Ana M. Morales-Williams

USGS2015

Human activities cause distinct dissolved organic matter composition across freshwater ecosystems

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition in freshwater ecosystems is influenced by interactions between physical, chemical, and biological processes that are controlled, at one level, by watershed landscape, hydrology, and their connections. Against this environmental template, humans may strongly influence DOM composition. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of DOM composition variation across freshwater ecosystems differentially affected by human activity. Using optical properties, we described DOM variation across five ecosystem groups of the Laurentian Great Lakes Region: large lakes, Kawartha Lakes, Experimental Lakes Area, urban stormwater ponds, and rivers (n = 184 sites). We determined how between ecosystem variation in DOM composition related to watershed size, land use and cover, water quality measures (conductivity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nutrient concentration, chlorophyll a ), and human population density. The five freshwater ecosystem groups had distinctive DOM composition from each other. These significant differences were not explained completely through differences in watershed size nor spatial autocorrelation. Instead, multivariate partial least squares regression showed that DOM composition was related to differences in human impact across freshwater ecosystems. In particular, urban/developed watersheds with higher human population densities had a unique DOM composition with a clear anthropogenic influence that was distinct from DOM composition in natural land cover and/or agricultural watersheds. This nonagricultural, human developed impact on aquatic DOM was most evident through increased levels of a microbial, humic-like parallel factor analysis component (C6). Lotic and lentic ecosystems with low human population densities had DOM compositions more typical of clear water to humic-rich freshwater ecosystems but C6 was only present at trace to background levels. Consequently, humans are strongly altering the quality of DOM in waters nearby or flowing through highly populated areas, which may alter carbon cycles in anthropogenically disturbed ecosystems at broad scales.

Global Change Biology↗

USGS2014

Relationships between land cover and dissolved organic matter change along the river to lake transition

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) influences the physical, chemical, and biological properties of aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized that controls over spatial variation in DOM quantity and composition (measured with DOM optical properties) differ based on the source of DOM to aquatic ecosystems. DOM quantity and composition should be better predicted by land cover in aquatic habitats with allochthonous DOM and related more strongly to nutrients in aquatic habitats with autochthonous DOM. Three habitat types [rivers (R), rivermouths (RM), and the nearshore zone (L)] associated with 23 tributaries of the Laurentian Great Lakes were sampled to test this prediction. Evidence from optical indices suggests that DOM in these habitats generally ranged from allochthonous (R sites) to a mix of allochthonous-like and autochthonous-like (L sites). Contrary to expectations, DOM properties such as the fluorescence index, humification index, and spectral slope ratio were only weakly related to land cover or nutrient data (Bayesian R 2 values were indistinguishable from zero). Strongly supported models in all habitat types linked DOM quantity (that is, dissolved organic carbon concentration [DOC]) to both land cover and nutrients (Bayesian R 2 values ranging from 0.55 to 0.72). Strongly supported models predicting DOC changed with habitat type: The most important predictor in R sites was wetlands whereas the most important predictor at L sites was croplands. These results suggest that as the DOM pool becomes more autochthonous-like, croplands become a more important driver of spatial variation in DOC and wetlands become less important.

Great Lakes↗