Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sediment–Water Surface Area Along Rivers: Water Column Versus Benthic

  • Published:
Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aquatic ecosystems have two distinct zones: the water column and benthic zone. Although the benthic zone has received considerable attention, recent studies have found the water column capable of accounting for a majority of whole ecosystem processes in rivers. The relative role of these zones inevitably varies across a size continuum of rivers, from headwaters to large transcontinental systems. A fundamental question in aquatic science is where along this size continuum do ecosystem processes potentially shift from occurring largely in the benthic zone to largely in the water column? Sediment structures the physical template of the benthic and water column zones of rivers and the contact area between water and sediment mediates ecological, geochemical, and physical processes. High concentrations of suspended sediments are hypothesized to cause a shift from benthic to water column dominance in rivers. We developed an analytical model for the contact area between surface water and all sediment particles in benthic and water column volumes. The model was implemented with empirical data along the main stem of major US rivers. The ratio of water column to benthic sediment contact area scaled as a power function of watershed area. There was more sediment–water contact area in the water column than the benthic zone in rivers equal to or greater than 5th to 9th order depending on the river basin. This suggests material processing could be occurring largely in the water column in rivers greater than 5th order. However, dams and variation in discharge caused rivers to oscillate between water column and benthic dominance over time and space.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander RB, Böhlke JK, Boyer EW, David MB, Harvey JW, Mulholland PJ, Seitzinger SP, Tobias CR, Tonitto C, Wollheim WM. 2009. Dynamic modeling of nitrogen losses in river networks unravels the coupled effects of hydrological and biogeochemical processes. Biogeochemistry 93:91–116.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander RB, Boyer EW, Smith RA, Schwarz GE, Moore RB. 2007. The role of headwater streams in downstream water quality. J Am Water Resour Assoc 43:41–59.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Alldredge AL, Silver MW. 1988. Characteristics, dynamics and significance of marine snow. Prog Oceanogr 20:41–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asselman N. 2000. Fitting and interpretation of sediment rating curves. J Hydrol 234:228–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avnimelech Y, Ritvo G, Meijer LE, Kochba M. 2001. Water content, organic carbon and dry bulk density in flooded sediments. Aquac Eng 25:25–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Battin TJ, Kaplan LA, Findlay S, Hopkinson CS, Marti E, Packman AI, Newbold JD, Sabater F. 2008. Biophysical controls on organic carbon fluxes in fluvial networks. Nat Geosci 1:95–100.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berg P, Røy H, Janssen F, Meyer V, Jørgensen BB, Huettel M, de Beer D. 2003. Oxygen uptake by aquatic sediments measured with a novel non-invasive eddy-correlation technique. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 261:75–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertuzzo E, Helton AM, Hall Jr RO, Battin TJ. 2017. Scaling of dissolved organic carbon removal in river networks. Adv Water Resour 110:136–46.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buffington JM, Montgomery DR. 1997. A systematic analysis of eight decades of incipient motion studies, with special reference to gravel-bedded rivers. Water Resour Res 33:1993–2029.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter SR. 2003. The need for fast-and-frugal models. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter SR, Turner MG. 2017. Twenty years of ecosystems: emerging questions and challenges. Ecosystems 20:1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caspers H. 1981. The functioning of freshwater ecosystems. In: Le Cren ED, Lowe-McConnell RH. International biological programme, 22, 588 pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1980. ISBN 0 521 22507 8. £ 40.00. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie 66: 908–909.

