Characterization of Baseline Precipitation and Stream Chemistry and Nutrient Budgets for Control Watersheds

Abstract

Budgets of solute inputs and outputs for undisturbed watershed ecosystems provide a conceptual and empirical framework both for examining ecosystem function in diverse geographic regions and for evaluating man’s impact on the natural landscape (Bormann and Likens 1967; Henderson et al. 1978; Swank and Waide 1980). Thus, the primary objective for initiating cooperative research between the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, and Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, USDA Forest Service in 1968 was the measurement of annual and seasonal fluxes of select nutrients for several forested watershed ecosystems in the Coweeta Basin (Johnson and Swank 1973). As the research program developed and studies of nutrient recycling processes within experimental watersheds were initiated, the baseline network for precipitation and stream chemistry measurements was expanded to the entire Basin and additional inorganic constituents were added to the routine analyses. By 1972, most of the basic system for long-term water chemistry measurements was established (Swank and Douglass 1977).