Influence of stormflow and baseflow phosphorus pressures on stream ecology in agricultural catchments

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dc.contributor.authorShore, Mairead
dc.contributor.authorMurphy, Sinead
dc.contributor.authorMellander, Per-Erik
dc.contributor.authorShortle, Ger
dc.contributor.authorMelland, Alice R.
dc.contributor.authorCrockford, Lucy
dc.contributor.authorO'Flaherty, Vincent
dc.contributor.authorWilliams, Lauren
dc.contributor.authorMorgan, Gerard
dc.contributor.authorJordan, Phil
dc.contributor.funderDepartment of Agriculture, Food and the Marineen
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-05T12:20:08Z
dc.date.available2018-01-05T12:20:08Z
dc.date.issued2017-03-09
dc.description.abstractStormflow and baseflow phosphorus (P) concentrations and loads in rivers may exert different ecological pressures during different seasons. These pressures and subsequent impacts are important to disentangle in order to target and monitor the effectiveness of mitigation measures. This study investigated the influence of stormflow and baseflow P pressures on stream ecology in six contrasting agricultural catchments. A five-year high resolution dataset was used consisting of stream discharge, P chemistry, macroinvertebrate and diatom ecology, supported with microbial source tracking and turbidity data. Total reactive P (TRP) loads delivered during baseflows were low (1ā€“7% of annual loads), but TRP concentrations frequently exceeded the environmental quality standard (EQS) of 0.035 mg Lāˆ’ 1 during these flows (32ā€“100% of the time in five catchments). A pilot microbial source tracking exercise in one catchment indicated that both human and ruminant faecal effluents were contributing to these baseflow P pressures but were diluted at higher flows. Seasonally, TRP concentrations tended to be highest during summer due to these baseflow P pressures and corresponded well with declines in diatom quality during this time (R2 = 0.79). Diatoms tended to recover by late spring when storm P pressures were most prevalent and there was a poor relationship between antecedent TRP concentrations and diatom quality in spring (R2 = 0.23). Seasonal variations were less apparent in the macroinvertebrate indices; however, there was a good relationship between antecedent TRP concentrations and macroinvertebrate quality during spring (R2 = 0.51) and summer (R2 = 0.52). Reducing summer point source discharges may be the quickest way to improve ecological river quality, particularly diatom quality in these and similar catchments. Aligning estimates of P sources with ecological impacts and identifying ecological signals which can be attributed to storm P pressures are important next steps for successful management of agricultural catchments at these scales.en
dc.description.sponsorshipDepartment of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Agricultural Catchments Programme)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationShore, M., Murphy, S., Mellander, P.-E., Shortle, G., Melland, A. R., Crockford, L., O'Flaherty, V., Williams, L., Morgan, G. and Jordan, P. (2017) ā€˜Influence of stormflow and baseflow phosphorus pressures on stream ecology in agricultural catchmentsā€™, Science of the Total Environment, 590-591, pp. 469-483. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.100en
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.100
dc.identifier.endpage483en
dc.identifier.issn0048-9697
dc.identifier.issn1879-1026
dc.identifier.journaltitleScience of the Total Environmenten
dc.identifier.startpage469en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/5237
dc.identifier.volume590-591en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherElsevier B.V.en
dc.rightsĀ© 2017, the Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectStormflowen
dc.subjectBaseflowen
dc.subjectPhosphorusen
dc.subjectAgricultureen
dc.subjectDiatomsen
dc.subjectMacroinvertebratesen
dc.titleInfluence of stormflow and baseflow phosphorus pressures on stream ecology in agricultural catchmentsen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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