Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes
Hypoxia, or dissolved oxygen (DO) at low enough levels to impair organisms, is a particularly useful indicator of the health of freshwater ecosystems. However, due to limited sampling in headwater networks, the degree, distribution, and timing of hypoxia events are not known across the vast majority...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Ecological Indicators |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X23001292 |
| _version_ | 1797895526331449344 |
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| author | Jacob S. Diamond Florentina Moatar Rémi Recoura-Massaquant Arnaud Chaumot Jay Zarnetske Laurent Valette Gilles Pinay |
| author_facet | Jacob S. Diamond Florentina Moatar Rémi Recoura-Massaquant Arnaud Chaumot Jay Zarnetske Laurent Valette Gilles Pinay |
| author_sort | Jacob S. Diamond |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hypoxia, or dissolved oxygen (DO) at low enough levels to impair organisms, is a particularly useful indicator of the health of freshwater ecosystems. However, due to limited sampling in headwater networks, the degree, distribution, and timing of hypoxia events are not known across the vast majority of most river networks. We thus sought to clarify the extent of hypoxia in headwater networks through three years of instrumentation of 78 sites across eight temperate, agricultural watersheds. We observed broadly distributed hypoxia, occurring 4 % of the time across 51 of the 78 sites over 20 months. The hypoxia was driven by three mechanisms: storm events, drying, and rewetting, with drying as the most common driver of hypoxia (55 % of all hypoxic event types). Drying induced hypoxia was most severe in smaller streams (Strahler orders ≤ 3), whereas storm events preferentially induced hypoxia in the larger streams (Strahler orders 3–5). A large diversity in DO trajectories towards hypoxia depended on hydrologic event type, with subsequent expected differences in mortality profiles of a sensitive species. Predictive models showed the most vulnerable sites to hypoxia were small streams with low slope, particularly during hot, low discharge periods. Despite variation among hypoxic events, there was remarkable similarity in the rate of DO drawdown during hypoxia events (ca. 1 mg O2 L−1 d−1). This drawdown similarity may be a useful rule-of-thumb for managers, and we hypothesize that it is either a signal of increasing lateral inflow of low DO water or a signal of increasing downstream oxygen demand. Overall, we posit that hypoxia is likely a common feature of most headwater networks that often goes undetected. Headwater hypoxia may become more common under increasingly dry conditions associated with climate and water resource management changes, with important implications for biological communities and biogeochemical processes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T07:28:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1d0148628d134514a01e15a9a9645a7c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1470-160X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T07:28:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecological Indicators |
| spelling | doaj.art-1d0148628d134514a01e15a9a9645a7c2023-02-24T04:30:00ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2023-03-01147109987Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremesJacob S. Diamond0Florentina Moatar1Rémi Recoura-Massaquant2Arnaud Chaumot3Jay Zarnetske4Laurent Valette5Gilles Pinay6RiverLy, INRAE, Centre de Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 69100, France; Corresponding author at: RiverLy, INRAE, 5 rue de la Doua, Villeurbanne, 69100, France.RiverLy, INRAE, Centre de Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 69100, FranceRiverLy, INRAE, Centre de Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 69100, FranceRiverLy, INRAE, Centre de Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 69100, FranceDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USARiverLy, INRAE, Centre de Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 69100, FranceEnvironnement, Ville & Société (EVS UMR5600), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Lyon, FranceHypoxia, or dissolved oxygen (DO) at low enough levels to impair organisms, is a particularly useful indicator of the health of freshwater ecosystems. However, due to limited sampling in headwater networks, the degree, distribution, and timing of hypoxia events are not known across the vast majority of most river networks. We thus sought to clarify the extent of hypoxia in headwater networks through three years of instrumentation of 78 sites across eight temperate, agricultural watersheds. We observed broadly distributed hypoxia, occurring 4 % of the time across 51 of the 78 sites over 20 months. The hypoxia was driven by three mechanisms: storm events, drying, and rewetting, with drying as the most common driver of hypoxia (55 % of all hypoxic event types). Drying induced hypoxia was most severe in smaller streams (Strahler orders ≤ 3), whereas storm events preferentially induced hypoxia in the larger streams (Strahler orders 3–5). A large diversity in DO trajectories towards hypoxia depended on hydrologic event type, with subsequent expected differences in mortality profiles of a sensitive species. Predictive models showed the most vulnerable sites to hypoxia were small streams with low slope, particularly during hot, low discharge periods. Despite variation among hypoxic events, there was remarkable similarity in the rate of DO drawdown during hypoxia events (ca. 1 mg O2 L−1 d−1). This drawdown similarity may be a useful rule-of-thumb for managers, and we hypothesize that it is either a signal of increasing lateral inflow of low DO water or a signal of increasing downstream oxygen demand. Overall, we posit that hypoxia is likely a common feature of most headwater networks that often goes undetected. Headwater hypoxia may become more common under increasingly dry conditions associated with climate and water resource management changes, with important implications for biological communities and biogeochemical processes.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X23001292DroughtHypoxicDryingStormsRewettingDissolved oxygen |
| spellingShingle | Jacob S. Diamond Florentina Moatar Rémi Recoura-Massaquant Arnaud Chaumot Jay Zarnetske Laurent Valette Gilles Pinay Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes Ecological Indicators Drought Hypoxic Drying Storms Rewetting Dissolved oxygen |
| title | Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| title_full | Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| title_fullStr | Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| title_short | Hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| title_sort | hypoxia is common in temperate headwaters and driven by hydrological extremes |
| topic | Drought Hypoxic Drying Storms Rewetting Dissolved oxygen |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X23001292 |
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