Relationships between snowpack,low flows and stream temperature in mountain watersheds of the US west coast

Water temperatures in mountain streams are likely to rise under future climate change, with negative impacts on ecosystems and water quality. However, it is difficult to predict which streams are most vulnerable due to sparse historical records of mountain stream temperatures as well as complex interactions between snowpack, groundwater, streamflow and water temperature. Minimum flow volumes are a potentially useful proxy for stream temperature, since daily streamflow records are much more common. We confirmed that there is a strong inverse relationship between annual low flows and peak water temperature using observed data from unimpaired streams throughout the montane regions of the United States' west coast. We then used linear models to explore the relationships between snowpack, potential evapotranspiration and other climate-related variables with annual low flow volumes and peak water temperatures. We also incorporated previous years' flow volumes into these models to account for groundwater carryover from year to year. We found that annual peak snowpack water storage is a strong predictor of summer low flows in the more arid watersheds studied. This relationship is mediated by atmospheric water demand and carryover subsurface water storage from previous years, such that multi-year droughts with high evapotranspiration lead to especially low flow volumes. We conclude that watershed management to help retain snow and increase baseflows may help counteract some of the streamflow temperature rises expected from a warming climate, especially in arid watersheds.     

Isotopic Approach to Determining the Fate of Ammonium Regenerated from Sediments in a Eutrophic Sub-estuary of Waquoit Bay,MA

We measured fluxes of NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ and δ¹⁵N of NH₄⁺, sediment, and porewater NH₄⁺ from incubated sediment cores along a nitrate gradient and in different seasons from Childs River, MA. NH₄⁺ flux was low at the downstream site with the lowest concentration of organic matter (high salinity) but otherwise did not differ along the estuary. The δ¹⁵N of regenerated NH₄⁺ ranged from +6.1‰ to +15.3‰ but did not vary significantly with season or salinity; the mean for the entire estuary was +10.4 ± 0.5‰. Based on differences between the δ¹⁵N of regenerated NH₄⁺ and sediment, and expected isotopic fractionation due to remineralization, we concluded that nitrification occurred after remineralization of NH₄⁺. Differences between the δ¹⁵N of regenerated NH₄⁺ and the δ¹⁵N of porewater NH₄⁺ provided further evidence of nitrification. We estimated that 11% to 48% of remineralized NH₄⁺ underwent coupled nitrification–denitrification before release into the water column. In spite of losses to denitrification, NH₄⁺ flux released 1.4 mol N m⁻² year⁻¹ to the water column and could provide 42% of phytoplankton nitrogen requirements.