Abstract
We quantified nutrient concentrations and water quality parameters in soils and water from a working farm (in operation for over 100 years), through contrasting agricultural wetlands, to their receiving waters. Contrasting wetlands were a forested alluvial swamp and a ditched wetland swale. Our objective was to determine if nutrients diminished in concentration or changed in form as water moved through wetlands below the farm. Soils were collected from around the farm and receiving wetlands and were analyzed for nitrate, ammonium, and phosphorus. Water samples, collected from shallow piezometers and surface waters were analyzed for nitrate + nitrite, and total phosphorus. Nitrate in groundwater and surface water in the alluvial swamp were much lower than concentrations measured in flows from farmlands. Nitrogen in upland water was dominated by nitrate, but ammonium dominated in the swamp. Phosphorus was low in wetland soils and also diminished through the swamp. Despite receiving agricultural run-off for many decades, the natural alluvial swamp still provided an effective environment for water quality mitigation of nitrate and phosphorus. The ditched wetland swale did not significantly reduce nitrate but appeared to provide some phosphorus mitigation. Agricultural wetland conservation is an especially effective, low cost tool for water quality management.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bastviken SK, Weisner SEB, Thiere G, Svensson JM, Ehde PM, Tonderski KS (2009) Effects of vegetation and hydraulic load on seasonal nitrate removal in treatment wetlands. Ecological Engineering 35:946–952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2009.01.001
Biggs BJF, Kilroy C (2000) Stream Periphyton monitoring manual. Christchurch
Boon PI, Pollard PC, Ryder D (2014) Wetland microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. Ecology of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands. pp 87–131
Burns DA, Plummer LN, McDonnell JJ et al (2003) The geochemical evolution of riparian ground water in a forested piedmont catchment. Groundwater 41:913–925. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.2003.tb02434.x
Burt C, Bachoon DS, Manoylov K, Smith M (2013) The impact of cattle farming best management practices on surface water nutrient concentrations, faecal bacteria and algal dominance in the Lake Oconee watershed. Water and Environment Journal 27:207–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-6593.2012.00343.x
Cey EE, Rudolph DL, Aravena R, Parkin G (1999) Role of the riparian zone in controlling the distribution and fate of agricultural nitrogen near a small stream in southern Ontario. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 37:45–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-7722(98)00162-4
Chescheir GM, Gilliam JW, Skaggs RW, Broadhead RG (1991) Nutrient and sediment removal in forested wetlands receiving pumped agricultural drainage water. Wetlands 11:87–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03160842
Coulter ME (1964) Scull shoals : an extinct Georgia manufacturing and farming community. The Georgia Historical Quarterly 48:33–63
Cowell CM (1998) Historical change in vegetation and disturbance on the Georgia Piedmont. The American Midland Naturalist 140:78–89. https://doi.org/10.1674/0003-0031(1998)140[0078:HCIVAD]2.0.CO;2
Craft CB, Casey WP (2000) Sediment and nutrient accumulation in floodplain and depressional freshwater wetlands of Georgia, USA. Wetlands 20:323–332. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2000)020[0323:SANAIF]2.0.CO;2
Dalgaard P (2008) Introductory statistics with R. Springer, DOI: https://doi.org/10.12968/ijpn.2008.14.10.31490
Denver JM, Ator SW, Lang MW, Fisher TR, Gustafson AB, Fox R, Clune JW, McCarty GW (2014) Nitrate fate and transport through current and former depressional wetlands in an agricultural landscape, Choptank watershed, Maryland, United States. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 69:1–16. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.69.1.1
Dowdy S, Wearden S, Chilko D (2003) Statistics for research. Wiley-Interscience, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7944(02)00746-8
Dupas R, Delmas M, Dorioz JM, Garnier J, Moatar F, Gascuel-Odoux C (2015) Assessing the impact of agricultural pressures on N and P loads and eutrophication risk. Ecological Indicators 48:396–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.08.007
EPA 2018 Edition of the Drinking Water Standards and Health Advisories Tables
Funk, Wagnalls (2017) Nitrogen Cycle. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia 1
Hansen AT, Dolph CL, Foufoula-Georgiou E, Finlay J (2018) Contribution of wetlands to nitrate removal at the watershed scale. Nature Geoscience 11:127–132. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0056-6
Hefting MM, van den Heuvel RN, Verhoeven JTA (2013) Wetlands in agricultural landscapes for nitrogen attenuation and biodiversity enhancement: opportunities and limitations. Ecological Engineering 56:5–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.05.001
Iron Horse Plant Sciences Farm (2014) Iron Horse Plant Sciences Farm. Soils map. University of Georgia, Athens. Print
