) from three contiguous river sub-catchments (Black, Glenamong and Srahrevagh) in a blanket peatland catchment system in western Ireland, assessing differences in catchment characteristics and in the drivers of temporal change. General additive mixed 10 modelling was used to identify the principle environmental drivers controlling changes in colour concentration in the rivers, while wavelet cross correlation analysis was used to identify common frequencies. Although at 130 mg PtCo L -1 , the colour levels in the Srahrevagh (the subcatchment with lower rainfall and higher forest cover) were almost 50% higher than those from the Black and Glenamong, 95 and 84 mg Pt Co L -1 respectively. The decomposition of the colour datasets revealed similar multi-annual, annual, and event-based (random component) trends, illustrating that environmental drivers operated 15 synchronously at each of these temporal scales, and also spatially within the same catchment. For the Black and its nested Srahrevagh catchment, soil temperature, soil moisture deficit and the weekly North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) explained 54% and 58% of the deviance in colour respectively. In the Glenamong, which had steeper topography and a higher percentage of peat intersected by streams, soil temperature, log of discharge and the NAO explained 66% of the colour concentrations. Cross-wavelet time-series analysis between river colour and each environmental driver revealed a significant 20 high common power relationship at an annual time step. Each each relationship however, varied in phase, further highlighting the complexity of the mechanisms driving river colour in the sub-catchments. The estimated mean annual DOC loads for the Black and Glenamong rivers to Lough Feeagh were 15 t C km 2 yr -1 and 14.7 t C km 2 yr -1 respectively, although the export values displayed significant inter-annual variation. The results of the study highlight the interaction of catchment conditions and regional meteorological drivers of aquatic carbon export and, therefore the vulnerability of blanket peatland 25 carbon stores to changes in temperature and precipitation. These changes are presently being observed and are predicted to become increasingly extreme and variable.

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“…(Table 2, Vihinen and Mäntsälä, 1989;Sinsabaugh et al, 1991;Arpigny and Jaeger, 1999;Makoi and Ndakidemi, 2008;Sinsabaugh et al, 2008). Fluorometric enzyme assays were performed under standardized conditions as described before (Findlay et al, 2001). All values were corrected for quenching and potential autofluorescence, that is, because of the presence of small mineral particles, and subsequently standardized to OM.…”

Section: Enzyme Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial structures and ecosystem functions in glaciated floodplains: contemporary states and potential future shifts

et al. 2013

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Glaciated alpine floodplains are responding quickly to climate change through shrinking ice masses. Given the expected future changes in their physicochemical environment, we anticipated variable shifts in structure and ecosystem functioning of hyporheic microbial communities in proglacial alpine streams, depending on present community characteristics and landscape structures. We examined microbial structure and functioning during different hydrologic periods in glacial (kryal) streams and, as contrasting systems, groundwater-fed (krenal) streams. Three catchments were chosen to cover an array of landscape features, including interconnected lakes, differences in local geology and degree of deglaciation. Community structure was assessed by automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis and microbial function by potential enzyme activities. We found each catchment to contain a distinct bacterial community structure and different degrees of separation in structure and functioning that were linked to the physicochemical properties of the waters within each catchment. Bacterial communities showed high functional plasticity, although achieved by different strategies in each system. Typical kryal communities showed a strong linkage of structure and function that indicated a major prevalence of specialists, whereas krenal sediments were dominated by generalists. With the rapid retreat of glaciers and therefore altered ecohydrological characteristics, lotic microbial structure and functioning are likely to change substantially in proglacial floodplains in the future. The trajectory of these changes will vary depending on contemporary bacterial community characteristics and landscape structures that ultimately determine the sustainability of ecosystem functioning.

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Effects of land use and riparian flowpath on delivery of dissolved organic carbon to streams

Cited by 111 publications

References 46 publications

Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Synchrony in catchment stream colour levels is driven by both local and regional climate

Bacterial structures and ecosystem functions in glaciated floodplains: contemporary states and potential future shifts

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