  • Cotner JB, Biddanda BA. 2002. Small players, large role: microbial influence on biogeochemical processes in pelagic aquatic ecosystems. Ecosystems 5:105–21.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Covich AP, Palmer MA, Crowl TA. 1999. The role of benthic invertebrate species in freshwater ecosystems: zoobenthic species influence energy flows and nutrient cycling. Bioscience 49:119–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csiki S, Rhoads BL. 2010. Hydraulic and geomorphological effects of run-of-river dams. Prog Phys Geogr 34:755–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descy J-P, Gosselain V. 1994. Development and ecological importance of phytoplankton in a large lowland river (River Meuse, Belgium). Phytoplankton in turbid environments: rivers and shallow lakes. Berlin: Springer. pp 139–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodds WK, Whiles MR. 2004. Quality and quantity of suspended particles in rivers: continent-scale patterns in the United States. Environ Manag 33:355–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyle MW, Ensign SH. 2009. Alternative reference frams in river system science. Bioscience 59:499–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Droppo I, Leppard G, Flannigan D, Liss S. 1997. The freshwater floc: a functional relationship of water and organic and inorganic floc constituents affecting suspended sediment properties. Water Air Soil Pollut 99:43–54.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Droppo IG. 2001. Rethinking what constitutes suspended sediment. Hydrol Process 15:1551–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ensign SH, Doyle MW. 2006. Nutrient spiraling in streams and river networks. J Geophys Res 111:G04009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ensign SH, Doyle MW, Gardner JR. 2017. New strategies for measuring rates of environmental processes in rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Freshw Sci 36:000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finlay JC. 2001. Stable carbon isotope ratios of river biota: implications for energy flow in lotic food webs. Ecology 82:1052–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher SG, Grimm NB, Martí E, Holmes RM, Jones JB Jr. 1998. Material spiraling in stream corridors: a telescoping ecosystem model. Ecosystems 1:19–34.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Frissell CA, Liss WJ, Warren CE, Hurley MD. 1986. A hierarchical framework for stream habitat classification: viewing streams in a watershed context. Environ Manag 10:199–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbins C, Vericat D, Batalla RJ. 2007. When is stream invertebrate drift catastrophic? The role of hydraulics and sediment transport in initiating drift during flood events. Freshwater Biol 52:2369–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgio PA, Williams PJB. 2005. Respiration in aquatic ecosystems. Oxford, USA: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez-Velez JD, Harvey JW. 2014. A hydrogeomorphic river network model predicts where and why hyporheic exchange is important in large basins. Geophys Res Lett 41:6403–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez-Velez JD, Harvey JW, Cardenas MB, Kiel B. 2015. Denitrification in the Mississippi River network controlled by flow through river bedforms. Nat Geosci 8:941–5.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hall RO, Tank JL, Baker MA, Rosi-Marshall EJ, Hotchkiss ER. 2015. Metabolism, gas exchange, and carbon spiraling in rivers. Ecosystems 19:73–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helton AM, Hall RO, Bertuzzo E. 2018. How network structure can affect nitrogen removal by streams. Freshwater Biol 63:128–40.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hensley RT, Cohen MJ, Korhnak LV. 2014. Inferring nitrogen removal in large rivers from high-resolution longitudinal profiling. Limnol Oceanogr 59:1152–70.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz AJ, Elrick KA. 1987. The relation of stream sediment surface area, grain size and composition to trace element chemistry. Appl Geochem 2:437–51.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hosen JD, Febria CM, Crump BC, Palmer MA. 2017. Watershed urbanization linked to differences in stream bacterial community composition. Front Microbiol 8:1452.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hotchkiss E, Hall R Jr, Sponseller R, Butman D, Klaminder J, Laudon H, Rosvall M, Karlsson J. 2015. Sources of and processes controlling CO2 emissions change with the size of streams and rivers. Nat Geosci 8:696–9.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson CR, Millar JJ, Payne JT, Ochs CA. 2014. Free-living and particle-associated bacterioplankton in large rivers of the Mississippi River Basin demonstrate biogeographic patterns. Appl Environ Microbiol 80:7186–95.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ji Z-G. 2017. Hydrodynamics and water quality: modeling rivers, lakes, and estuaries. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jia X, Williams R. 2001. A packing algorithm for particles of arbitrary shapes. Powder Technol 120:175–86.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kirk JT. 1994. Light and photosynthesis in aquatic ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lake P. 2000. Disturbance, patchiness, and diversity in streams. J N Am Benthol Soc 19:573–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamberti GA, Steinman AD. 1997. A comparison of primary production in stream ecosystems. J N Am Benthol Soc 16:95–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leopold LB, Maddock T. 1953. The hydraulic geometry of stream channels and some physiographic implications: quantitative measurement of some of the hydraulic factors that help to determine the shape of natural stream channels: depth, width, velocity, and suspended load, and how they vary with discharge as simple power functions; teir interrelations are described by the term “hydraulic geometry”: U.S. Government Printing Office.

