Impact of climate change on catchment nutrient dynamics: insights from around the world

Abstract

This study is a meta-analysis of global articles on hydrological nutrient dynamics to determine trends and consensus on (1) the effects of climate change-induced hydrological and temperature drivers on nutrient dynamics and how these effects vary along the catchment continuum from land to river to lake; (2) the convergence of climate change impacts with other anthropogenic pressures (agriculture, urbanization) in nutrient dynamics; and (3) regional variability in the effects of climate change on nutrient dynamics and water-quality impairment across different climate zones. An innovative web crawler tool was employed to help critically synthesize the information in the literature. 
 
 The literature suggests that climate change will impact nutrient dynamics around the globe and exacerbate contemporary water quality challenges. Nutrient leaching and overland flow transport are projected to increase globally, promoted by extreme precipitation. Seasonal variations in streamflow are expected to emulate changing precipitation patterns, but the specific local impacts of climate change on hydrology and nutrient dynamics will vary both seasonally and regionally. Plant activity may reduce some of this load in non-agricultural soils if the expected increase in plant uptake of nutrients prompted by increased temperatures can compensate for greater N and P mineralization, N deposition, and leaching rates. High-temperature forest and grass fires may help reduce mineralization and microbial turnover by altering N speciation via the pyrolysis of organic matter. In agricultural areas that are at higher risk of erosion, extreme precipitation will exacerbate existing water quality issues, and greater plant nutrient uptake may lead to an increase in fertilizer use. Future urban expansion will amplify these effects. Higher ambient temperatures will promote harmful cyanobacterial blooms by enhancing thermal stratification, increasing nutrient load into streams and lakes from extreme precipitation events, decreasing summer flow and thus baseflow dilution capacity, and increasing water and nutrient residence times during increasingly frequent droughts.
 
 Land management decisions must consider the nuanced regional and seasonal changes identified in this review (realized and predicted). Such knowledge is critical to increasing international cooperation and accelerating action toward the United Nations's global sustainability goals and the specific objectives of the COP26.

OpenWQ v.1: A multi-chemistry modelling framework to enable flexible, transparent, interoperable, and reproducible water quality simulations in existing hydro-models

“…In recent years, it has been recognized that basic tests to evaluate the robustness of model mathematical formulations and numerical solutions are essential for proper model scrutiny, falsification, and acceptance (Clark et al, 2021a). In this study, we extended these principles to water quality simulations where the spatiotemporal complexity and interplay of process generally often give rise to highly non-linear response patterns that are difficult to disentangle in real-world applications for proper model examination (Costa et al, 2022(Costa et al, , 2020a. We prepared a total of ten tests, of which two are non-reactive (biogeochemistry deactivated), and eight are reactive (biogeochemistry activated) -see 2 of that paper.…”

Spatial variability of soil physicochemical properties under different land uses impacted by erosion on karst hillslopes in Southwest China

“…Especially in terrestrial ecosystems, it is still unclear whether and how humans influence the relative balance of soil C, N, P and K by inducing changes in land use. Some studies have reported a close relationship between human disturbances and elements and stoichiometric shifts in organisms, e.g., under climate change (Costa et al, 2022), N deposition (Xu, Qu, et al, 2022), changes in atmospheric CO 2 (Lockhart et al, 2023) and species invasion (Rastogi et al, 2023). Studies have reported that the reclamation of natural soils may lead to a decrease in soil nutrients (e.g., Ouyang et al, 2013; Poeplau & Don, 2013), but some conflicting results have also been reported.…”

A Novel Method for Analyzing Infrared Images Taken by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Forest Fire Monitoring

“…Ranger patrol is time and labor-intensive, limited by natural conditions like topography and climate, and struggles to achieve rapid and accurate fire source discovery [14]. Moreover, patrolling forests in adverse weather or harsh terrain conditions poses high safety risks [15]. Although satellite remote sensing can cover wide areas and provide real-time feedback, its limited resolution hampers accurate fire source positioning during the early stages of a fire [16].…”