Because freshwater covers such a small fraction of the Earth’s surface area, inland freshwater ecosystems (particularly lakes, rivers, and reservoirs) have rarely been considered as potentially important quantitative components of the carbon cycle at either global or regional scales. By taking published estimates of gas exchange, sediment accumulation, and carbon transport for a variety of aquatic systems, we have constructed a budget for the role of inland water ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. Our analysis conservatively estimates that inland waters annually receive, from a combination of background and anthropogenically altered sources, on the order of 1.9 Pg C y−1 from the terrestrial landscape, of which about 0.2 is buried in aquatic sediments, at least 0.8 (possibly much more) is returned to the atmosphere as gas exchange while the remaining 0.9 Pg y−1 is delivered to the oceans, roughly equally as inorganic and organic carbon. Thus, roughly twice as much C enters inland aquatic systems from land as is exported from land to the sea. Over prolonged time net carbon fluxes in aquatic systems tend to be greater per unit area than in much of the surrounding land. Although their area is small, these freshwater aquatic systems can affect regional C balances. Further, the inclusion of inland, freshwater ecosystems provides useful insight about the storage, oxidation and transport of terrestrial C, and may warrant a revision of how the modern net C sink on land is described.

/pdf/plumbing-the-global-carbon-cycle-integrating-inland-waters-1enndt5kqx.pdf

Plumbing the Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Inland Waters into the Terrestrial Carbon Budget

The term ''urban stream syndrome'' describes the consistently observed ecological degra- dation of streams draining urban land. This paper reviews recent literature to describe symptoms of the syndrome, explores mechanisms driving the syndrome, and identifies appropriate goals and methods for ecological restoration of urban streams. Symptoms of the urban stream syndrome include a flashier hy- drograph, elevated concentrations of nutrients and contaminants, altered channel morphology, and reduced biotic richness, with increased dominance of tolerant species. More research is needed before generaliza- tions can be made about urban effects on stream ecosystem processes, but reduced nutrient uptake has been consistently reported. The mechanisms driving the syndrome are complex and interactive, but most impacts can be ascribed to a few major large-scale sources, primarily urban stormwater runoff delivered to streams by hydraulically efficient drainage systems. Other stressors, such as combined or sanitary sewer overflows, wastewater treatment plant effluents, and legacy pollutants (long-lived pollutants from earlier land uses) can obscure the effects of stormwater runoff. Most research on urban impacts to streams has concentrated on correlations between instream ecological metrics and total catchment imperviousness. Recent research shows that some of the variance in such relationships can be explained by the distance between the stream reach and urban land, or by the hydraulic efficiency of stormwater drainage. The mech- anisms behind such patterns require experimentation at the catchment scale to identify the best management approaches to conservation and restoration of streams in urban catchments. Remediation of stormwater impacts is most likely to be achieved through widespread application of innovative approaches to drainage design. Because humans dominate urban ecosystems, research on urban stream ecology will require a broadening of stream ecological research to integrate with social, behavioral, and economic research.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1899/04-028.1

The urban stream syndrome: current knowledge and the search for a cure

Rates and reactions of biogeochemical processes vary in space and time to produce both hot spots and hot moments of elemental cycling. We define biogeochemical hot spots as patches that show disproportionately high reaction rates relative to the surrounding matrix, whereas hot moments are defined as short periods of time that exhibit disproportionately high reaction rates relative to longer intervening time periods. As has been appreciated by ecologists for decades, hot spot and hot moment activity is often enhanced at terrestrial-aquatic interfaces. Using examples from the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles, we show that hot spots occur where hydrological flowpaths converge with substrates or other flowpaths containing complementary or missing reactants. Hot moments occur when episodic hydrological flowpaths reactivate and/or mobilize accumulated reactants. By focusing on the delivery of specific missing reactants via hydrologic flowpaths, we can forge a better mechanistic understanding of the factors that create hot spots and hot moments. Such a mechanistic understanding is necessary so that biogeochemical hot spots can be identified at broader spatiotemporal scales and factored into quantitative models. We specifically recommend that resource managers incorporate both natural and artificially created biogeochemical hot spots into their plans for water quality management. Finally, we emphasize the needs for further research to assess the potential importance of hot spot and hot moment phenomena in the cycling of different bioactive elements, improve our ability to predict their occurrence, assess their importance in landscape biogeochemistry, and evaluate their utility as tools for resource management.

/pdf/biogeochemical-hot-spots-and-hot-moments-at-the-interface-of-1vpqinkleu.pdf

Biogeochemical Hot Spots and Hot Moments at the Interface of Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

The interactions between groundwater and surface water are complex. To understand these interactions in relation to climate, landform, geology, and biotic factors, a sound hydrogeoecological framework is needed. All these aspects are synthesized and exemplified in this overview. In addition, the mechanisms of interactions between groundwater and surface water (GW–SW) as they affect recharge–discharge processes are comprehensively outlined, and the ecological significance and the human impacts of such interactions are emphasized. Surface-water and groundwater ecosystems are viewed as linked components of a hydrologic continuum leading to related sustainability issues. This overview concludes with a discussion of research needs and challenges facing this evolving field. The biogeochemical processes within the upper few centimeters of sediments beneath nearly all surface-water bodies (hyporheic zone) have a profound effect on the chemistry of the water interchange, and here is where most of the recent research has been focusing. However, to advance conceptual and other modeling of GW–SW systems, a broader perspective of such interactions across and between surface-water bodies is needed, including multidimensional analyses, interface hydraulic characterization and spatial variability, site-to-region regionalization approaches, as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations.

