Modeling of nutrient export and effects of management practices in a cold-climate prairie watershed: Assiniboine River watershed, Canada

Mekonnen, Balew A.; Mazurek, Kerry A.; Putz, Gordon

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2016.06.023

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Although our sample size was fairly small ( n = 6), our results indicate that intact prairie wetlands have a relatively strong P buffering capacity, and this should be investigated further across a larger geographic extent. This suggests that maintaining intact wetlands in agricultural landscapes could help buffer against future losses of P. This is particularly important, given that nonpoint‐source P pollution is increasing and negatively affecting water quality throughout the Canadian Prairies (Tiessen et al, 2010; Corriveau et al, 2013; Mekonnen et al, 2017). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphorus Retention in Intact and Drained Prairie Wetland Basins: Implications for Nutrient Export

2018

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Draining of geographically isolated (no defined inlet or outlet) freshwater mineral soil wetlands has likely converted areas that acted historically as important P sinks to sources of P. To explore the role of wetland drainage on nonpoint-source P pollution, differences in the chemical characteristics and P sorption parameters of drained and intact wetlands were investigated in a small watershed situated in the Prairie Pothole Region of southwestern Manitoba, Canada. Chemical characteristics and P sorption parameters varied across landscape positions, particularly for landscape positions that were submerged. Intact wetlands had slightly higher concentrations of organic and total P relative to drained wetlands, which is indicative of their P trapping capacity. More importantly, the maximum P sorption capacity and P buffering capacity of intact wetlands were 3.6 (1752 vs. 492 mg kg) and 17 (1394 vs. 84 L kg) times greater than those in drained wetlands. Conversely, equilibrium P concentrations and bioavailable P concentrations in drained wetlands were an order of magnitude greater than those in intact prairie wetlands. Our study suggests that intact prairie wetlands may be effective sinks for P. As a result, prairie wetlands may play an important role in mitigating nonpoint-source pollution. Conversely, our findings suggest that drained prairie wetlands are potentially a high risk for P export and should be treated as important critical source areas within prairie watersheds.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphorus Retention in Intact and Drained Prairie Wetland Basins: Implications for Nutrient Export

2018

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“…For model calibration, key parameters that govern hydrologic processes of the study watershed were selected based on available literature [34,35,57,58,[60][61][62][91][92][93]. A total of 27 parameters were considered in the calibration process.…”

Section: Model Calibration and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While it is essential to consider the potential effects of climate change, several studies have also highlighted the significance of land use change and its vital role in the hydrology of the CPPR [6,15,[34][35][36]. For example, the loss of wetland surface runoff in the prairie often drains into Wetlands play a major role in watershed health [8][9][10][11] and can be seen as an integral component of much of the prairie landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Importance of Potholes in the Canadian Prairie Region under Future Climate Change Scenarios

Muhammad

Evenson

Stadnyk

et al. 2018

Water

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The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of Canada contains millions of small isolated wetlands and is unique to North America. The goods and services of these isolated wetlands are highly sensitive to variations in precipitation and temperature. We evaluated the flood proofing of isolated wetlands (pothole wetlands) under various climate change scenarios in the Upper Assiniboine River Basin (UARB) at Kamsack, a headwater catchment of the Lake of the Prairies in the Canadian portion of the PPR. A modified version of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was utilized to simulate projected streamflow under the potential impacts of climate change, along with changes to the distribution of pothole wetlands. Significant increases in winter streamflow (~200%) and decreases (~11%) in summer flow, driven by changes in future climates, were simulated. Simulated changes in streamflow resulting from pothole removal were between 55% for winter and 15% for summer, suggesting that climate will be the primary driver in the future hydrologic regime of the study region. This research serves as an important guide to the various stakeholder organizations involved in quantifying the aggregate impacts of pothole wetlands in the hydrology of the Canadian Prairie Region.

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“…Mekonnen, Mazurek, and Putz () developed SWAT‐PDLD (probability distributed landscape depressions) for simulation of prairie watersheds based on Shook and Pomeroy () paradigm (denoted as Model 1) whereby probability distributions function are incorporated to represent wetland complexes. A varying soil erodibility factor was also introduced to account for seasonal changes in nutrient and sediment release due to cold climate conditions (Mekonnen, Mazurek, & Putz, ). Unfortunately, despite these important advances, SWAT required intense parameter calibrations and showed high model uncertainty and equifinality phenomena.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A modelling framework to simulate field‐scale nitrate response and transport during snowmelt: The WINTRA model

Costa

Roste

Pomeroy

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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Modelling nutrient transport during snowmelt in cold regions remains a major scientific challenge.A key limitation of existing nutrient models for application in cold regions is the inadequate representation of snowmelt, including hydrological and biogeochemical processes. This brief period can account for more than 80% of the total annual surface runoff in the Canadian Prairies and Northern Canada and processes such as atmospheric deposition, overwinter redistribution of snow, ion exclusion from snow crystals, frozen soils, and snow-covered area depletion during melt influence the distribution and release of snow and soil nutrients, thus affecting the timing and magnitude of snowmelt runoff nutrient concentrations.Research in cold regions suggests that nitrate (NO 3 ) runoff at the field-scale can be divided into 5 phases during snowmelt. In the first phase, water and ions originating from ion-rich snow layers travel and diffuse through the snowpack. This process causes ion concentrations in runoff to gradually increase. The second phase occurs when this snow ion meltwater front has reached the bottom of the snowpack and forms runoff to the edge-of-the-field. During the third and fourth phases, the main source of NO 3 transitions from the snowpack to the soil. Finally, the fifth and last phase occurs when the snow has completely melted, and the thawing soil becomes the main source of NO 3 to the stream.In this research, a process-based model was developed to simulate hourly export based on this 5-phase approach. Results from an application in the Red River Basin of southern Manitoba, Canada, shows that the model can adequately capture the dynamics and rapid changes of NO 3 concentrations during this period at relevant temporal resolutions. This is a significant achievement to advance the current nutrient modelling paradigm in cold climates, which is generally limited to satisfactory results at monthly or annual resolutions. The approach can inform catchment-scale nutrient models to improve simulation of this critical snowmelt period.

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Modeling of nutrient export and effects of management practices in a cold-climate prairie watershed: Assiniboine River watershed, Canada

Cited by 21 publications

References 80 publications

Phosphorus Retention in Intact and Drained Prairie Wetland Basins: Implications for Nutrient Export

Phosphorus Retention in Intact and Drained Prairie Wetland Basins: Implications for Nutrient Export

Assessing the Importance of Potholes in the Canadian Prairie Region under Future Climate Change Scenarios

A modelling framework to simulate field‐scale nitrate response and transport during snowmelt: The WINTRA model

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