Humans have significantly altered urban landscapes, creating impervious surfaces, and changing drainage patterns that increase volume and velocity as well as frequency and timing of runoff following precipitation events. These changes in runoff have impaired streams and riparian areas that previously reduced watershed nitrogen (N) flux through uptake and denitrification. Stormwater control measures (SCM) are used most frequently to mitigate these hydrologic impacts. While SCM control runoff, their ability to remove N compared to natural riparian areas is not well-known. In this study we compared potential denitrification [as denitrification enzyme activity (DEA)] in five types of SCM (wet ponds, dry detention ponds, dry extended detention, infiltration basin, and filtering practices) and forested and herbaceous riparian areas in Baltimore, MD. DEA was higher in SCM (1.2 mg N kg(-1) hr(-1)) than in riparian areas (0.4 mg N kg(-1) hr(-1)). While DEA was highly correlated with soil moisture, organic matter, microbial biomass, and soil respiration areas across sites, it was always higher in SCM at equivalent levels of these variables. SCM appear to function as denitrification hotspots and, despite having similar microbial biomass, have higher potential denitrification than natural riparian areas.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es301409z | DOI Listing |
Heliyon
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Region, Collaborative Innovation Center for Mountain Ecology & Agro-Bioengineering, College of Life Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China.
Vegetation change significantly altered the hydrological processes and soil erosion within riparian ecosystems. It is unclear how change in managed vegetation types affect the geochemical behavior of heavy metals (HMs) and magnetic particles in karst riparian areas. Two soil depths of 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm were taken in alien species (), native species and in a typical urban plateau Lake wetland, Caohai lake, China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
January 2025
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, 960 College Station Rd., Athens, GA, 30605, USA. Electronic address:
Riparian functioning condition refers to a rating and description of the current ecological status of a reach of a riparian ecosystem in consideration of its potential hydrology, vegetation, and geomorphology. Reach rating options are Proper Functioning Condition (PFC), Functional-At-Risk (FAR), Non-Functional, and apparent or monitored trends. We assessed the functioning condition of flowing riverbank areas of Back Creek located in Virginia (USA) following a PFC protocol developed by the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Fungi (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Evidence of unintended introductions of species into native habitats has become increasingly prevalent in California. If not managed adequately, species can become devastating agricultural and forest plant pathogens. Additionally, California's natural areas, characterized by a Mediterranean climate and dominated by chaparral (evergreen, drought-tolerant shrubs) and oak woodlands, lack sufficient baseline knowledge on biology and ecology, hindering effective management efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Monit Assess
January 2025
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia (PPGECO), Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas (UFPA), Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Freshwater ecosystems under the influence of human activities are subject to multiple environmental stressors that lead to biodiversity loss and habitat modification. In recent years, various organisms have been used as bioindicators to detect environmental changes by their ability to perceive changes in community attributes. A good example is the semiaquatic bugs (Hemiptera, infra order Gerromorpha) that act as predators and are sensitive to subtle changes in environmental conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
January 2025
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, 100083, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Limiting adverse consequences of mining activities requires ecosystem restoration efforts, whose arrangement around mining areas is poorly designed. It is unclear, however, where best to locate ecological projects to enhance ecosystem services cost-effectively. To answer this question, we conducted an optimized ecological restoration project planning by the Resource Investment Optimization System (RIOS) model to identify the restoration priority areas in the Pingshuo Opencast Coal Mine region in Shanxi Province.
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