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Differences in the Quality of Seepage Water and Runoff Caused by Plant Community and Grazing at an Alpine Site in Hol, Southern Norway

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Abstract

Alpine ecosystems, representing a large proportion of the land area in Europe, are under pressure from changes in climate and land-use. This may also impact the quality of drainage waters. Here, we assess effects of plant communities (snowbed, dwarf shrub heath, and tall herb meadow) on concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON), ammonium (NH4-N), nitrate (NO3-N), and phosphorus (tot-P and PO4-P) in locally derived seepage water in a non-fertilized sub-alpine area of southern Norway. In addition, we investigated effects of two density levels of sheep (no sheep and 80 sheep km−2) on infiltration capacity, pore size distribution and concentrations of nutrients and bacteria in surface runoff. Concentrations of NO3-N (<0.02–0.03 mg l−1) and NH4-N (<0.02–0.03 mg l−1) were low in seepage waters with no significant differences associated with plant community. Also, concentrations of DOC and DON were low, in particular in snowbeds, probably due to low productivity and small soil carbon pools. Infiltration rates, which were significantly smaller in snowbeds than in tall herb meadow, were further reduced by grazing. In turn, this caused increased runoff of coliform bacteria, whereas no effect of grazing on NH4-N, NO3-N and PO4-P was observed. Grazing may significantly alter biological water quality but is not likely to affect the productivity of surface waters in non-fertilized alpine areas.

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Acknowledgments

Irene Dahl Eriksen, Grete Bloch and Johnny Kristiansen are acknowledged for technical assistance. Trond Børresen is acknowledged guidance during infiltration measurements and determination of the pore size fractions. The study was funded by the Research Council of Norway, Environment 2015 program (Project 183268/S30), the Directorate for nature management and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (PhD scholarship to Vegard Martinsen).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Ås, Norway

    Vegard Martinsen, Franz Grund, Marit Ness Kjeve & Jan Mulder

  2. Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349, Oslo, Norway

    Heleen A. de Wit

  3. Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Section of Natural History, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Gunnar Austrheim

  4. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Atle Mysterud

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  1. Vegard Martinsen
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  2. Franz Grund
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  3. Marit Ness Kjeve
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  4. Heleen A. de Wit
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  7. Jan Mulder
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Correspondence to Vegard Martinsen.

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Martinsen, V., Grund, F., Kjeve, M.N. et al. Differences in the Quality of Seepage Water and Runoff Caused by Plant Community and Grazing at an Alpine Site in Hol, Southern Norway. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1649 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1649-3

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