Patterns and Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) in Boreal Streams: The Role of Processes, Connectivity, and Scaling

Laudon, Hjalmar; Berggren, Martin; Ågren, Anneli; Buffam, Ishi; Bishop, Kevin; Grabs, Thomas; Jansson, Mats; Köhler, Stephan Jürgen

doi:10.1007/s10021-011-9452-8

Cited by 364 publications

(475 citation statements)

References 73 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

440

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Particularly water flow paths and the transit time through the soil regulate the transport and retention of nutrients. Due to variations in water flow paths, concentrations can change rapidly causing uncertainty in the estimates of annual average concentrations (Arheimer et al 1996;Laudon et al 2011). The effect of runoff was endeavored to take into consideration by using flow-weighted concentrations (Arheimer et al 1996;Andersson and Lepistö 2000).…”

Section: Reliability Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method to estimate the impact of clear-cutting on nutrient concentrations in boreal headwater streams

Palviainen

Finér

Laurén

et al. 2015

Ambio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Large-scale forestry operations, like clearcutting, may impair surface water quality if not done with environmental considerations in mind. Catchment and country level estimates of nutrient loads from forestry are generally based on specific export values, i.e., changes in annual exports due to the implemented forestry operations expressed in kg ha -1 . We introduce here a specific concentration approach as a method to estimate the impact of clear-cutting on nutrient concentrations and export in headwater streams. This new method is potentially a more dynamic and flexible tool to estimate nutrient loads caused by forestry, because variation in annual runoff can be taken into account in load assessments. We combined water quality data from eight boreal headwater catchment pairs located in Finland and Sweden, where the effect of clear-cutting on stream water quality has been studied experimentally. Statistically significant specific concentration values could be produced for total nitrogen, nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate. The significant increases in the concentrations of these nutrients occurred between 2 and 6 years after clearcutting. Significant specific concentration values could not be produced for total phosphorus and total organic carbon with the whole dataset, although in some single studies significant increases in their concentrations after clear-cutting were observed. The presented method enables taking into account variation in runoff, temporal dynamics of effects, and the proportional size of the treated area in load calculations. The number of existing studies considering large site-specific variation in responses to clear-cutting is small, and therefore further empirical studies are needed to improve predictive capabilities of the specific concentration values.

show abstract

Section: Reliability Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method to estimate the impact of clear-cutting on nutrient concentrations in boreal headwater streams

Palviainen

Finér

Laurén

et al. 2015

Ambio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The dominance of near-surface hydrological flow paths in such soils results in episodic transport of DOC to streams during storm events, that is highly nonlinear (Buffam et al 2007;Laudon et al 2011;Å gren et al 2014;. In many areas, increasing DOC in surface waters has been reported and variously ascribed to the effects of reduced acid precipitation, changes in land management, climate change and increased drought frequency (Laudon et al 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling landscape controls on dissolved organic carbon sources and fluxes to streams

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Catchment dissolved organic carbon (DOC) fluxes are governed by complex interactions, which control biogeochemical processes generating DOC and hydrological connectivity, facilitating transport through the landscape to streams. This paper presents the development of a coupled hydrologicalbiogeochemical model for a northern watershed with organic-rich soils, to simulate daily DOC concentrations. The parsimonious model design allows the relative importance of DOC fluxes from the major landscape units (e.g. hillslopes, groundwater and riparian saturation area) to be determined. The dynamic extent of the saturated riparian zone, which at maximum wetness comprised 40 % of the drainage area, contributed 84 % of DOC to the stream, of which 16 % was derived from the hillslope soils. This shows the disproportional riparian influence on stream water chemistry and the importance of the non-linearity in hydrological connectivity. The temporal connectivity of each of the landscape units was dependent on antecedent moisture conditions, with highly transient connections between the hillslope and valley bottom saturated area, which were entirely disconnected during the driest periods. The groundwater contribution remained constant, but its relative importance increased during the driest periods. The study emphasises the importance of conceptualising hydrological connectivity and its relation to hydroclimatic factors, as well soil biogeochemical processes, when modelling stream water DOC.

show abstract

“…Sampling for fish stable isotopes, sediment stable isotopes, benthic primary and bacterial production (both previously presented in Ask et al 2009 andKarlsson et al 2009), and benthic respiration was carried out in 2006 (once in June), whereas sampling for pelagic primary and bacterial production, pelagic respiration, and stable isotopes in zooplankton and zoobenthos was carried out in 2009 (every second to third week between April and October). The vertical attenuation coefficient (K d ; 3.8 and 3.7 We estimated the runoff for the study catchment using daily means of specific discharge from the nearby Krycklan catchment (50 km northeast of Upper Bear Lake), where stream water levels were recorded continuously using a pressure transducer and a 90u V-notch weir housed in a heated shed (Laudon et al 2011). Discharge was calculated from the stream water level and established heightdischarge rating curves.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial organic matter support of lake food webs: Evidence from lake metabolism and stable hydrogen isotopes of consumers

Karlsson

Berggren

Ask

et al. 2012

Limnology & Oceanography

Self Cite

143

139

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We quantified the utilization of terrestrial organic matter (OM) in the food web of a humic lake by analyzing the metabolism and the consumers' stable isotopic (C, H, N) composition in benthic and pelagic habitats. Terrestrial OM inputs (3 g C m 22 d 21 ) to the lake greatly exceeded autochthonous OM production (3 mg C m 22 d 21 ) in the lake. Heterotrophic bacterial growth (19 mg C m 22 d 21 ) and community respiration (115 mg C m 22 d 21 ) were high relative to algal photosynthesis and were predominantly (. 85%) supported by terrestrial OM in both habitats. Consequently, terrestrial OM fueled most (85%) of the total production at the base of the lake's food web (i.e., the sum of primary and bacterial production). Despite the uncertainties of quantitatively estimating resource use based on stable isotopes, terrestrial OM clearly also supported around half the zooplankton (47%), macrozoobenthos (63%), and fish (57%) biomass. These results indicate that, although rates of terrestrial OM inputs were around three orders of magnitude greater than that of autochthonous OM production, the use of the two resources by higher trophic levels was roughly equal. The disproportionally low reliance on terrestrial OM at higher trophic levels, compared with its high rates of input and high support of basic biomass production in the lake, suggests that autochthonous resources could not be completely replaced by terrestrial resources and indicates an upper limit to terrestrial support of lake food webs.

show abstract

Patterns and Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) in Boreal Streams: The Role of Processes, Connectivity, and Scaling

Cited by 364 publications

References 73 publications

A method to estimate the impact of clear-cutting on nutrient concentrations in boreal headwater streams

A method to estimate the impact of clear-cutting on nutrient concentrations in boreal headwater streams

Modelling landscape controls on dissolved organic carbon sources and fluxes to streams

Terrestrial organic matter support of lake food webs: Evidence from lake metabolism and stable hydrogen isotopes of consumers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About