Abstract
Transitional areas between ecosystem types are often active biogeochemically due to resource limitation changes. Lotic-to-lentic transitions in freshwaters appear active biogeochemically, but few studies have directly measured nutrient processing rates to assess whether processing within the rivermouth is important for load estimates or the local communities. We measured oxic fluxes of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from sediments in two rivermouths of Green Bay (Lake Michigan, USA). Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) flux was positive in most cases (overall mean 1.74 mg SRP m− 2 day− 1), as was ammonium (NH4) flux (40.6 mg NH4 m− 2 day− 1). Partial least square regression (PLSR) indicated a latent variable associated with both sediment [loosely bound phosphorus (P), iron bound P, organic content] and water column properties [temperature, DOC:dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and DOC:SRP ratios (negatively)] that was moderately associated with variation in SRP flux. PLSR analysis also indicated several sediment characteristics were moderately related to NH4 flux, especially organic content, density (negative), and porosity. Flux of nitrates/nitrites (NOX) and DOC were positively associated with the water column concentrations of NOX and DOC and qualitative estimates of the labile, non-humic types of DOC. In early summer, water column NOX and DOC concentrations were high and labile DOC may have fueled denitrification, resulting in net flux into sediments of both NOX and DOC. By late summer, water column NOX and DOC were very low and both these constituents were fluxing out of sediments into the water column. Based on our estimates for the entire period from April through September, rivermouth sediments were a net source of SRP and DIN, with a DIN:SRP ratio of ~ 44 and a NH4:NOX > 1. We estimated that the sediments in the Fox rivermouth probably contributed a small proportion of the total Fox River load during the growing season 2016 (< 5%), but at times may have contributed as much as 14% of the daily load. Despite the small size of the Fox rivermouth (< 0.5% of the watershed area), these results indicate that at times sediments can contribute substantially to the overall delivery of nitrogen and phosphorus to the nearshore zone.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguilar L, Thibodeaux LJ (2005) Kinetics of peat soil dissolved organic carbon release from bed sediment to water. Part 1. Laboratory simulation. Chemosphere 58:1309–1318
Alkhatib M, del Giorgio PA, Gelinas Y, Lehmann MF (2013) Benthic fluxes of dissolved organic nitrogen in the lower St. Lawrence estuary and implications for selective organic matter degradation. Biogeosciences 10:7609–7622. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-7609-2013
Annex 4 Task Team (2015) Recommended phosphorus loading targets for Lake Erie. United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/glwqa/report-recommended-phosphorus-loading-targets-lake-erie. Accessed 17 Dec 2019
American Public Health Association, APHA (2011) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 21st edn. APHA, Washington, DC
Avnimelech Y, Ritvo G, Meijer LE, Kochba M (2001) Water content, organic carbon and dry bulk density in flooded sediments. Aquacult Eng 25:25–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0144-8609(01)00068-1
Bertani I, Obenour DR, Steger CE et al (2016) Probabilistically assessing the role of nutrient loading in harmful algal bloom formation in western Lake Erie. J Gt Lakes Res.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2016.04.002
Carrascal LM, Galván I, Gordo O (2009) Partial least squares regression as an alternative to current regression methods used in ecology. Oikos 118:681–690. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.16881.x
Cory R, Miller M, McKnight DM et al (2010) Effect of instrument-specific response on the analysis of fulvic acid fluorescence spectra. Limnol Oceanogr Methods 8:67–78. https://doi.org/10.4319/lom.2010.8.67
Davis T, Harke M, Marcoval M et al (2010) Effects of nitrogenous compounds and phosphorus on the growth of toxic and non-toxic strains of Microcystis during cyanobacterial blooms. Aquat Microb Ecol 61:149–162. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01445
Dila DK, Biddanda BA (2015) From land to lake: contrasting microbial processes across a Great Lakes gradient of organic carbon and inorganic nutrient inventories. J Gt Lakes Res 41:75–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2015.04.014
Evans MA, Fahnenstiel G, Scavia D (2011) Incidental oligotrophication of North American Great Lakes. Environ Sci Technol 45:3297–3303. https://doi.org/10.1021/es103892w
Great Lakes Interagency Task Force (2014) Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan II
Glibert PM (2017) Eutrophication, harmful algae and biodiversity—challenging paradigms in a world of complex nutrient changes. Mar Pollut Bull 124:591–606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.04.027