/pdf/interactions-between-groundwater-and-surface-water-the-state-521l9polte.pdf

Interactions between groundwater and surface water: the state of the science

Denitrification is a critical process regulating the removal of bioavailable nitrogen (N) from natural and human-altered systems. While it has been extensively studied in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems, there has been limited communication among denitrification scientists working in these individual systems. Here, we compare rates of denitrification and controlling factors across a range of ecosystem types. We suggest that terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems in which denitrification occurs can be organized along a continuum ranging from (1) those in which nitrification and denitrification are tightly coupled in space and time to (2) those in which nitrate production and denitrification are relatively decoupled. In aquatic ecosystems, N inputs influence denitrification rates whereas hydrology and geomorphology influence the proportion of N inputs that are denitrified. Relationships between denitrification and water residence time and N load are remarkably similar across lakes, river reaches, estuaries, and continental shelves. Spatially distributed global models of denitrification suggest that continental shelf sediments account for the largest portion (44%) of total global denitrification, followed by terrestrial soils (22%) and oceanic oxygen minimum zones (OMZs; 14%). Freshwater systems (groundwater, lakes, rivers) account for about 20% and estuaries 1% of total global denitrification. Denitrification of land-based N sources is distributed somewhat differently. Within watersheds, the amount of land-based N denitrified is generally highest in terrestrial soils, with progressively smaller amounts denitrified in groundwater, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and estuaries. A number of regional exceptions to this general trend of decreasing denitrification in a downstream direction exist, including significant denitrification in continental shelves of N from terrestrial sources. Though terrestrial soils and groundwater are responsible for much denitrification at the watershed scale, per-area denitrification rates in soils and groundwater (kg Nkm � 2 � yr � 1 ) are, on average, approximately one-tenth the per-area rates of denitrification in lakes, rivers, estuaries, continental shelves, or OMZs. A number of potential approaches to increase denitrification on the landscape, and thus decrease N export to sensitive coastal systems exist. However, these have not generally been widely tested for their effectiveness at scales required to significantly reduce N export at the whole watershed scale.

/pdf/denitrification-across-landscapes-and-waterscapes-a-ei9e1947rb.pdf

Denitrification across landscapes and waterscapes: a synthesis.

The Everglades ridge and slough landscape is characterized by elevated sawgrass ridges regularly interspersed among lower and more open sloughs that are aligned parallel to the historic flow direction. Landscape degradation, characterized by topographic flattening, has coincided with a century of drainage, levee construction, nutrient enrichment, and flow reductions. Here we develop a conceptual model of Everglades landscape dynamics based on a literature synthesis and supported by the numerical model PeatAccrete. We propose that two feedback mechanisms govern landscape characteristics. The first, simulated with PeatAccrete, involves differential peat accretion governed by water level and phosphorus concentration, leading to the attainment of an equilibrium ridge elevation relative to slough. Differential peat accretion, however, cannot produce a characteristic ridge width or landscape wavelength. Instead, we propose that feedback between channel morphology and sediment mass transfer controls lateral and longitudinal topographic features, consistent with processes in anabranching rivers. This sediment transport feedback was critical in pattern initiation and evolution, and sediment redistribution from slough to ridge provides a plausible mechanism for preventing gradual ridge expansion. However, PeatAccrete model results show that, in the absence of sediment transport, ridges expand only on the order of meters per century. This result suggests that a combination of factors has driven the widespread disappearance of sloughs over the past century, including altered vertical peat accretion rates that lead to slough infilling. Sensitivity tests indicated that changes in duration and depth of surface water inundation, phosphorus supply, and redox potential have altered differential peat accretion rates in a way that favors topographic flattening. These factors are relatively well defined compared with the role of sediment transport, which requires further quantification. Because both positive and negative feedback processes interact in the Everglades, the trajectory of landscape evolution in time will depend upon current conditions, with areas of remnant ridge and slough topography being more likely than areas of degraded topography to respond to changes in water management in ways that enhance landscape heterogeneity over human timescales. Dual feedbacks between peat accretion and sediment transport are likely important controls on landscape evolution in low-gradient peatlands worldwide with pulsed, unidirectional flow.

