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Effects of land use on sources and ages of inorganic and organic carbon in temperate headwater streams

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Abstract

The amounts, sources and relative ages of inorganic and organic carbon pools were assessed in eight headwater streams draining watersheds dominated by either forest, pasture, cropland or urban development in the lower Chesapeake Bay region (Virginia, USA). Streams were sampled at baseflow conditions six different times over 1 year. The sources and ages of the carbon pools were characterized by isotopic (δ13C and ∆14C) analyses and excitation emission matrix fluorescence with parallel factor analysis (EEM–PARAFAC). The findings from this study showed that human land use may alter aquatic carbon cycling in three primary ways. First, human land use affects the sources and ages of DIC by controlling different rates of weathering and erosion. Relative to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in forested streams which originated primarily from respiration of young, 14C-enriched organic matter (OM; δ13C = −22.2 ± 3 ‰; ∆14C = 69 ± 14 ‰), DIC in urbanized streams was influenced more by sedimentary carbonate weathering (δ13C = −12.4 ± 1 ‰; ∆14C = −270 ± 37 ‰) and one of pasture streams showed a greater influence from young soil carbonates (δ13C = −5.7 ± 2.5 ‰; ∆14C = 69 ‰). Second, human land use alters the proportions of terrestrial versus autochthonous/microbial sources of stream water OM. Fluorescence properties of dissolved OM (DOM) and the C:N of particulate OM (POM) suggested that streams draining human-altered watersheds contained greater relative contributions of DOM and POM from autochthonous/microbial sources than forested streams. Third, human land uses can mobilize geologically aged inorganic carbon and enable its participation in contemporary carbon cycling. Aged DOM (∆14C = −248 to −202 ‰, equivalent14C ages of 1,811–2,284 years BP) and POM (∆14C = −90 to −88 ‰, 14C ages of 669–887 years BP) were observed exclusively in urbanized streams, presumably a result of autotrophic fixation of aged DIC (−297 to −244 ‰, 14C age = 2,251–2,833 years BP) from sedimentary shell dissolution and perhaps also watershed export of fossil fuel carbon. This study demonstrates that human land use may have significant impacts on the amounts, sources, ages and cycling of carbon in headwater streams and their associated watersheds.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Yohei Matsui, Edward Keesee, Erin Ferer, Christina Pondell, Sarah Schillawski, and Dr. Rachel Sipler for their help with field and laboratory work. We also thank Dr. Jim Kaste for cation and anion analyses. Timothy Russell and Dr. Stuart Hamilton provided us invaluable instruction on ArcGIS analyses. This paper is contribution 3351 of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary and contribution 651 of the Southeast Environmental Research Center. This work was funded by a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow Grant from The College of William and Mary and by the National Science Foundation (DEB0234533, OCE0327423, and EAR0403949 to J.E.B, and OCE0962277, EAR1003529, and DEB 0542645 to E.A.C.) and in collaboration with the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation (DBI0620409 to R.J.). We also acknowledge the support of Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium Funds (T3-013-UA, T3-020-UA, and T4-004-UA to Y.H.L.) during the manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, 201 7th Ave, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35485, USA

    Yue Han Lu

  2. Aquatic Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43212, USA

    James E. Bauer & Amy Barrett

  3. Department of Physical Sciences, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Gloucester Point, VA, 23062, USA

    Elizabeth A. Canuel

  4. Department of Biology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 23187, USA

    R. M. Chambers

  5. Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0810, Japan

    Youhei Yamashita

  6. Southeast Environmental Research Center and Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Rudolf Jaffé

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  1. Yue Han Lu
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Lu, Y.H., Bauer, J.E., Canuel, E.A. et al. Effects of land use on sources and ages of inorganic and organic carbon in temperate headwater streams. Biogeochemistry 119, 275–292 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-014-9965-2

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