Håkanson L, Jansson M (2002) Principles of lake sedimentology, 2nd edn. The Blackburn Press, Caldwell
Helms JR, Stubbins A, Ritchie JD et al (2008) Absorption spectral slopes and slope ratios as indicators of molecular weight, source, and photobleaching of chromophoric dissolved organic matter. Limnol Oceanogr 53:955–969
Helsel DR (2005) Nondetects and data analysis. Wiley, Hoboken
Hilton J, O’Hare M, Bowes MJ, Jones JI (2006) How green is my river? A new paradigm of eutrophication in rivers. Sci Total Environ 365:66–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.02.055
Hupfer M, Lewandowski J (2008) Oxygen controls the phosphorus release from lake sediments—a long-lasting paradigm in limnology. Int Rev Hydrobiol 93:415–432. https://doi.org/10.1002/iroh.200711054
James WF (2017) Internal phosphorus loading contributions from deposited and resuspended sediment to the Lake of the Woods. Lake Reserve Manag 33:347–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402381.2017.1312647
Juckers M, Williams CJ, Xenopoulos MA (2013) Land-use effects on resource net flux rates and oxygen demand in stream sediments. Freshw Biol 58:1405–1415. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12136
Klump JV, Edgington DN, Sager PE, Robertson DM (1997) Sedimentary phosphorus cycling and a phosphorus mass balance for the Green Bay (Lake Michigan) ecosystem. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 54:10–26. https://doi.org/10.1139/f96-247
Krieger K (2003) Effectiveness of a coastal wetland in reducing pollution of a Laurentian Great Lake: hydrology, sediment, and nutrients. Wetlands 23:778–791
Kruschke JK (2011) Doing Bayesian data analysis. Elsevier, Oxford
Larson JH, Frost PC, Vallazza JM et al (2016) Do rivermouths alter nutrient and seston delivery to the nearshore? Freshw Biol 61:1935–1949. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12827
Larson JH, Frost PC, Xenopoulos MA et al (2014) Relationships between land cover and dissolved organic matter change along the river to lake transition. Ecosystems 17:1413–1425. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-014-9804-2
Larson JH, Trebitz AS, Steinman AD et al (2013) Great Lakes rivermouth ecosystems: scientific synthesis and management implications. J Gt Lakes Res 39:513–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2013.06.002
Maher DT, Eyre BD (2010) Benthic fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in three temperate Australian estuaries: implications for global estimates of benthic DOC fluxes. J Geophys Res 115:G04039. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JG001433
Makowski D, Ben-Shachar MS, Ludecke D (2019) Understand and describe Bayesian models and posterior distributions using bayestestR. J Open Source Softw.https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01541
Marko KM, Rutherford ES, Eadie BJ et al (2013) Delivery of nutrients and seston from the Muskegon River Watershed to near shore Lake Michigan. J Gt Lakes Res 39:672–681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2013.08.002
Matisoff G, Kaltenberg EM, Steely RL et al (2016) Internal loading of phosphorus in western Lake Erie. J Gt Lakes Res 42:775–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2016.04.004
McKnight DM, Boyer EW, Westerhoff PK et al (2001) Spectrofluorometric characterization of dissolved organic matter for indication of precursor organic material and aromaticity. Limnol Oceanogr 46:38–48
Mevik B, Wehrens R (2007) The pls package: principal component and partial least squares regression in R. J Stat Softw 18
Moody AT, Neeson TM, Wangen S et al (2017) Pet project or best project? Online decision support tools for prioritizing barrier removals in the Great Lakes and beyond. Fisheries 42:57–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2016.1263195
Morrice JA, Kelly JR, Trebitz AS et al (2004) Temporal dynamics of nutrients (N and P) and hydrology in a Lake Superior Coastal Wetland. J Gt Lakes Res 30:82–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0380-1330(04)70379-2
Murphy KR, Butler KD, Spencer RGM et al (2010) Measurement of dissolved organic matter fluorescence in aquatic environments: an interlaboratory comparison. Environ Sci Technol 44:9405–9412. https://doi.org/10.1021/es102362t
Newell SE, Davis TW, Johengen TH et al (2019) Reduced forms of nitrogen are a driver of non-nitrogen-fixing harmful cyanobacterial blooms and toxicity in Lake Erie. Harmful Algae 81:86–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2018.11.003
Ohno T (2002) Fluorescence inner-filtering correction for determining the humification index of dissolved organic matter. Environ Sci Technol 36:742–746
Orihel DM, Baulch HM, Casson NJ et al (2017) Internal phosphorus loading in Canadian fresh waters: a critical review and data analysis. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 25:1–25. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0500
Parlanti E, Wörz K, Geoffroy L, Lamotte M (2000) Dissolved organic matter fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool to estimate biological activity in a coastal zone submitted to anthropogenic inputs. Org Geochem 31:1765–1781
