Hysteresis Patterns of Watershed Nitrogen Retention and Loss over the past 50 years in United States Hydrological Basins

Newcomer, Michelle; Bouskill, Nicholas J.; Wainwright, H. M.; Maavara, Taylor; Arora, Bhavna; Siirila‐Woodburn, Erica R.; Dwivedi, Dipankar; Williams, K. H.; Steefel, Carl I.; Hubbard, Susan S.

doi:10.1002/essoar.10504643.1

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 88 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…By the time snowmelt happens at NE exposed hillslopes ET rates are already higher, which then changes the partitioning of the snow toward higher losses via ET. The variability in rain and snow partitioning has implications for critical watershed functions, such as water delivery, drought resilience, and nitrogen export, and our results help to explain potential sources and mechanisms of these observed functions (Newcomer et al., 2021; Wainwright et al., 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Variability of Snow and Rainfall Partitioning Into Evapotranspiration and Summer Runoff Across Nine Mountainous Catchments

Sprenger

Carroll

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Understanding the partitioning of snow and rain contributing to either catchment streamflow or evapotranspiration (ET) is of critical relevance for water management in response to climate change. To investigate this partitioning, we use endmember splitting and mixing analyses based on stable isotope (18O) data from nine headwater catchments in the East River, Colorado. Our results show that one third of the snow partitions to ET and 13% of the snowmelt sustains summer streamflow. Only 8% of the rainfall contributes to the summer streamflow, because most of the rain (67%) partitions to ET. The spatial variability of precipitation partitioning is mainly driven by aspect and tree cover across the sub‐catchments. Catchments with higher tree cover have a higher share of snow becoming ET, resulting in less snow in summer streamflow. Summer streamflow did not contain more rain with higher rainfall sums, but more rain was taken up in ET.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Variability of Snow and Rainfall Partitioning Into Evapotranspiration and Summer Runoff Across Nine Mountainous Catchments

Sprenger

Carroll

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…There also appeared to be watershed‐wide declining trend in stream water N contrary to that hypothesized in this study. Thus, it is very likely that in developed watersheds such as the Chiques Creek, the effects of a single low‐head dam removal on stream water N may not be very apparent and could be masked by elevated N agricultural and urban loadings, effects of N legacies (e.g., Chang et al., 2021) and broader regional and continental scale trends in N (e.g., Newcomer et al., 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Draining the Landscape: How Do Nitrogen Concentrations in Riparian Groundwater and Stream Water Change Following Milldam Removal?

et al. 2021

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Dams are increasingly being removed across the United States (US) (Bellmore et al., 2017;Foley et al., 2017). Since 1912, more than 1,490 dams have been removed across the US and Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of milldams and their removals (American Rivers, 2020). Most (>90%) of these milldams are classified as low-head dams (height < 7 m) and are typically a relic of colonial and post-colonial era milling activities (Merritts et al., 2011;Walter & Merritts, 2008). Dam removal numbers could be higher since not all dam removals are recorded. This could particularly be true for the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region, where thousands of small mill dams existed since the late 1600s (Walter & Merritts, 2008).Low-head dam removals are primarily being driven by needs for public safety, reduction in financial liability, recreational access, aesthetics, and/or improvement in fish habitat (

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“…The foresummer drought sensitivity (Wainwright et al, 2020) is a watershed function available throughout the domain that allows us to quantify the hillslope-average values in the same manner as other spatial data layers. In addition, we computed the spatial coverage of each zone in each subcatchment, and compared them to the ratio between the annual nitrogen export and total discharge, which is considered as a key metric of how watersheds retain and lose nutrients (Newcomer et al, 2021).…”

Section: Cluster-based Approach To Identify Watershed Zonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Figure1) within the domain used inCarroll et al (2018). The nitrogen export was computed in the same manner asNewcomer et al (2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

Watershed zonation approach for tractably quantifying above-and-belowground watershed heterogeneity and functions

Wainwright

Uhlemann

Franklin

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. In this study, we develop a watershed zonation approach for characterizing watershed organization and function in a tractable manner by integrating multiple spatial data layers. Recognizing the coupled ecohydrogeological-biogeochemical interactions that occur across bedrock through canopy compartments of a watershed, we hypothesize that (1) suites of above/belowground properties co-varying with each other, (2) hillslopes are representative units for capturing watershed-scale heterogeneity, (3) remote sensing data layers and clustering methods can be used to identify watershed hillslope zones having unique distributions of bedrock-through-canopy properties relative to neighboring parcels, and (4) property suites associated with the identified zones can be used to understand zone-based functions, such as response to early snowmelt or drought, and associated solute exports to the river. We demonstrate this concept using unsupervised clustering methods that synthesizes airborne remote sensing data (LiDAR, hyperspectral, and electromagnetic surveys) along with satellite and streamflow data collected in the East River Watershed, Crested Butte, Colorado, USA. Results show that, (1) hillslope-average elevation and slope are significantly correlated with near-surface bedrock electrical resistivity (top 20 m), (2) elevation and aspect are independent controls on plant and snow signatures, (3) the correlation between hillslope-averaged above- and below- ground properties are significantly higher than pixel-by-pixel correlation and (4) K-means, hierarchical clustering, and Gaussian mixture clustering methods generate similar zonation patterns across the watershed. Using independently collected data, it is shown that the identified zones provide information about zone-based watershed functions, including foresummer drought sensitivity and river nitrogen exports. The approach is expected to be extensible to other sites and generally useful for guiding the selection of hillslope experiment locations and informing model parameterization.

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Hysteresis Patterns of Watershed Nitrogen Retention and Loss over the past 50 years in United States Hydrological Basins

Cited by 10 publications

References 88 publications

Variability of Snow and Rainfall Partitioning Into Evapotranspiration and Summer Runoff Across Nine Mountainous Catchments

Variability of Snow and Rainfall Partitioning Into Evapotranspiration and Summer Runoff Across Nine Mountainous Catchments

Draining the Landscape: How Do Nitrogen Concentrations in Riparian Groundwater and Stream Water Change Following Milldam Removal?

Watershed zonation approach for tractably quantifying above-and-belowground watershed heterogeneity and functions

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