/pdf/a-delicate-balance-ecohydrological-feedbacks-governing-v976t20ag3.pdf

A delicate balance : Ecohydrological feedbacks governing landscape morphology in a lotic peatland

[1] Hyporheic exchange and biogeochemical reactions are difficult to quantify because of the range in fluid-flow and sediment conditions inherent to streams, wetlands, and nearshore marine ecosystems. Field measurements of biogeochemical reactions in aquatic systems are impeded by the difficulty of measuring hyporheic flow simultaneously with chemical gradients in sediments. Simplified models of hyporheic exchange have been developed using Darcy's law generated by flow and bed topography at the sediment-water interface. However, many modes of transport are potentially involved (molecular diffusion, bioturbation, advection, shear, bed mobility, and turbulence) with even simple models being difficult to apply in complex natural systems characterized by variable sediment sizes and irregular bed geometries. In this study, we synthesize information from published hyporheic exchange investigations to develop a scaling relationship for estimating mass transfer in near-surface sediments across a range in fluid-flow and sediment conditions. Net hyporheic exchange was quantified using an effective diffusion coefficient (De) that integrates all of the various transport processes that occur simultaneously in sediments, and dimensional analysis was used to scale De to shear stress velocity, roughness height, and permeability that describe fluid-flow and sediment characteristics. We demonstrated the value of the derived scaling relationship by using it to quantify dissolved oxygen (DO) uptake rates on the basis of DO profiles in sediments and compared them to independent flux measurements. The results support a broad application of the De scaling relationship for quantifying coupled hyporheic exchange and biogeochemical reaction rates in streams and other aquatic ecosystems characterized by complex fluid-flow and sediment conditions.

/pdf/scaling-hyporheic-exchange-and-its-influence-on-3oy02dlyfk.pdf

Scaling hyporheic exchange and its influence on biogeochemical reactions in aquatic ecosystems

It has been long known that land surface topography governs both groundwater flow patterns at the regional-to-continental scale and on smaller scales such as in the hyporheic zone of streams. Her ...

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2006GL025747

Exact three-dimensional spectral solution to surface-groundwater interactions with arbitrary surface topography

[1] Solute transport and storage processes in wetlands play an important role in biogeochemical cycling and in wetland water quality functions. In the wetlands of the Everglades, there are few data or guidelines to characterize transport through the heterogeneous flow environment. Our goal was to conduct a tracer study to help quantify solute exchange between the relatively fast flowing water in the open part of the water column and much more slowly moving water in thick floating vegetation and in the pore water of the underlying peat. We performed a tracer experiment that consisted of a constant-rate injection of a sodium bromide (NaBr) solution for 22 hours into a 3 m wide, open-ended flume channel in Everglades National Park. Arrival of the bromide tracer was monitored at an array of surface water and subsurface samplers for 48 hours at a distance of 6.8 m downstream of the injection. A one-dimensional transport model was used in combination with an optimization code to identify the values of transport parameters that best explained the tracer observations. Parameters included dimensions and mass transfer coefficients describing exchange with both short (hours) and longer (tens of hours) storage zones as well as the average rates of advection and longitudinal dispersion in the open part of the water column (referred to as the “main flow zone”). Comparison with a more detailed set of tracer measurements tested how well the model's storage zones approximated the average characteristics of tracer movement into and out of the layer of thick floating vegetation and the pore water in the underlying peat. The rate at which the relatively fast moving water in the open water column was exchanged with slowly moving water in the layer of floating vegetation and in sediment pore water amounted to 50 and 3% h−1, respectively. Storage processes decreased the depth-averaged velocity of surface water by 50% relative to the water velocity in the open part of the water column. As a result, flow measurements made with other methods that only work in the open part of the water column (e.g., acoustic Doppler) would have overestimated the true depth-averaged velocity by a factor of 2. We hypothesize that solute exchange and storage in zones of floating vegetation and peat pore water increase contact time of solutes with biogeochemically active surfaces in this heterogeneous wetland environment.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2004WR003507

Solute transport and storage mechanisms in wetlands of the Everglades, south Florida

Quantifying hydrologic and ecological connectivity has contributed to understanding transport and dispersal processes and assessing ecosystem degradation or restoration potential. However, there has been little synthesis across disciplines. The growing field of ecohydrology and recent recognition that loss of hydrologic connectivity is leading to a global decline in biodiversity underscore the need for a unified connectivity concept. One outstanding need is a way to quantify directional connectivity that is consistent, robust to variations in sampling, and transferable across scales or environmental settings. Understanding connectivity in a particular direction (e.g., streamwise, along or across gradient, between sources and sinks, along cardinal directions) provides critical information for predicting contaminant transport, planning conservation corridor design, and understanding how landscapes or hydroscapes respond to directional forces like wind or water flow. Here we synthesize progress on quantifyin...

Judson W. Harvey

Papers

A delicate balance : Ecohydrological feedbacks governing landscape morphology in a lotic peatland

Scaling hyporheic exchange and its influence on biogeochemical reactions in aquatic ecosystems

Exact three-dimensional spectral solution to surface-groundwater interactions with arbitrary surface topography

Solute transport and storage mechanisms in wetlands of the Everglades, south Florida

Directional connectivity in hydrology and ecology