Building a library of source samples for sediment fingerprinting - Potential and proof of concept.

Purpose: Sediment fingerprinting of fluvial targets has proven useful to guide conservation management and prioritize sediment sources for Federal and State supported programs in the United States. However, the collection and analysis of source samples can make these studies unaffordable, especially when needed for multiple drainage basins. We investigate the potential use of source samples from a basin with similar physiography (using samples from one of a "pair" to evaluate samples from the other) or combined from multiple basins (a "library").

Watershed- and reach-scale drivers of phosphorus retention and release by streambed sediment in a western Lake Erie watershed during summer.

Reducing phosphorus (P) concentrations in aquatic ecosystems, is necessary to improve water quality and reduce the occurrence of harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms. Managing P reduction requires information on the role rivers play in P transport from land to downstream water bodies, but we have a poor understanding of when and where river systems are P sources or sinks. During the summers of 2019 and 2021, we sampled streambed sediment at 78 sites throughout the Maumee River network (a major source of P loads to Lake Erie) focusing on the zero equilibrium P concentration (EPC), the soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentration at which sediment neither sorbs nor desorbs P.

Phosphorus sources, forms, and abundance as a function of streamflow and field conditions in a Maumee River tributary, 2016-2019.

Total phosphorus (TP), dissolved P (DP), and suspended sediment (SS) were sampled in Black Creek, Indiana, monthly during base flow and for 100 storm events during water years 2016-2019, enabling analysis of how each of these varied as a function of streamflow and field conditions at nested edge-of-field sites. Particulate P was normalized for SS (P  = [TP - DP]/SS). Streamflow events were differentiated by maximum TP concentrations co-occurring with maximum SS (SED) or DP (SOL).

Sediment Oxygen Demand: A Review of In Situ Methods.

Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) plays a fundamental role in biological and chemical processes within the benthic layer of a water body. Land use, including agricultural land use, can affect SOD. However, a wide variety of approaches have been used for in situ SOD chamber construction and data collection, and modelers frequently use SOD values from the literature, without consideration of the differences in methods.

Long-term decreases in phosphorus and suspended solids, but not nitrogen, in six upper Mississippi River tributaries, 1991-2014.

Long-term trends in tributaries provide valuable information about temporal changes in inputs of nutrients and sediments to large rivers. Data collected from 1991 to 2014 were used to investigate trends in total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), nitrate (NO3-N), soluble-reactive P (SRP), and total suspended solids (TSS) in the following six tributaries of the upper Mississippi River: Cannon (CaR; Minnesota (MN)), Maquoketa (MR; Iowa (IA)), Wapsipinicon (WR; IA), Cuivre (CuR; Missouri (MO)), Chippewa (ChR; Wisconsin (WI)), and Black (BR; WI) rivers. Weighted regression on time discharge and season was used to statistically remove effects of random variation in discharge from estimated trends in flow-normalized concentrations and flux.

Wetland management reduces sediment and nutrient loading to the upper Mississippi river.

Restored riparian wetlands in the Upper Mississippi River basin have potential to remove sediment and nutrients from tributaries before they flow into the Mississippi River. For 3 yr we calculated retention efficiencies of a marsh complex, which consisted of a restored marsh and an adjacent natural marsh that were connected to Halfway Creek, a small tributary of the Mississippi. We measured sediment, N, and P removal through a mass balance budget approach, N removal through denitrification, and N and P removal through mechanical soil excavation.