  • Liu T, Xia X, Liu S, Mou X, Qiu Y. 2013. Acceleration of denitrification in turbid rivers due to denitrification occurring on suspended sediment in oxic waters. Environ Sci Technol 47:4053–61.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Malcolm I, Soulsby C, Youngson A. 2002. Thermal regime in the hyporheic zone of two contrasting salmonid spawning streams: ecological and hydrological implications. Fish Manag Ecol 9:1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzadri A, Dee MM, Tonina D, Bellin A, Tank JL. 2017. Role of surface and subsurface processes in scaling N2O emissions along riverine networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci 114:4330–5.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCluney KE, Poff NL, Palmer MA, Thorp JH, Poole GC, Williams BS, Williams MR, Baron JS. 2014. Riverine macrosystems ecology: sensitivity, resistance, and resilience of whole river basins with human alterations. Front Ecol Environ 12:48–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKnight DM, Runkel RL, Tate CM, Duff JH, Moorhead DL. 2004. Inorganic N and P dynamics of Antarctic glacial meltwater streams as controlled by hyporheic exchange and benthic autotrophic communities. J N Am Benthol Soc 23:171–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mendoza-Lera C, Frossard A, Knie M, Federlein LL, Gessner MO, Mutz M. 2017. Importance of advective mass transfer and sediment surface area for streambed microbial communities. Freshwater Biol 62:133–45.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meybeck M. 1982. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus transport by world rivers. Am J Sci 282:401–50.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meybeck M, Laroche L, Dürr H, Syvitski J. 2003. Global variability of daily total suspended solids and their fluxes in rivers. Glob Planet Change 39:65–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millar JJ, Payne JT, Ochs CA, Jackson CR. 2015. Particle-associated and cell-free extracellular enzyme activity in relation to nutrient status of large tributaries of the Lower Mississippi River. Biogeochemistry 124:255–71.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery DR. 1999. Process domains and the river continuum. J Am Water Resour Assoc 35:397–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulholland PJ, Helton AM, Poole GC, Hall RO, Hamilton SK, Peterson BJ, Tank JL, Ashkenas LR, Cooper LW, Dahm CN, Dodds WK, Findlay SE, Gregory SV, Grimm NB, Johnson SL, McDowell WH, Meyer JL, Valett HM, Webster JR, Arango CP, Beaulieu JJ, Bernot MJ, Burgin AJ, Crenshaw CL, Johnson LT, Niederlehner BR, O’Brien JM, Potter JD, Sheibley RW, Sobota DJ, Thomas SM. 2008. Stream denitrification across biomes and its response to anthropogenic nitrate loading. Nature 452:202–5.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Newbold JD, Elwood JW, O’Neill RV, Winkle WV. 1981. Measuring nutrient spiralling in streams. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 38:860–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochs CA, Capello HE, Pongruktham O. 2009. Bacterial production in the Lower Mississippi River: importance of suspended sediment and phytoplankton biomass. Hydrobiologia 637:19–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver RL, Merrick CJ. 2006. Partitioning of river metabolism identifies phytoplankton as a major contributor in the regulated Murray River (Australia). Freshwater Biol 51:1131–48.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parker G. 1991. Selective sorting and abrasion of river gravel. I: theory. J Hydraul Eng 117:131–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson BJ, Wollheim WM, Mulholland PJ, Webster JR, Meyer JL, Tank JL, Marti E, Bowden WB, Valett HM, Hershey AE, McDowell WH, Dodds WK, Hamilton SK, Gregory S, Morrall DD. 2001. Control of nitrogen export from watersheds by headwater streams. Science 292:86–90.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pizzuto JE. 1995. Downstream fining in a network of gravel-bedded rivers. Water Resour Res 31:753–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poff NL, Ward J. 1991. Drift responses of benthic invertebrates to experimental streamflow variation in a hydrologically stable stream. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 48:1926–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole GC. 2002. Fluvial landscape ecology: addressing uniqueness within the river discontinuum. Freshwater Biol 47:641–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymond PA, Saiers JE, Sobczak WV. 2016. Hydrological and biogeochemical controls on watershed dissolved organic matter transport: pulse-shunt concept. Ecology 97:5–16.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reisinger AJ, Tank JL, Hoellein TJ, Hall RO. 2016. Sediment, water column, and open-channel denitrification in rivers measured using membrane-inlet mass spectrometry. J Geophys Res Biogeosci 121:1258–74.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reisinger AJ, Tank JL, Rosi-Marshall EJ, Hall RO, Baker MA. 2015. The varying role of water column nutrient uptake along river continua in contrasting landscapes. Biogeochemistry 125:115–31.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Braun DP, Powell J. 1998. A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration within a river network. Regul Rivers Res Manag 14:329–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • River M, Richardson CJ. 2018a. Particle size distribution predicts particulate phosphorus removal. Ambio 47:124–33.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • River M, Richardson CJ. 2018b. Stream transport of iron and phosphorus by authigenic nanoparticles in the Southern Piedmont of the US. Water Res 130:312–21.