Landscape influences on water chemistry in Midwestern stream ecosystems

Abstract

1. Landscape characteristics of sixty‐two subcatchments within the Saginaw Bay Catchment of central Michigan were examined to identify relationships with stream water chemistry. Land use, land cover and elevation were quantified for both entire catchments and the upland–river ecotone (100 m stream buffer strip). Catchment and ecotone data were then empirically compared with stream water chemistry using multivariate and regression analyses. Redundancy analysis was used to partition variance among land use, geology, and the shared influence of land use and geology. 2. Major catchments dominated by rowcrop agriculture had the highest alkalinity, total dissolved solids and nitrate + nitrite concentrations. 3. Strong seasonal differences were observed in total nitrogen and nitrite + nitrate, but not in total phosphorus or suspended solids. Land use and landscape structure factors such as slope and patch density (number of land use patches per km2) accounted for most of the observed variance in summer. 4. In both autumn and summer, landscape factors accounted for much of the observed variation in total dissolved solids and alkalinity. During autumn, geological factors and the shared influence of geology/landscape structure plus land use exerted more influence than did land use alone. 5. Total phosphorus and total suspended solids were much better explained by land use within the stream ecotone in summer than in other seasons. However, total nitrogen, nitrate, orthophosphate and alkalinity were equally well explained by land use within the ecotone and throughout the whole catchment. Only total dissolved solids in summer and ammonium in autumn were explained better by the whole catchment than the ecotone. 6. Our results show that relatively coarse spatial databases can provide useful descriptors of regional water quality.

Influences of natural and anthropogenic factors on surface and groundwater quality in rural and urban areas

“…Urbanization-related activities have been found to increase nitrogen, phosphorus, alkalinity, and the total dissolved solids in surface waters (Johnson et al 1997;Boyer et al 2002;Gergel 2005). Degraded streams and rivers that drain urbanized landscapes often have higher nutrient loads and contaminant concentrations, as well as altered stream morphology and reduced biodiversity (Meyer et al 2005).…”

The influence of topography and land use on water quality of Xiangxi River in Three Gorges Reservoir region

“…Early studies on river water quality were mainly focused on the influence of geomorphic characteristics such as drainage area, gradient and stream order on river physical characteristics (such as turbidity, dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature), understanding elemental dynamics, and quantifying diffuse sources of pollutants in catchments (Johnson et al 1997). Recently, the increasing availability of geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and multivariate statistics techniques have allowed researchers to quantify watershed characteristics and assess the influences of terrestrial ecosystems on river systems (Richards et al 1996;Johnson et al 1997;Fritch et al 2000;Jarvie et al 2002).…”

“…Recently, the increasing availability of geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and multivariate statistics techniques have allowed researchers to quantify watershed characteristics and assess the influences of terrestrial ecosystems on river systems (Richards et al 1996;Johnson et al 1997;Fritch et al 2000;Jarvie et al 2002). Many current researches indicate that changes in land use, such as from forest to agricultural land, can dramatically alter the nature of particulate and dissolved material inputs to river (Cooke and Prepas 1998).…”

Trace Metals in Upland Headwater Lakes in Ireland

“…Redundancy analysis has been widely used to evaluate trace metal concentrations including studies of aquatic organisms, lake waters, lake sediments or catchment soils and vegetation (Johnson et al 1997;Stemberger and Chen 1998;Rognerud et al 2000;Skjelkvåle et al 2001a). In the current study, the variable describing most of the variation in total trace metal concentrations was Ca 2?…”