Abstract
Reservoirs often bury phosphorus (P), leading to seasonal or persistent reductions in P supply to downstream rivers. Here we ask if observed variation in the chemistry of dam release waters stimulates downstream sediment P release and biological activity in an arid, oligotrophic system, the Colorado River below Lake Powell, Arizona, USA. We use bottle incubations to simulate a range of observed pH (6–8.8) and oxygen (0–9.4 mg L−1) levels, with the hypothesis that either oxygen concentrations or pH regulates P release from sediments to the water column. We found support for pH-mediated P release from calcite across the three sites we sampled. The magnitude of this effect was lower in bottles filled with tailwater sediment, but at downriver sites low pH resulted in declining water column dissolved inorganic nitrogen:soluble reactive P (DIN:SRP) ratios, which dropped below the Redfield ratio of 16:1, increasing water column total protein production, and down-regulating alkaline phosphatase production. Additional 7-day incubations showed that tributary storm inputs can temporarily elevate riverine P availability from < 1.5 µg L−1 total dissolved P (TDP) pre-storm to 6.7 µg L−1 TDP post storm. Taken together, our lab incubation and long-term observational results highlight the importance of pH, and ultimately reservoir management and storm dynamics, in regulating P availability and biological processes both now and into the future.
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Data associated with this manuscript are available on ScienceBase at https://doi.org/10.5066/P9L4JG9D.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Joel Unema for collecting storm samples from the Paria River. We thank Adam Baumann for help with nutrient analyses, Clay Nelson for help with site access and boat support, Erika Geiger and Tom Sabol for logistical support, and Cara Lauria for help with laboratory work. We thank David Goodenough and Nick Voichick for collecting the continuous pH data from Glen and Grand Canyon. We also thank Bob Hall and Somer Morris for helpful conversations about phosphorus cycling in Grand Canyon. We appreciate thoughtful comments from Eric Moody on a previous version of this manuscript. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding
This work was supported by the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. Corman was supported by NSF Grant No. OIA-2019596 and Reibold, Fatta, and Reed were supported by the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area.
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BRD: Writing—original draft, visualization, supervision, conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, RHR: Writing—original draft, data curation, resources, methodology, conceptualization, AF: Writing—original draft, data curation, methodology, visualization, JRC: Writing—original draft, visualization, conceptualization, CBY: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition, supervision, formal analysis, SCR: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing, project administration, resources, visualization, supervision.
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Deemer, B.R., H. Reibold, R., Fatta, A. et al. Storms and pH of dam releases affect downstream phosphorus cycling in an arid regulated river. Biogeochemistry 165, 57–74 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01064-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01064-5