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Catchment morphometric characteristics, land use and water chemistry in Pampean streams: a regional approach

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Abstract

The Pampean region covers a large surface in central Argentina, but despite the extensive agricultural activities and the high nutrient levels recorded in streams of the region, few authors have analysed the influence of land use on water quality. Here, we evaluated the relationships among catchment attributes (size, morphometry and land cover) and water chemistry in 23 Pampean streams in different seasons (autumn, spring and summer) and at three spatial scales: whole catchment and two scales of riparian buffers (200 and 500 m adjacent to both stream margins). Chloride concentration was positively related to catchment area and negatively related to drainage density. Nitrate level was strongly associated to cropland, but soluble phosphorus concentration showed no relationships with any type of land cover. Land cover at the buffer scale seemed to be more influential than land cover at the whole catchment for nitrogen concentration. The main impact of cropland was the increase of nitrate concentration, while cattle breeding was negatively associated to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in autumn and summer and to dissolved oxygen concentration in spring. Our results highlighted the importance of local land use and riparian conservation on streamwater quality.

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Acknowledgments

The PRODITEL (Programa de Desarrollo e Investigación en Teledetección, Universidad Nacional de Luján) kindly provided some of the Landsat images used in this study. We thank Adonis Giorgi for their useful comments on the manuscript and Gabriela Romano for the revision of the English text. The manuscript was improved by the comments and suggestion of the Editor (Sidinei M. Thomaz) and two anonymous reviewers. This project was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Luján and the Horatius Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BED (Biogeoquímica de Ecosistemas Fluviales), INEDES, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Rutas 5 y ex 7, Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Graciana Amuchástegui & Claudia Feijoó

  2. PRODITEL (Programa de Desarrollo e Investigación en Teledetección), Universidad Nacional de Luján, Rutas 5 y ex 7, Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Leonardo di Franco

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  1. Graciana Amuchástegui
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  2. Leonardo di Franco
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  3. Claudia Feijoó
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Correspondence to Claudia Feijoó.

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Handling editor: Sidinei Magela Thomaz

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Amuchástegui, G., di Franco, L. & Feijoó, C. Catchment morphometric characteristics, land use and water chemistry in Pampean streams: a regional approach. Hydrobiologia 767, 65–79 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2478-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2478-8

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