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A ten year record of nitrate retention and solute trends in a Wisconsin sand plains stream: temporal variation at multiple scales

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Abstract

Nitrate retention is an important ecosystem service provided by streams which reduces nitrogen loads to downstream ecosystems. However, most inferences about nitrate retention and uptake in streams are based on measurements at sub-annual scales. Our objective was to evaluate variation in nitration retention and solute concentrations at weekly to decadal time scales. We measured nitrate and chloride concentration, nitrate flux and nitrate retention in Emmons Creek, a groundwater-dominated, nitrate-rich stream in central Wisconsin during a 10-year period. We used a two-station mass balance approach to measure nitrate retention while accounting for groundwater inputs. Surface water nitrate concentration, nitrate yield and nitrate retention exhibited strong seasonal variation. Seasonal Kendall tests revealed positive trends for surface water discharge, nitrate and chloride concentrations and groundwater chloride concentration, but not nitrate retention. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMM), accounting for serial autocorrelations, also indicated positive trends in surface water nitrate and chloride concentrations but no trend for nitrate retention. Nitrate retention averaged 370 mg NO3-N m−2 d−1 (± 316 SD) and was highest during the spring (512 mg NO3-N m−2 d−1 ± 319), followed by summer (460 ± 322), fall (340 ± 281) and winter (165 ± 212). Nitrate retention rates in Emmons Creek were relatively high compared to most published estimates. However, our results suggest that Emmons Cr. may have saturated its capacity to retain nitrate during a period when nitrate yield from its watershed increased, which is an important finding given the increases in N availability in many regions of earth.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the numerous students at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh who provided assistance with the study reported here including Damion Drover, Sarah Gorsuch, Danielle Heider, Courtney Heling, Kyle Kettner, Mike Louison, Samantha Mand, Miranda Quist and Mike Shupryt. Funding was provided by the United States Forest Service, the University of Wisconsin Water Resources Institute, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the National Science Foundation, Trout Unlimited and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Faculty Development Program.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI, 54901, USA

    Robert S. Stelzer

  2. Oklahoma Biological Survey, University of Oklahoma, 111 Chesapeake St, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Thomas B. Parr

  3. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI, 54901, USA

    Mamadou Coulibaly

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  1. Robert S. Stelzer
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All of the authors made substantial contributions to the manuscript. RS designed and implemented the study, led the data analysis and wrote the manuscript. TP led the time series modelling and co-wrote the manuscript. MC led the GIS modeling and land use analysis and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Robert S. Stelzer.

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Stelzer, R.S., Parr, T.B. & Coulibaly, M. A ten year record of nitrate retention and solute trends in a Wisconsin sand plains stream: temporal variation at multiple scales. Biogeochemistry 147, 125–147 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-019-00631-z

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