Water chemistry responses to hydraulic manipulation of an agricultural wetland
Abstract
Small impoundments are often crucial factors for the movement of sediment, organic matter, water-borne nutrients, and toxic materials through river networks. By recent accounting, at least 2.6 million small artificial water bodies exist in the US alone. A large proportion of those structures occur in regions with high intensity of agriculture, such as in the Midwestern grain belt. While small impoundments are aging structures which appear to serve few purposes, some hold ecological and biogeochemical value as artificial wetlands. We documented instantaneous net fluxes of solute (chloride, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and soluble reactive phosphorus) through an artificial flow-through wetland in agricultural southern Wisconsin over 6 years which spanned removal of a small dam. Phased dewatering and dam removal ultimately converted the artificial wetland to a canal-like state (increase in mean water velocity from 0.08 to 0.22 m s-1). Mean net flux for chloride across the system averaged nearly 0 g d-1, indicating conservative transport and successful characterization of hydrology. In contrast, net fluxes for other solute forms were altered following loss of the wetland: a persistent net sulfate sink (5-10% of inputs retained), suggestive of sulfate-reducing bacteria, was reduced; seasonal (summer) net sinks for nitrate and ammonium, suggestive of uptake by algae and denitrifying bacteria, were reduced; temporal variability for the net flux of soluble reactive phosphorus was reduced. Overall, loss of the artificial wetland caused by dam removal shifted seasonal and annual net fluxes of biologically available solute toward export. Nutrient retention by artificial wetlands could be important for elemental budgets in regions which have high nutrient loading to surface and ground water.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.B13F0647P
- Keywords:
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- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- 0469 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Nitrogen cycling;
- 0470 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Nutrients and nutrient cycling;
- 0497 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Wetlands