Abstract
Central Kentucky could be considered a critical source area of nutrients in water ways because of low permeability soils, fast groundwater flow through bedrock fractures, and pervasive agriculture and development. Of particular concern is rising development in rural areas, which creates mixed land cover (MLC) watersheds, i.e., watersheds with development, agriculture, and other land cover types. MLC watersheds add complexity to spatial and temporal releases of dissolved constituents, leading to less predictable water quality patterns. The goal of this research was to examine the export of dissolved substances from a small, upland MLC catchment in central Kentucky with a focus on how the interaction between discharges from developed agricultural land cover and groundwater influence base flow water quality. Our approach was to spatially sample a representative catchment monthly over 1 year, characterize the major dissolved constituents, and evaluate catchment processes with statistical analyses and Piper diagrams. Principal component analysis, factor analysis, and Piper diagrams indicate base flow was composed of groundwater influenced by two different host rocks and an outfall draining a developed region. Base flow nutrient export was dominated by mixing nitrate-sulfate rich groundwater with ammonium-phosphate-chloride rich outfall drainage. High nitrate groundwater dominated nitrogen export in the winter, whereas high ammonium outfall drainage dominated summer export. Spatial analysis revealed that ~ 10% of the basin may have similar land cover and hydrologic processes, suggesting that MLC catchments are small but collectively significant nitrogen sources to river networks due to development and agriculturally impacted groundwater.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge Meadowbrook Farm Director Justin McKinney and Farm Manager Chad Powers for providing us with access to the study area and lending their agricultural expertise. Finally, we would like to thank all of the following individuals for their assistance and support of the project: Trevor Clemmons, Hunter Evans, Corey Jenks, Selsey Stribling, Laura Kelley, Ryan Penn, James Winter, and Dr. Amanda Ellis.
Funding
The authors received financial support for this research under National Science Foundation Award 163288. Additional funding was supplied by the University Fellows Grant and Major Project Award Grant from Eastern Kentucky University. Additionally, we received funding from Battelle Memorial Institute for student-centered scholarship, which supported undergraduate research.
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Supplemental Figure 1.
Expanded geologic map of the Lower Muddy Creek Watershed and primary lithology of geologic units (KGS 2020). Rock types are listed in order of decreasing occurrence in the units. Black lines represent faults. (b) Inset and location of the field site with streams and primary endmembers traced on top of the geology. Note that tributaries B1 and B2 occur in the lower New Albany Shale and upper Boyle Dolomite, while groundwater sources (SPR1, SPR2, SPR3, T1, B3) occurred lower in the Boyle Dolomite. (PNG 2227 kb)
Supplemental Figure 2.
Photo of the blue gray clay layer (below magenta line) within the Boyle Dolomite. The springs are associated with this layer. (PNG 28522 kb)
Supplemental Figure 3.
Piper diagram showing the average major ion percentages for all sites. (PNG 1991 kb)
Supplemental Figure 4.
Map of the identified catchments in the Muddy Creek Watershed. Each catchment is a colored polygon along the main channel of Muddy Creek, which is similar to the condition of our study site (white star). (PNG 944 kb)
Supplemental Figure 5.
(a) Pie chart showing the percent coverage of catchments in the Muddy Creek Watershed that are roughly comparable to the study site shaded in gray. (b) Percent coverage of land cover types for the whole Muddy Creek watershed (gray) and identified catchments (black). (PNG 444 kb)
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Buskirk, R.E., Malzone, J.M., Borowski, W.S. et al. The impact of small-scale land cover and groundwater interactions on base flow solute and nutrient export in a small agricultural stream. Environ Monit Assess 192, 574 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08517-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08517-6