Potential of stream restorations to enhance the hyporheic removal of agricultural nitrogen in Sweden

• Stream restoration has been advocated as a key strategy to restore the ecosystem functioning of degraded stream systems, mitigate excess nutrient concentrations and reduce export to downstream recipients. Specifically small agricultural streams are suitable for such restoration efforts due their disproportionate contribution to downstream nutrient loading and their large proportion of the total stream network length. However, large-scale assessments of both the current removal efficiencies in and the enhancement potential of these streams are generally lacking. Here, we used a physically based model framework supported by an extensive dataset to simulate the transport and removal of nitrogen (N) in all local agricultural streams in Sweden, equivalent to 70,000 km or 33.5% of the total mapped stream network. The framework assumed that N removal occurred predominantly by denitrification in the hyporheic zone and was utilized to quantify the current and potential removal as well as to assess the limiting conditions in terms of Damköhler numbers. The removal rates were shown to be highly variable with location, but the aggregated results indicated that the current removal for all assessed reaches was 13.1, 0.1 and 37.6% of their load during mean (MQ), mean high (MHQ) and mean low discharge (MLQ) conditions, respectively. The theoretical potential of N removal, i.e., the aggregated removal under the assumption of optimal hyporheic conditions was estimated to be 15.4, 1.9 and 62.1% during MQ, MHQ and MLQ, respectively. The study also comprised a detailed investigation along one single stream reach that displayed the ability of engineered restoration actions to alter the hyporheic residence times and, in the end, the hyporheic N-removal during different discharge conditions. Overall, our results indicated that in-stream restoration efforts aiming to enhance hyporheic functioning in small agricultural streams had a high potential to reduce terrestrial N export, especially if implemented over larger areas.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Havs- och vattendragsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Ocean and River Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Hyporheic zone denitrification

In-stream structures

Largescale model assessment

Solute transport modeling

Stream restoration

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