Abstract
Sunlight plays a key role in the nutrient cycle within streams. Streams are often piped to accommodate urban residential or commercial development for buildings, roads, and parking. This results in altered exposure to sunlight, air, and soil, subsequently affecting the growth of aquatic vegetation, reducing reaeration, and thus impairing the water quality and ecological health of streams. While the effects of urbanization on urban streams, including changing flow regimes, stream bank and bed erosion, and degraded water quality, are well understood, the effects of piping streams on dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations, fish habitats, reaeration, photosynthesis, and respiration rates are not. We addressed this research gap by assessing the effects of stream piping on DO concentrations before and after a 565-m piped section of Stroubles Creek in Blacksburg, VA, for several days during the summer of 2021. Results indicate that the DO level decreased by approximately 18.5% during daylight hours as water flowed through the piped section of the creek. Given the optimum DO level (9.0 mg·L−1) for brook trout (Salvelinus sp.), which are native and present in a portion of Stroubles Creek, the resulting DO deficits were − 0.49 and − 1.24 mg·L−1, for the inlet and outlet, respectively, indicating a possible adverse impact from piping the stream on trout habitat. Photosynthesis and respiration rates were reduced through the piped section, primarily due to the reduced solar radiation and the resultant reduction in oxygen production from aquatic vegetation; however, the reaeration rate increased. This study can inform watershed restoration efforts, particularly decisions regarding stream daylighting with respect to potential water quality and aquatic habitat benefits.
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Abbreviations
- DO:
-
Dissolved oxygen
- \({C}_{s, \mathrm{min}}\) :
-
DO saturation concentration at the condition when \({C}_{\mathrm{min}}\) occurs
- \({C}_{s,\mathrm{max}}\) :
-
DO saturation concentration at which \({C}_{\mathrm{max}}\) occurs
- \(\overline{D }\) :
-
Mean daily oxygen deficit
- EVM:
-
Extreme value method
- \({C}_{\mathrm{max}}\) :
-
Maximum DO concentration
- \({D}_{\mathrm{max}}\) :
-
Maximum DO deficit
- \({C}_{\mathrm{min}}\) :
-
Minimum DO concentration
- \({D}_{\mathrm{min}}\) :
-
Minimum DO deficit
- P av :
-
Mean daily primary production rate
- R :
-
Mean daily respiration rate
- MS:
-
Monitoring station
- D :
-
Oxygen deficit
- T:
-
Period
- f :
-
Photoperiod
- \({P}_{\mathrm{min}}\) :
-
Photosynthesis rate at the time at which the minimum deficit occurs
- PLM:
-
Peak lag method
- PCA:
-
Principal component analysis
- RF:
-
Random forest
- ∆ :
-
Range of diurnal oxygen deficit
- k a :
-
Reaeration rate
- C s :
-
Saturation dissolved oxygen concentration
- STD:
-
Standard deviation
- H :
-
Stream depth
- u :
-
Stream velocity
- TCM:
-
Temperature correction method
- ϕ:
-
Time lag of minimum deficit relative to solar noon
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Acknowledgements
A portion of the study weather and watershed data were provided by the Town of Blacksburg, VA, and Virginia Tech StREAM Lab. The authors appreciate the data provided by W. Cully Hession and Laura Lehmann, StREAM Lab Director, and Manager, respectively. The authors would like to acknowledge Laura Lehman for providing the essential equipment for monitoring and recording stream water quality data. The authors would like to acknowledge Durelle T. Scott, Virginia Tech, for his helpful comments at the early stage of drafting this paper.
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Mehdi Ketabchy: investigation, conceptualization, methodology, project administration, validation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, visualization, and data curation. Elyce N. Buell: data collection, data curation, writing—reviewing and editing. Mohammad Nayeb Yazdi: writing—reviewing and editing and visualization. David J. Sample: supervision and writing—reviewing and editing. Mina Shahed Behrouz: writing—reviewing and editing and visualization.
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Ketabchy, M., Buell, E.N., Yazdi, M.N. et al. The effect of piping stream channels on dissolved oxygen concentration and ecological health. Environ Monit Assess 195, 460 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11070-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11070-7