Modeling nutrient retention at the watershed scale: does small stream research apply to the whole river network?
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2015-12-02T12:29:10Z
dc.date.available
2015-12-02T12:29:10Z
dc.date.issued
2013
dc.identifier.issn
2169-8953
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dc.description.abstract
Nutrients are conveyed from terrestrial and upstream sources through drainage networks. Streams and rivers contribute to regulate the material exported downstream by
means of transformation, storage, and removal of nutrients. It has been recently suggested that the efficiency of process rates relative to available nutrient concentration in streams eventually declines, following an efficiency loss (EL) dynamics. However, most of these predictions are based at the reach scale in pristine streams, failing to describe the role of entire river networks. Models provide the means to study nutrient cycling from the stream network perspective via upscaling to the watershed the key mechanisms occurring at the reach scale. We applied a hybrid process-based and statistical model (SPARROW, Spatially Referenced Regression on Watershed Attributes) as a heuristic approach to describe in-stream nutrient processes in a highly impaired, high stream order watershed (the Llobregat River Basin, NE Spain). The in-stream decay specifications of the model were modified to include a partial saturation effect in uptake efficiency (expressed as a power law) and better capture biological nutrient retention in river systems under high anthropogenic stress. The stream decay coefficients were statistically significant in both nitrate and phosphate models, indicating the potential role of in-stream processing in limiting nutrient export. However, the EL concept did not reliably describe the patterns of nutrient uptake efficiency for the concentration gradient and streamflow values found in the Llobregat River basin, posing in doubt its complete applicability to explain nutrient retention processes in stream networks comprising highly impaired rivers
dc.description.sponsorship
The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for its financial support through the project SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065)
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
dc.relation
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//CSD2009-00065/ES/Evaluación y predicción de los efectos del cambio global en la cantidad y la calidad del agua en ríos ibéricos/
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Reproducció digital del document publicat a: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20062
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© Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2013, vol. 118, núm. 2, p.728-740
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Articles publicats (D-CCAA)
dc.rights
Tots els drets reservats
dc.title
Modeling nutrient retention at the watershed scale: does small stream research apply to the whole river network?
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.embargo.terms
Cap
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.identifier.idgrec
021680
dc.contributor.funder
dc.relation.ProjectAcronym
dc.identifier.eissn
2169-8961