Jackson CR, Martin JK, Leigh DS, West LT (2005) A southeastern Piedmont watershed sediment budget: evidence for a multi-millennial agricultural legacy. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 60:298–310
Jahangir MMR, Johnston P, Barrett M, Khalil MI, Groffman PM, Boeckx P, Fenton O, Murphy J, Richards KG (2013) Denitrification and indirect N2O emissions in groundwater: hydrologic and biogeochemical influences. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 152:70–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2013.06.007
Jarvie HP, Sharpley AN, Spears B et al (2013) Water quality remediation faces unprecedented challenges from “legacy phosphorus”. Environmental Science & Technology 46:8997–8998
Johnston CA (1991) Sediment and nutrient retention by freshwater wetlands: effects on surface water quality. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 21:491–565
Knowlton MF, Jones J (1997) Trophic status of Missouri River floodplanin lakes in relation to basin type and connectivity. Wetlands 17:468–475. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161512
Kramer RA, Shabman L (1993) The effects of agricultural and tax policy reform on the economic return to wetland drainage in the Mississippi Delta region. Land Economics 69:249–262. https://doi.org/10.2307/3146591
Land M, Tonderski K, Verhoeven JT (2019) Wetlands as biogeochemical hotspots affecting water quality in catchments. Wetlands Ecosystem:13–37, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-019-0181-0
Lowrance R, Altier LS, Newbold JD, Schnabel RR, Groffman PM, Denver JM, Correll DL, Gilliam JW, Robinson JL, Brinsfield RB, Staver KW, Lucas W, Todd AH (1997) Water quality functions of riparian forest buffers in Chesapeake bay watersheds. Environmental Management 21:687–712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267990006
Meals DW, Dressing SA, Davenport TE (2010) Lag time in water quality response to best management practices: a review. Journal of Environment Quality 39:85–96. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2009.0108
Musolff A, Schmidt C, Rode M, Lischeid G, Weise SM, Fleckenstein JH (2016) Groundwater head controls nitrate export from an agricultural lowland catchment. Advances in Water Resources 96:95–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.07.003
Prism Climate Group. In: Northwest Alliance for Computational Science & Engineering. https://prism.oregonstate.edu/recent/monthly.php 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jca.21800
QPbulic (2018) Iron Horse Sale.pdf. https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=686&LayerID=11376&PageTypeID=4&PageID=4793&KeyValue=C 09 029
Roley SS, Tank JL, Tyndall JC, Witter JD (2016) How cost-effective are cover crops, wetlands, and two-stage ditches for nitrogen removal in the Mississippi River basin? Water Resources and Economics 15:43–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2016.06.003
Romeis JJ, Jackson CR, Risse LM, Sharpley AN, Radcliffe DE (2011) Hydrologic and phosphours export behavior of small streams in commercial poultry-pasture watershed. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 47:367–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00521.x
Rose S (1992) Tritium in ground water of the Georgia piedmont: implications for recharge and flow paths. Hydrological Processes 6:66–78
Saunders DL, Kalff J (2001) Nitrogen retention in wetlands, lakes and rivers. Hydrobiologia 443:205–212. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017506914063
Secoges JM, Aust WM, Seiler JR, Dolloff CA, Lakel WA (2013) Streamside management zones affect movement of silvicultural nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to piedmont streams. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 37:26–35. https://doi.org/10.5849/sjaf.11-032
Shin-ichiro SM, Kohzu A, Kadoya T, et al (2019) Role of wetlands in mitigating the trade-off between crop production and water quality in agricultural landscapes. Ecosphere 10:
Simon J (2002) Enzymology and bioenergetics of respiratory nitrite ammonification. FEMS Microbiology Reviews 26:285–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-6445(02)00111-0
Stallard RF (1998) Terrestrial sedimentation and the carbon cycle: coupling weathering and erosion to carbon burial. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 12:231–257. https://doi.org/10.1029/98GB00741
Starr RC, Gillham RW (1993) Denitrification and organic carbon availability in two aquifers. Groundwater 31:934–947. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1993.tb00867.x
Trebitz AS, Nestlerode JA, Herlihy AT (2019) USA-scale patterns in wetland water quality as determined from the 2011 national wetland condition assessment. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 191:266
Van Meter KJ, Basu NB (2015) Catchment legacies and time lags: a parsimonious watershed model to predict the effects of legacy storage on nitrogen export. PLoS One 10:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125971
Vymazal J (1995) Algae and element cycling in wetlands. Lewis Publishers, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-510x(95)00204-f
Vymazal J (2017) The use of constructed wetlands for nitrogen removal from agricultural drainage: a review. Scientia Agriculturae Bohemica 48:82–91. https://doi.org/10.1515/sab-2017-0009