Peter S, Isidorova A, Sobek S (2016) Enhanced carbon loss from anoxic lake sediment through diffusion of dissolved organic carbon. J Geophys Res Biogeosciences 121:1959–1977. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JG003425
Plumb RH Jr (1981) Procedures for handling and chemical analysis of sediment and water samples. U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg
Psenner R, Pucsko R (1988) Phosphorus fractionation: advantages and limits of the method for the study of sediment P origins and interactions. Arch Hydrobiol Beih Ergebn Limnol 30:43–59
Richardson WB, Strauss EA, Bartsch LA et al (2004) Denitrification in the Upper Mississippi River: rates, controls, and contribution to nitrate flux. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 61:1102–1112
Robertson DM, Hubbard LE, Lorenz DL, Sullivan DJ (2018) A surrogate regression approach for computing continuous loads for the tributary nutrient and sediment monitoring program on the Great Lakes. J Gt Lakes Res 44:26–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2017.10.003
Schade JD, Espeleta JF, Klausmeier CA et al (2005) A conceptual framework for ecosystem stoichiometry: balancing resource supply and demand. Oikos 109:40–51
Sharpley A, Jarvie HP, Buda A et al (2013) Phosphorus Legacy: overcoming the effects of past management practices to mitigate future water quality impairment. J Environ Qual 42:1308. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2013.03.0098
Soballe DM, Fischer JR (2004) Long term resource monitoring program procedures: water quality monitoring. Technical Report LTRMP 2004-T02-1 (Ref. 95-POO2-5). La Crosse
Steinman A, Chu X, Ogdahl M (2009) Spatial and temporal variability of internal and external phosphorus loads in Mona Lake, Michigan. Aquat Ecol 43:1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-007-9147-6
Steinman AD, Ogdahl ME (2012) Macroinvertebrate response and internal phosphorus loading in a Michigan Lake after alum treatment. J Environ Qual 41:1540. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2011.0476
Steinman AD, Ogdahl ME, Weinert M et al (2012) Water level fluctuation and sediment–water nutrient exchange in Great Lakes coastal wetlands. J Gt Lakes Res 38:766–775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2012.09.020
Steinman AD, Ogdahl ME, Weinert M, Uzarski DG (2014) Influence of water-level fluctuation duration and magnitude on sediment–water nutrient exchange in coastal wetlands. Aquat Ecol 48:143–159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-014-9472-5
Sterner RW (2008) On the phosphorus limitation paradigm for lakes. Int Rev Hydrobiol 93:433–445. https://doi.org/10.1002/iroh.200811068
Stutter MI, Graeber D, Evans CD et al (2018) Balancing macronutrient stoichiometry to alleviate eutrophication. Sci Total Environ 634:439–447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.298
Weishaar J, Aiken G, Bergamaschi B et al (2003) Evaluation of specific ultraviolet absorbance as an indicator of the chemical composition and reactivity of dissolved organic carbon. Environ Sci Technol 37:4702–4708
Wetzel RG (2001) Limnology, 3rd edn. Academic, Amsterdam
Williams CJ, Yamashita Y, Wilson HF et al (2010) Unraveling the role of land use and microbial activity in shaping dissolved organic matter characteristics in stream ecosystems. Limnol Oceanogr 55:1159–1171. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2010.55.3.1159
Williamson CE, Morris DP, Pace ML, Olson OG (1999) Dissolved organic carbon and nutrients as regulators of lake ecosystems: resurrection of a more integrated paradigm. Limnol Oceanogr 44:795–803
Wilson HF, Xenopoulos MA (2009) Effects of agricultural land use on the composition of fluvial dissolved organic matter. Nat Geosci 2:37–41. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo391
Withers PJA, Jarvie HP (2008) Delivery and cycling of phosphorus in rivers: a review. Sci Total Environ 400:379–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.08.002
Zsolnay A, Baigar E, Jimenez M et al (1999) Differentiating with fluorescence spectroscopy the sources of dissolved organic matter in soils subjected to drying. Chemosphere 38:45–50
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Enrika Hlavacek for assistance in creating Fig. 1. Thanks to Laura Hubbard for assistance in applying statistical models from Robertson et al. 2018 to the 2016 water year. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This research was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Mission Area.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Amy M. Marcarelli
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Larson, J.H., James, W.F., Fitzpatrick, F.A. et al. Phosphorus, nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon fluxes from sediments in freshwater rivermouths entering Green Bay (Lake Michigan; USA). Biogeochemistry 147, 179–197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-020-00635-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-020-00635-0