Linking Land Cover and Water Quality in New York City’S Water Supply Watersheds

The Catskill/Delaware reservoirs supply 90% of New York City’s drinking water. The City has implemented a series of watershed protection measures, including land acquisition, aimed at preserving water quality in the Catskill/Delaware watersheds. The objective of this study was to examine how relationships between landscape and surface water measurements change between years. Thirty-two drainage areas delineated from surface water sample points (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria concentrations) were used in step-wise regression analyses to test landscape and surface-water quality relationships. Two measurements of land use, percent agriculture and percent urban development, were positively related to water quality and consistently present in all regression models. Together these two land uses explained 25 to 75% of the regression model variation. However, the contribution of agriculture to water quality condition showed a decreasing trend with time as overall agricultural land cover decreased. Results from this study demonstrate that relationships between land cover and surface water concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria counts over a large area can be evaluated using a relatively simple geographic information system method. Land managers may find this method useful for targeting resources in relation to a particular water quality concern, focusing best management efforts, and maximizing benefits to water quality with minimal costs.The United States Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described here. It has been subjected to Agency’s administrative review and approved for publication as an EPA document.     

干旱地区森林对流域径流的影响

森林对流域径流的影响包括森林对流域径流形成机制的影响、森林对流域径流量的调节以及森林对流域径流水质的影响3个方面。论文根据作者在黄土高原和北京土石山区多年研究的结果，并结合国内同行在森林水文方面的研究成果，就干旱地区森林对流域年总径流量、洪峰流量、枯水径流以及径流水质等方面的影响作了概括。结果表明，在干旱地区随着森林植被覆盖率的增加，流域年总径流量减少；森林植被可以大幅度地减小小流域的暴雨洪峰流量；森林植被覆盖率越高，枯水径流量随之增加；森林可以在很大程度上改善流域径流水质。根据干旱地区森林植被可以减少流域年径流总量的研究结果，初步估算目前我国干旱地区林业生态工程建设（包括天然林）的生态用水量为160亿m3左右。由于森林植被对流域径流影响的复杂性和尺度依赖性，森林在区域（或大流域）尺度的水文功能评价仍有待于进一步深入研究。     

THE MISUSE OF HYDROLOGIC UNIT MAPS FOR EXTRAPOLATION,REPORTING, AND ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: The use of watersheds to conduct research on land/water relationships has expanded recently to include both extrapolation and reporting of water resource information and ecosystem management. More often than not, hydrologic units (HUs) are used for these purposes, with the implication that hydrologic units are synonymous with watersheds. Whereas true topographic watersheds are areas within which apparent surface water drains to a particular point, generally only 45 percent of all hydrologic units, regardless of their hierarchical level, meet this definition. Because the area contributing to the downstream point in many hydrologic units extends far beyond the unit boundaries, use of the hydrologic unit framework to show regional and national patterns of water quality and other environmental resources can result in incorrect and misleading illustrations. In this paper, the implications of this misuse are demonstrated using four adjacent HUs in central Texas. A more effective way of showing regional patterns in environmental resources is by using data from true watersheds representative of different ecological regions containing particular mosaics of geographical characteristics affecting differences in ecosystems and water quality.     

EFFECTS OF WATERSHED REPRESENTATION ON RUNOFF AND SEDIMENT YIELD MODELING1

ABSTRACT: This paper evaluates the effects of watershed geometric representation (i.e., plane and channel representation) on runoff and sediment yield simulations in a semiarid rangeland watershed. A process based, spatially distributed runoff erosion model (KINEROS2) was used to explore four spatial representations of a 4.4 ha experimental watershed. The most complex representation included all 96 channel elements identifiable in the field. The least complex representation contained only five channel elements. It was concluded that oversimplified watershed representations greatly influence runoff and sediment yield simulations by inducing excessive infiltration on hillslopes and distorting runoff patterns and sediment fluxes. Runoff and sediment yield decrease systematically with decreasing complexity in watershed representation. However, less complex representations had less impact on runoff and sediment‐yield simulations for small rainfall events. This study concludes that the selection of the appropriate level of watershed representation can have important theoretical and practical implications on runoff and sediment yield modeling in semiarid environments.     