Weilhoefer CL, Pan Y (2007) Relationships between diatoms and environmental variables in wetlands in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA. Wetlands 27:668–682. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2007)27[668:RBDAEV]2.0.CO;2
Woltemade CJ (2000) Ability of restored wetlands to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in agricultural drainage water. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 55:303–309
Yates P, Sheridan JM (1982) Estimateing the effectiveness of vegetated floodplains/wetlands as nitrate-nitrite and Orthophosphorus filters. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 9:303–304
Zedler JB (2003) Wetlands at your service: reducing impacts of agriculture at the watershed scale. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1:65–72. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2003)001[0065:WAYSRI]2.0.CO;2
Zehetner F, Lair GJ, Gerzabek MH (2009) Rapid carbon accretion and organic matter pool stabilization in riverine floodplain soils. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 23. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GB003481
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. James L. Shelton, the UGA Forest Hydrology Lab, UGA Aquatic Toxicology Lab, the UGA Marine Sciences Lab, the UGA Aquatic Ecosystem Ecology Lab, the UGA Aquatic Entomology Lab, and the USFS Aiken, SC office for technical assistance on this project. We appreciate the cooperation of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Iron Horse Farm with our efforts. This project has been funded in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement (CD-00D39815) to DPB. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
Fig. S1. Iron Horse Farm hydroperiod and precipitation over the sampling period. Colored lines correspond to sampling events while the gray horizontal line indicates ground level. Dates over the sampling period are listed at the bottom of the figure and the left side shows groundwater depth and locations (landscape descriptions) of each odyssey logger Fig. S2 Map showing median NO3− values in each of the landscape assessment areas. Colored number outlines indicated different sampling types (orange-soil, dark blue-surface water, light blue-groundwater). White lines indicate landscape region boundaries compared using ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis Fig. S3 Map showing phosphorus median values in each of the landscape assessment areas. Colored number outlines indicated different sampling types (orange-soil, dark blue-surface water, light blue-groundwater). White lines indicate landscape region boundaries compared using ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis Fig. S4 Water quality parameters in surface waters and groundwater (shallow piezometer samples) across landscape positions on each side of the farm and in the reference wetland. Arrows point along hydraulic gradients from upland positions to receiving waters. Distributions reflect monthly samples collected over a year Table S1 Mean daily precipitation on days of purging wells (Purging) and bimonthly water sampling at Iron Horse farm (Sampling) Fig. S5 Relationship of NO3− to NH4+ in shallow groundwater samples during August 2017 sampling. August 2017 provided a single months example of variation among different forms of nitrogen and possible method for future biogeochemical assessment. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) appeared in one form or the other, with no samples showing a significant mix of the two forms. There was no significant difference in landscape positions but water samples showed biogeochemical activity in the alluvial swamp through high levels of NO3− in the pasture/feedlot toeslope and high levels of NH4+ in the alluvial swamp. Fig. S6 NO3− in Iron Horse Farm soils, landscape positions show composition (soils plugs collected and mixed to form one sample) soil sampling results and circles show distribution (individual samples assessed at each circle) soil sampling results. NO3− is higher in soil on the south side of the farm but shows a small instance of elevated NO3− on the north side Fig. S7 NH4+ in Iron Horse Farm soils, landscape positions show composition (soils plugs collected and mixed to form one sample) soil sampling results and circles show distribution (individual samples assessed at each circle) soil sampling results. NH4+ is high in soil in the alluvial swamp with variance within the swamp and along wet fringes on the south side of the farm Fig. S8 PO43− in Iron Horse Farm soils, landscape positions show composition (soils plugs collected and mixed to form one sample) soil sampling results and circles show distribution (individual samples assessed at each circle) soil sampling results. PO43− is high in soil in the feed lot and upper agricultural field and shows lower levels elsewhere around the farm (PDF 1.54 mb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matteson, C.T., Jackson, C.R., Batzer, D.P. et al. Nitrogen and Phosphorus Gradients from a Working Farm through Wetlands to Streams in the Georgia Piedmont, USA. Wetlands 40, 2139–2149 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01335-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01335-z