Can rehabilitation techniques in agricultural streams influence transient storage and nitrate uptake?

Headwater streams are a crucial component of nutrient processing in watersheds, partly due to high surface-to-volume ratios that favor nitrate uptake and to the large percentage of headwater stream length in the total length of a river system. We explore the potential of two stream rehabilitation approaches in headwater streams to promote nitrate uptake and reduce down-stream nitrogen pollution. We investigated two streams, Sheep Creek and Nunn Creek, located in northern Colorado that have been influenced by live-stock grazing. Sections of Sheep Creek were fenced off and exclosed from open rangeland cattle grazing in the 1950s, allowing riparian corridors of these sections to naturally revegetate, while other sections have been continu-ally grazed. In 2003, restoration structures of rootwads and j-hook vanes were constructed along portions of Nunn Creek for bank stabilization and trout habitat enhancement. We studied four reaches along Sheep Creek, two reaches exclosed from grazing and two reaches currently grazed. We also studied two reaches along Nunn Creek, one with restoration structures and one without structures. We performed nutrient injections of bromide and nitrate to estimate transient storage and nitrate uptake in each reach. Comprehensive data sets were also collected to characterize physical complexity along each reach, including pebble counts, longitudinal profiles, cross-section surveys, hydraulic measurements, benthic organic matter (fine and coarse), and spatial distribution of physical habitat units. We developed regression models that relate parameters of geomorphic complexity with transient storage and nitrate uptake parameters to describe how the geomorphic complexity associated with rehabilitation techniques in each reach can influence transient storage and nitrate uptake.