HISTORICAL TRENDS IN SEDIMENTATION RATES AND SEDIMENT PROVENANCE,FAIRFIELD LAKE,WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA1

Sedimentation rates and sediment provenance were examined for lacustrine sediments deposited in Fairfield Lake, western North Carolina, during the past 111 years. Stratigraphic, radionuclide, and cartographic data indicate that sedimentation rates have increased several fold during the past three decades in response to localized development. The magnitude of increased sedimentation was surprising given limited development within the basin: 0.12 to 0.68 buildings/ha in 2000 in those parts directly delivering sediment to the dated cores. Thus, the analysis illustrates the potential sensitivity of watersheds in the southern Appalachians to changes in land cover. An approach that combined geochemical fingerprinting with sediment mixing models was subsequently evaluated to determine its ability to accurately estimate the contribution of sediment from (1) major bedrock formations that underlie the watershed and (2) potential sources associated with four land cover categories. Sediment sources in both analyses proved difficult to geochemically fingerprint to greater than 90 percent accuracy using data on acid‐soluble metals and selected isotopes of lead (Pb). The relative contributions of sediment from delineated sources, estimated by the mixing models, generally corresponded with known temporal and spatial patterns of land cover. However, the models were plagued by two significant problems — the chemical alteration of sediments as they were transported through upland streams to depositional sites within the lake and the loss of elemental mass. Thus, future investigations using the fingerprinting approach in this area of intense weathering, and presumably others, will need to modify the existing methods to more accurately elucidate changes in sediment provenance related to development.     

中亚热带针阔混交林土壤-大气界面释汞通量研究

为了揭示不同气候条件下森林与大气间汞交换的规律,应用动力学通量箱与Lumex RA 915+测汞仪联用技术,选择重庆缙云山国家级自然保护区为研究地点,于2011年4月~2012年3月对针阔混交林土/气界面释汞通量进行了为期1 a的连续监测,并考察了各环境因子对土壤释汞通量的影响.结果表明,缙云山针阔混交林林地土壤年平均释汞通量值为(16.82±6.70)ng·(m2·h)-1,明显高于欧美国家自然背景区;受光照、温度、相对湿度等气象因素以及亚热带地区森林植被生长变化规律影响,缙云山地区林地土壤释汞通量存在显著的季节性差异,暖季林地土壤释汞通量[(22.23±13.19)ng·(m2·h)-1]明显高于冷季[(6.01±4.05)ng·(m2·h)-1];通径分析结果表明林地土壤释汞通量的日变化特征和1 d中光照强度变化有密切关系,土温、气温和相对湿度与土壤释汞通量之间的显著相关关系可能是光照强度与土壤释汞通量相关关系的表象.     

我国24个典型饮用水源地中14种酚类化合物浓度分布特征

研究了14种酚类化合物在我国五大流域(黄河、海河、辽河、长江、淮河)24个典型饮用水源地水源水中的浓度水平.结果显示:14种酚类化合物在我国饮用水源地中的浓度在nd～213 ng·L-1范围内,浓度均值在2.44～31.2 ng·L-1范围内,浓度中位数在nd～40.0 ng·L-1范围内.14种酚类化合物中,硝基苯酚类化合物浓度最高,浓度中位数为37.9 ng·L-1,浓度平均值为27.4 ng·L-1.其次为苯酚、五氯酚、二氯苯酚(2,4-二氯苯酚和2,6-二氯苯酚)和三氯苯酚(2,4,6-三氯苯酚和2,4,5-三氯苯酚);四氯苯酚(2,3,5,6-四氯苯酚、2,3,4,6-四氯苯酚、2,3,4,5-四氯苯酚)和烷基苯酚(邻甲基苯酚、间甲基苯酚和对甲基苯酚)浓度较低.通过商值法对14种酚类化合物进行生态风险评价后发现,14种酚类化合物的风险商均远小于1,表明其对我国饮用水源地的生态风险较低.对8种已报道健康参考剂量或致癌斜率因子的酚类化合物进行健康风险评价,结果显示,7种酚类化合物的最大非致癌风险在10-6到10-4范围内,2,4,6-三氯酚和五氯酚的致癌风险在10-6量级以下,表明其健康危害较弱.     

