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Effectiveness of Constructed Overland Flow Areas in Decreasing Diffuse Pollution from Forest Drainages

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Abstract

Forestry is the largest scale human impact affecting catchments in Finland and a prominent source of diffuse pollution in many water courses. Among the forestry activities, draining of wetlands had the most pronounced impacts on sediment, nutrient, and metal loading in the past. At present, renovation of old ditches and fertilization of peatlands constitute the major risk of forestry-induced diffuse pollution. Contemporary forestry aims at decreasing this risk with various riparian buffer strip designs. Among such designs, creation of overland flow areas by plugging the outlet ditches is increasingly used. Our objectives were to evaluate the potential of constructed overland flow areas to function as riparian buffers and estimate the quality and quantity of diffuse pollution from old versus recent forest drainages. We studied retention and release of pollutants from 20 constructed, 2- to 10-m-wide overland flow areas receiving drainage water from forested peatlands. Drainage waters were sampled above and below the plugged ditches three times per year from 1998 to 1999. Chemical oxygen demand and nutrient and metal loads and concentrations varied strongly between seasons, years, and drainage areas. Areas subjected to recent ditch renovations and fertilizations had clearly elevated seasonal loads and concentrations of total phosphorus (TP), PO4, Fe, and Al in comparison to old treatment areas. Especially TP loads were high above the national average values measured for forestry-induced diffuse pollution. In general, water quality above and below the buffer strips did not differ significantly. Our results indicate that plugged outlet ditches and associated narrow overland flow areas do not function as proper buffers in peatland areas. We suggest that wider buffers with extensive overland flow areas are needed in order to control diffuse pollution from forested and drained peatlands.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the employees of the North-Karelian Environment Centre and the City of Nurmes for implementation of the catchment restoration and cooperation in this research. Marketta Ahtiainen, Raimo Ihme, and Jaana Uusi-Kämppä are gratefully acknowledged for their support in literature survey. Veli Lyytikäinen is especially thanked for his ideas and efforts in the field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lapland Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 8060, FIN-96101 Rovaniemi, Finland

    Petri Liljaniemi

  2. Central Finland Regional Environment Centre, P.O. Box 110, FIN-40101 Jyäskylä, Finland

    Kari-Matti Vuori, Tarmo Tossavainen & Juho Kotanen

  3. Finnish Environment Institute, Research Department, P.O. Box 140, FIN-00251, Helsinki, Finland

    Merja Haapanen, Ahti Lepistö & Kaarle Kenttämies

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  1. Petri Liljaniemi
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Liljaniemi, P., Vuori, KM., Tossavainen, T. et al. Effectiveness of Constructed Overland Flow Areas in Decreasing Diffuse Pollution from Forest Drainages . Environmental Management 32, 602–613 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-2927-4

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