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Assessing the effects of dams and waterpower facilities on riverine dissolved organic matter composition

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Abstract

An extensive study was performed in boreal rivers across northern Ontario Canada, to examine the responses of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in rivers altered by hydroelectric waterpower operations. This was tested through three study components: a control-impact component comparing differences upstream and downstream of waterpower facilities (WPFs); a longitudinal component examining responses downstream; and a temporal component comparing the diurnal variations between two disparate rivers. Parallel factor analysis was used to examine how the inherent characteristics of the DOM pool changed between rivers. All rivers were located in heavily forested watersheds with low-level human land use. The main factor differentiating rivers was the presence or absence of WPFs. In a few instances, we identified larger relative differences in the nutrients moving downstream of the WPFs and some diurnal variation between an altered and reference river. However, the overall outcome from each study component was that the presence of WPFs had very little influence on DOM. We related these results to riverine hydrology, as well as a potential relationship between DOM and temperature. In the boreal forest of northern Ontario, catchment characteristics may exert the strongest influence on DOM composition.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Andrew Scott, Keunyea Song, Clay Prater, Nicole Wagner, and Charlotte Narr for analytical assistance and advice, Bradley Jennings, Nicole Novodvorský, and Bastian Schmidt for field assistance, and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. and Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry offices for providing data on the waterpower facilities used in this study. This study was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada

    Mallory J. Nadon

  2. Aquatic Research and Monitoring Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Peterborough, ON, Canada

    Robert A. Metcalfe

  3. Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Clayton J. Williams

  4. Dorset Environmental Science Centre, Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Dorset, ON, Canada

    Keith M. Somers

  5. Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada

    Marguerite A. Xenopoulos

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  1. Mallory J. Nadon
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  2. Robert A. Metcalfe
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  3. Clayton J. Williams
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  5. Marguerite A. Xenopoulos
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Correspondence to Mallory J. Nadon.

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Nadon, M.J., Metcalfe, R.A., Williams, C.J. et al. Assessing the effects of dams and waterpower facilities on riverine dissolved organic matter composition. Hydrobiologia 744, 145–164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2069-0

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