Coupling of the Water Cycle with Patterns of Urban Growth in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region,United States

Regional municipal water plans typically do not recognize complex coupling patterns or that increased withdrawals in one location can result in changes in water availability in others. We investigated the interaction between urban growth and water availability in the Baltimore metropolitan region where urban growth has occurred beyond the reaches of municipal water systems into areas that rely on wells in low‐productivity Piedmont aquifers. We used the urban growth model SLEUTH and the hydrologic model ParFlow.CLM to evaluate this interaction with urban growth scenarios in 2007 and 2030. We found decreasing groundwater availability outside of the municipal water service area. Within the municipal service area we found zones of increasing storage resulting from increased urban growth, where reduced vegetation cover dominated the effect of urbanization on the hydrologic cycle. We also found areas of decreasing storage, where expanding impervious surfaces played a larger role. Although the magnitude of urban growth and change in water availability for the simulation period were generally small, there was considerable spatial heterogeneity of changes in subsurface storage. This suggests that there are locally concentrated areas of groundwater sensitivity to urban growth where water shortages could occur or where drying up of headwater streams would be more likely. The simulation approach presented here could be used to identify early warning indicators of future risk.     

Boosted Regression Tree Models to Explain Watershed Nutrient Concentrations and Biological Condition

Boosted regression tree (BRT) models were developed to quantify the nonlinear relationships between landscape variables and nutrient concentrations in a mesoscale mixed land cover watershed during base‐flow conditions. Factors that affect instream biological components, based on the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI), were also analyzed. Seasonal BRT models at two spatial scales (watershed and riparian buffered area [RBA]) for nitrite‐nitrate (NO₂‐NO₃), total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and total phosphorus (TP) and annual models for the IBI score were developed. Two primary factors — location within the watershed (i.e., geographic position, stream order, and distance to a downstream confluence) and percentage of urban land cover (both scales) — emerged as important predictor variables. Latitude and longitude interacted with other factors to explain the variability in summer NO₂‐NO₃ concentrations and IBI scores. BRT results also suggested that location might be associated with indicators of sources (e.g., land cover), runoff potential (e.g., soil and topographic factors), and processes not easily represented by spatial data indicators. Runoff indicators (e.g., Hydrological Soil Group D and Topographic Wetness Indices) explained a substantial portion of the variability in nutrient concentrations as did point sources for TP in the summer months. The results from our BRT approach can help prioritize areas for nutrient management in mixed‐use and heavily impacted watersheds.     

Linking Nitrogen Export to Landscape Heterogeneity: The Role of Infrastructure and Storm Flows in a Mediterranean Urban System

Urban ecosystems are often sources of nonpoint source (NPS) nitrogen (N) pollution to aquatic ecosystems. However, N export from urban watersheds is highly variable. Examples of densely urbanized watersheds are not well studied, and these may have comparatively low export rates. Commonly used metrics of landscape heterogeneity may obscure our ability to discern relationships among landscape characteristics that can explain these lower export rates. We expected that differences not often captured by these metrics in the relative cover of vegetation, structures, and impervious surfaces would better explain observed variation in N export. We examined these relationships during storms in residential watersheds. Contrary to expectations, land cover did not directly predict variation in N or water export. Instead, N export was strongly linked to drainage infrastructure density. Our research highlights the role of fine‐scaled landscape attributes, mainly infrastructure, in explaining patterns of N export from densely urbanized watersheds. Changes to hydrologic flow paths by infrastructure explained more variation in N export than land cover. Our findings support further development of landscape ecological models of urban N export that focus on hydrologic modification by infrastructure rather than traditional landscape measures such as land use, as indicators for evaluating patterns of NPS nitrogen pollution in densely urbanized watersheds.