Season influences of wood on stream nitrate dynamics in forested headwater streams in the northeast US
Abstract
Forested headwater streams play an important role in watershed nutrient cycles and woody debris may be key to in-stream nutrient retention. We conducted an experimental manipulation of in-stream wood to specifically investigate influences of woody debris on nitrogen dynamics in streams of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. In summer and fall 2005, prior to manipulation, nitrate uptake was measured in each of three replicate streams. In late fall 2005, wood was removed from one stream, wood was added to another, and a third stream reach was not manipulated. Uptake measurements were then repeated in summer and fall 2006. A comparison of changes in nitrate dynamics before versus after wood manipulation (relative to each other and to the reference reach) indicates that nitrate processing increased in response to wood manipulations in the fall. However, changing wood abundance in streams had a limited influence on nitrogen dynamics in mid-summer. This work highlights the importance seasonal biogeochemical processes in streams and the importance of wood in stream management and stream restoration
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUFM.H31F0729W
- Keywords:
-
- 0469 Nitrogen cycling;
- 0470 Nutrients and nutrient cycling (4845;
- 4850);
- 0483 Riparian systems (0744;
- 1856);
- 1813 Eco-hydrology;
- 1860 Streamflow