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Archetypes and Controls of Riverine Nutrient Export Across German Catchments
Author(s) -
Ebeling Pia,
Kumar Rohini,
Weber Michael,
Knoll Lukas,
Fleckenstein Jan H.,
Musolff Andreas
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2020wr028134
Subject(s) - environmental science , biogeochemical cycle , riparian buffer , nutrient , drainage basin , riparian zone , hydrology (agriculture) , water quality , eutrophication , wetland , nitrate , ecosystem , ecology , environmental chemistry , chemistry , geography , biology , geology , cartography , geotechnical engineering , habitat
Elevated nutrient inputs challenge the health and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. To improve riverine water quality management, it is necessary to understand the underlying biogeochemical and physical processes, anthropogenic drivers and their interactions at catchment scale. We hypothesize that the spatial heterogeneity of nutrient sources dominantly controls the variability of in‐stream concentration dynamics among catchments. We investigated controls of mean nitrate (NO 3 − ), phosphate (PO 4 3− ), and total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations and concentration‐discharge ( C‐Q ) relationships in 787 German catchments of a newly assembled data base, covering a wide range of physiographic and anthropogenic settings. We linked water quality metrics to catchment characteristics using partial least squares regressions and random forests. We found archetypal C‐Q patterns with enrichment dominating NO 3 − and TOC, and dilution dominating PO 4 3− export. Both the mean NO 3 − concentrations and their variance among sites increased with agricultural land use. We argue that subsurface denitrification can buffer high nitrogen inputs and cause a decline in concentration with depth, resulting in chemodynamic, strongly positive C‐Q patterns. Mean PO 4 3− concentrations were related to point sources, though the low predictive power suggests effects of unaccounted in‐stream processes. In contrast, high diffuse agricultural inputs explained observed positive PO 4 3− C‐Q patterns. TOC levels were positively linked to the abundance of riparian wetlands, while hydrological descriptors were important for explaining TOC dynamics. Our study shows a strong modulation of anthropogenic inputs by natural controls for NO 3 − and PO 4 3− concentrations and dynamics, while for TOC only natural controls dominate observed patterns across Germany.