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rovelli L, Attard KM, Binley A, Heppell CM, Stahl H, Trimmer M, Glud RN. 2017. Reach-scale river metabolism across contrasting sub-catchment geologies: effect of light and hydrology. Limnol Oceanogr 62:S1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rügner H, Schwientek M, Beckingham B, Kuch B, Grathwohl P. 2013. Turbidity as a proxy for total suspended solids (TSS) and particle facilitated pollutant transport in catchments. Environ Earth Sci 69:373–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholes RJ. 2017. Taking the mumbo out of the jumbo: progress towards a robust basis for ecological scaling. Ecosystems 20:4–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seitzinger SP, Styles RV, Boyer EW, Alexander RB, Billen G, Howarth RW, Mayer B, Van Breemen N. 2002. Nitrogen retention in rivers: model development and application to watersheds in the northeastern USA. The Nitrogen cycle at regional to global scales. Berlin: Springer. pp 199–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tessier A, Campbell P, Bisson M. 1980. Trace metal speciation in the Yamaska and St. Francois rivers (Quebec). Can J Earth Sci 17:90–105.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thorp JH, Delong MD. 1994. The riverine productivity model: an heuristic view of carbon sources and organic processing in large river ecosystems. Oikos 70:305–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorp JH, Thoms MC, Delong MD. 2006. The riverine ecosystem synthesis: biocomplexity in river networks across space and time. River Res Appl 22:123–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker ME. 2009. Sedimentary petrology: an introduction to the origin of sedimentary rocks. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vannote RL, Minshall GW, Cummins KW, Sedell JR, Cushing CE. 1980. The river continuum concept. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 37:130–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkmar EC, Dahlgren RA, Stringfellow WT, Henson SS, Borglin SE, Kendall C, Van Nieuwenhuyse EE. 2011. Using Lagrangian sampling to study water quality during downstream transport in the San Luis Drain, California, USA. Chem Geol 283:68–77.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walling D, Moorehead P. 1989. The particle size characteristics of fluvial suspended sediment: an overview. Hydrobiologia 176:125–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walling DE, Owens PN, Waterfall BD, Leeks GJ, Wass PD. 2000. The particle size characteristics of fluvial suspended sediment in the Humber and Tweed catchments, UK. Sci Total Environ 251:205–22.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ward JV, Stanford J. 1983. The serial discontinuity concept of lotic ecosystems. Dyn Lotic Ecosyst 10:29–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters TF. 1977. Secondary production in inland waters. Adv Ecol Res 10:91–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster JR. 2007. Spiraling down the river continuum: stream ecology and the U-shaped curve. J N Am Benthol Soc 26:375–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetzel RG. 2001. Limnology: lake and river ecosystems. Houston: Gulf Professional Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolman MG, Miller JP. 1960. Magnitude and frequency of forces in geomorphic processes. J Geol 68:54–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wotton RS. 2007. Do benthic biologists pay enough attention to aggregates formed in the water column of streams and rivers? J N Am Benthol Soc 26:1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ye S, Reisinger AJ, Tank JL, Baker MA, Hall RO, Rosi EJ, Sivapalan M. 2017. Scaling dissolved nutrient removal in river networks: a comparative modeling investigation. Water Resour Res 53:9623–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann-Timm H. 2002. Characteristics, dynamics and importance of aggregates in rivers—an invited review. Int Rev Hydrobiol 87:197–240.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to conversations with Emily Bernhardt, Jim Heffernan, Scott Ensign, and all members of the Duke River Center as well as 2 anonymous reviewers and the editors who substantially contributed to the improvement of this manuscript.

Funding

NSF-IGERT Grant #DGE-1068871.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Environmental Hall, 9 Circuit Drive, Durham, North Carolina, 27708, USA

    John R. Gardner & Martin W. Doyle

Authors
  1. John R. Gardner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martin W. Doyle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John R. Gardner.

Additional information

Authors Contributions

JRG contributed to concept development, analysis, and manuscript development. MWD contributed to concept and manuscript development.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10021_2018_236_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplemental materials include data tables, figures, and sensitivity analysis. All data was publicly available, and the data and code is available upon request. Code for sensitivity analysis can be found at https://github.com/johngardner87. The full dataset and additional code will eventually be located here as well (DOCX 1395 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gardner, J.R., Doyle, M.W. Sediment–Water Surface Area Along Rivers: Water Column Versus Benthic. Ecosystems 21, 1505–1520 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0236-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-018-0236-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation