1.
Ledesma, Jose, et al.
(författare)
Boreal forest riparian zones regulate stream sulfate and dissolved organic carbon
2016
Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 560-561, s. 110-122
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
In boreal forest catchments, solute transfer to streams is controlled by hydrological and biogeochemical processes occurring in the riparian zone (RZ). However, RZs are spatially heterogeneous and information about solute chemistry is typically limited. This is problematic when making inferences about stream chemistry. Hypothetically, the strength of links between riparian and stream chemistry is time-scale dependent. Using a ten-year (2003-2012) dataset from a northern Swedish catchment, we evaluated the suitability of RZ data to infer stream dynamics at different time scales. We focus on the role of the RZ versus upslope soils in controlling sulfate (SO42-) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). A priori, declines in acid deposition and redox-mediated SO42- pulses control sulfur (S) fluxes and pool dynamics, which in turn affect dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We found that the catchment is currently a net source of S, presumably due to release of the S pool accumulated during the acidification period. In both, RZ and stream, SO42- concentrations are declining over time, whereas DOC is increasing. No temporal trends in SO42- and DOC were observed in upslope mineral soils. SO42- explained the variation of DOC in stream and RZ, but not in upslope mineral soil. Moreover, as SO42- decreased with time, temporal variability of DOC increased. These observations indicate that: (1) SO42- is still an important driver of DOC trends in boreal catchments and (2) RZ processes control stream SO42- and subsequently DOC independently of upslope soils. These phenomena are likely occurring in many regions recovering from acidification. Because water flows through a heterogeneous mosaic of RZs before entering the stream, upscaling information from limited RZ data to the catchment level is problematic at short-time scales. However, for long-term trends and annual dynamics, the same data can provide reasonable representations of riparian processes and support meaningful inferences about stream chemistry. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2.
Oni, Stephen, et al.
(författare)
Using dry and wet year hydroclimatic extremes to guide future hydrologic projections
2016
Ingår i: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1027-5606 .- 1607-7938. ; 20, s. 2811-2825
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
There are growing numbers of studies on climate change impacts on forest hydrology, but limited attempts have been made to use current hydroclimatic variabilities to constrain projections of future climatic conditions. Here we used historical wet and dry years as a proxy for expected future extreme conditions in a boreal catchment. We showed that runoff could be underestimated by at least 35% when dry year parameterizations were used for wet year conditions. Uncertainty analysis showed that behavioural parameter sets from wet and dry years separated mainly on precipitation-related parameters and to a lesser extent on parameters related to landscape processes, while uncertainties inherent in climate models (as opposed to differences in calibration or performance metrics) appeared to drive the overall uncertainty in runoff projections under dry and wet hydroclimatic conditions. Hydrologic model calibration for climate impact studies could be based on years that closely approximate anticipated conditions to better constrain uncertainty in projecting extreme conditions in boreal and temperate regions.
3.
Oni, Stephen, et al.
(författare)
Local- and landscape-scale impacts of clear-cuts and climate change on surface water dissolved organic carbon in boreal forests
2015
Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences. - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 120:11, s. 2402-2426
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Forest harvesting and climate change may significantly increase concentrations and fluxes of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in boreal surface waters. However, the likely magnitude of any effect will vary depending on the landscape-element type and spatial scale. We used a chain of hydrological, empirical, and process-based biogeochemical models coupled to an ensemble of downscaled Regional Climate Model experiments to develop scenario storylines for local- and landscape-scale effects of forest harvesting and climate change on surface water DOC concentrations and fluxes. Local-scale runoff, soil temperature, and DOC dynamics were simulated for a range of forest and wetland landscape-element types and at the larger landscape scale. The results indicated that climate change will likely lead to greater winter flows and earlier, smaller spring peaks. Both forest harvesting and climate change scenarios resulted in large increases in summer and autumn runoff and higher DOC fluxes. Forest harvesting effects were clearly apparent at local scales. While at the landscape scale, approximately 1 mg L−1 (or 10%) of the DOC in surface waters can be attributed to clear-cuts, both climate change and intensified forestry can each increase DOC concentrations by another 1 mg L−1 in the future, which is less than that seen in many waterbodies recovering from acidification. These effects of forestry and climate change on surface water DOC concentrations are additive at a landscape scale but not at the local scale, where a range of landscape-element specific responses were observed.
4.
Bring, Arvid, et al.
(författare)
Effects on groundwater storage of restoring, constructing or draining wetlands in temperate and boreal climates: a systematic review
2022
Ingår i: Environmental Evidence. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2047-2382. ; 11:1
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat) abstract
Drainage activities have caused widespread wetland loss, groundwater drawdown and impairment of ecosystem services. There are now several national programs for wetland restoration, primarily focused on reintroducing ecosystem services such as habitats and nutrient retention. In Sweden, recent dry summers have also reinforced interest in hydrological functions such as the potential for enhanced groundwater storage, both in and around the wetland. However, there are several knowledge gaps regarding groundwater storage effects of restoration, including if they extend beyond the wetland and how they vary with local conditions. Therefore, we have systematically reviewed groundwater storage effects from the interventions of restoring, constructing or draining boreo-temperate wetlands. Drainage was included primarily to evaluate to what degree restoration can reverse drainage effects. Methods: We searched 8 databases for scientific journal publications in English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, French, German and Polish. Gray literature was searched in English and Swedish. Articles were included based on their relevance for Swedish conditions, i.e., in previously glaciated areas with boreal or temperate climate. Extracted outcome data were groundwater level changes, along with other variables including type of wetland and intervention and, when reported, distance between sampling point and intervention. Meta-analyses were conducted separately for studies that reported groundwater levels at different distances and studies that reported overall effects. Included studies were subject to critical appraisal to evaluate their susceptibility to bias, primarily selection bias, performance bias, and detection bias. Critical appraisal results were used in sensitivity analysis. Review findings: Out of 11,288 screened records, 224 articles fulfilled the criteria, and from these, 146 studies were included in meta-analysis. Most studies (89%) investigated peatlands, primarily from Finland, the UK and Canada. Restoration and drainage studies were equally common. Only nine studies reported measurements beyond the wetland area. Our synthesis is therefore primarily focused on effects within wetlands. In peatland restoration, the observed groundwater level rise decreased exponentially with distance from the restored ditch and was reduced to 50% after 9 [95% confidence interval: 5, 26] m. Drainage reached somewhat farther, with 50% of the groundwater drawdown remaining at 21 [11, 64] m. On average, restoration increased groundwater levels by 22 [16, 28] cm near the intervention, whereas drainage caused a drawdown of 19 [10, 27] cm. Assuming that sampling was unbiased, effects were similar for bogs, fens and mires. Restricting the meta-analysis to the 58% of studies that were of high validity did not alter conclusions. Conclusions: Effects of peatland restoration and drainage were of similar magnitudes but opposite directions. This indicates that, on average, rewetting of drained peatlands can be expected to restore groundwater levels near the ditch. However, restoration may not reach all the area affected by drainage, and there was a strong dependence on local context. For managers of wetland projects, it is thus important to follow up and monitor restoration effects and reinforce the intervention if necessary. Our results also point to a need for better impact evaluation if increased storage beyond the restored wetland area is desired.
5.
Lindborg, Tobias, et al.
(författare)
A carbon mass-balance budget for a periglacial catchment in West Greenland : Linking the terrestrial and aquatic systems
2020
Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 711
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Climate change is predicted to have far reaching consequences for the mobility of carbon in arctic landscapes. On a regional scale, carbon cycling is highly dependent on interactions between terrestrial and aquatic parts of a catchment. Despite this, studies that integrate the terrestrial and aquatic systems and study entire catchments using site-specific data are rare. In this work, we use data partly published by Lindborg et al. (2016a) to calculate a whole-catchment carbon mass-balance budget for a periglacial catchment in West Greenland. Our budget shows that terrestrial net primary production is the main input of carbon (99% of input), and that most carbon leaves the system through soil respiration (90% of total export/storage). The largest carbon pools are active layer soils (53% of total carbon stock or 13 kg C m (2)), permafrost soils (30% of total carbon stock or 7.6 kg C m (2)) and lake sediments (13% of total carbon stock or 10 kg C m (2)). Hydrological transport of carbon from the terrestrial to aquatic system is lower than in wetter climates, but the annual input of 4100 kg C yr (1) (or 3.5 g C m (2) yr (1)) that enters the lake via runoff is still three times larger than the eolian input of terrestrial carbon. Due to the dry conditions, the hydrological export of carbon from the catchment is limited (5% of aquatic export/storage or 0.1% of total export/storage). Instead, CO2 evasion from the lake surface and sediment burial accounts for 57% and 38% of aquatic export/storage, respectively (or 0.8% and 0.5% of total export/storage), and Two-Boat Lake acts as a net source of carbon to the atmosphere. The limited export of carbon to downstream water bodies make our study system different from wetter arctic environments, where hydrological transport is an important export pathway for carbon.
6.
Rydberg, Johan, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
Biogeochemical cycling in a periglacial environment : a multi-element mass-balance budget for a catchment in West Greenland
2023
Ingår i: Catena (Cremlingen. Print). - 0341-8162 .- 1872-6887. ; 231
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
There is an increased awareness that the biogeochemical cycling at high latitudes will be affected by a changing climate. However, because biogeochemical studies most often focus on a limited number of elements (i.e., C, P and N) we lack baseline conditions for many elements. In this work, we present a 42-element mass-balance budget for lake dominated catchment in West Greenland. By combining site specific concentration data from various catchment compartments (precipitation, active layer soils, groundwater, permafrost, lake water, lake sediments and biota) with catchment geometries and hydrological fluxes from a distributed hydrological model we have assessed present-day mobilization, transport and accumulation of a whole suite of elements with different biogeochemical behavior. Our study shows that, under the cold and dry conditions that prevails close to the inland ice-sheet: i) eolian processes are important for the transport of elements associated with mineral particles (e.g., Al, Ti, Si), and that these elements tend to accumulate in the lake sediment, ii) that even if weathering rates are slowed down by the dry and cold climate, weathering in terrestrial soils is an important source for many elements (e.g., lanthanides), iii) that the cold and dry conditions results in an accumulation of elements supplied by wet deposition (e.g., halogens) in both terrestrial soils and the lake-water column, and iv) that lead and sulfur from legacy pollution are currently being released from the terrestrial system. All these processes are affected by the climate, and we can therefore expect that the cycling of the majority of the 42 studied elements will change in the future. However, it is not always possible to predict the direction of this change, which shows that more multi-element biogeochemical studies are needed to increase our understanding of the consequences of a changing climate for the Arctic environment.
7.
Campeau, Audrey, et al.
(författare)
Current forest carbon fixation fuels stream CO 2 emissions
2019
Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 10:1
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Stream CO 2 emissions contribute significantly to atmospheric climate forcing. While there are strong indications that groundwater inputs sustain these emissions, the specific biogeochemical pathways and timescales involved in this lateral CO 2 export are still obscure. Here, via an extensive radiocarbon ( 14 C) characterisation of CO 2 and DOC in stream water and its groundwater sources in an old-growth boreal forest, we demonstrate that the 14 C-CO 2 is consistently in tune with the current atmospheric 14 C-CO 2 level and shows little association with the 14 C-DOC in the same waters. Our findings thus indicate that stream CO 2 emissions act as a shortcut that returns CO 2 recently fixed by the forest vegetation to the atmosphere. Our results expose a positive feedback mechanism within the C budget of forested catchments, where stream CO 2 emissions will be highly sensitive to changes in forest C allocation patterns associated with climate and land-use changes. © 2019, The Author(s).
8.
Berggren, Martin, et al.
(författare)
Quality transformation of dissolved organic carbon during water transit through lakes : contrasting controls by photochemical and biological processes
2018
Ingår i: Biogeosciences. - : European Geosciences Union (EGU). - 1726-4170 .- 1726-4189. ; 15:2, s. 457-470
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) may be removed, transformed, or added during water transit through lakes, resulting in changes in DOC composition and pigmentation (color). However, the process-based understanding of these changes is incomplete, especially for headwater lakes. We hypothesized that because heterotrophic bacteria preferentially consume noncolored DOC, while photochemical processing removes colored fractions, the overall changes in DOC color upon water passage through a lake depend on the relative importance of these two processes, accordingly. To test this hypothesis we combined laboratory experiments with field studies in nine boreal lakes, assessing both the relative importance of different DOC decay processes (biological or photochemical) and the loss of color during water transit time (WTT) through the lakes. We found that influence from photo-decay dominated changes in DOC quality in the epilimnia of relatively clear headwater lakes, resulting in systematic and selective net losses of colored DOC. However, in highly pigmented brown-water lakes (absorbance at 420 nm > 7 m(-1)) biological processes dominated, and there was no systematic relationship between color loss and WTT. Moreover, in situ data and dark experiments supported our hypothesis on the selective microbial removal of nonpigmented DOC, mainly of low molecular weight, leading to persistent water color in these highly colored lakes. Our study shows that brown headwater lakes may not conform to the commonly reported pattern of the selective removal of colored constituents in freshwaters, as DOC can show a sustained degree of pigmentation upon transit through these lakes.
9.
Jaramillo, Fernando, et al.
(författare)
Dominant effect of increasing forest biomass on evapotranspiration: Interpretations of movement in Budyko space
2018
Ingår i: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1027-5606 .- 1607-7938. ; 22, s. 567-580
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
During the last 6 decades, forest biomass has increased in Sweden mainly due to forest management, with a possible increasing effect on evapotranspiration. However, increasing global CO 2 concentrations may also trigger physiological water-saving responses in broadleaf tree species, and to a lesser degree in some needleleaf conifer species, inducing an opposite effect. Additionally, changes in other forest attributes may also affect evapotranspiration. In this study, we aimed to detect the dominating effect(s) of forest change on evapotranspiration by studying changes in the ratio of actual evapotranspiration to precipitation, known as the evaporative ratio, during the period 1961-2012. We first used the Budyko framework of water and energy availability at the basin scale to study the hydroclimatic movements in Budyko space of 65 temperate and boreal basins during this period. We found that movements in Budyko space could not be explained by climatic changes in precipitation and potential evapotranspiration in 60% of these basins, suggesting the existence of other dominant drivers of hydroclimatic change. In both the temperate and boreal basin groups studied, a negative climatic effect on the evaporative ratio was counteracted by a positive residual effect. The positive residual effect occurred along with increasing standing forest biomass in the temperate and boreal basin groups, increasing forest cover in the temperate basin group and no apparent changes in forest species composition in any group. From the three forest attributes, standing forest biomass was the one that could explain most of the variance of the residual effect in both basin groups. These results further suggest that the water-saving response to increasing CO 2 in these forests is either negligible or overridden by the opposite effect of the increasing forest biomass. Thus, we conclude that increasing standing forest biomass is the dominant driver of long-term and large-scale evapotranspiration changes in Swedish forests.
10.
Lidman, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
Selenium Dynamics in Boreal Streams : The Role of Wetlands and Changing Groundwater Tables
2011
Ingår i: Environmental Science and Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 45:7, s. 2677-2683
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
The concentrations of selenium in 10 catchments of a stream network in northern Sweden were monitored over two years, yielding almost 350 observations of selenium concentrations in streamwater. The export of selenium was found to be systematically greater from forests than from mires. Accounting for atmospheric deposition, which was monitored over four years, there was a net accumulation of selenium in mires, while the export from forest soils was approximately equal to the atmospheric deposition. In forest dominated catchments the concentrations of selenium oscillated rapidly back and forth from high to low levels during spring floods. High selenium concentrations coincided with rising groundwater tables in the riparian forest soils, while low selenium concentrations were associated with receding groundwater. Thermodynamic modeling indicated that precipitation of elemental selenium would occur under reducing conditions in the riparian soils. Since changes in the redox conditions are likely to occur near the transition from the unsaturated to the saturated zone, it is hypothesized that the transport of selenium from forest soils to streams is controlled by redox reactions in riparian soils.
