Impacts of industrial atmospheric emissions on watershed export of dissolved ions in coastal streams: a Bayesian modelin
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Impacts of industrial atmospheric emissions on watershed export of dissolved ions in coastal streams: a Bayesian modeling approach Timothy J. Maguire & R. Paul Weidman & Scott O. C. Mundle & Jonathan W. Moore & Kyle A. Chezik & Daniel T. Selbie
Received: 29 January 2020 / Accepted: 13 July 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Anthropogenic atmospheric emission and subsequent deposition of sulfur (S) has been linked to disrupted watershed biogeochemical processes through soil and surface water acidification. We investigated watershedscale impacts of acidic deposition on tributary concentrations and watershed exports of major nutrients and ions for the Kitimat River Watershed, British Columbia. Since the 1950s, the Kitimat watershed had an aluminum smelting facility with substantial emissions at the river estuary. Emissions load the airshed overlying the watershed and potentially impact western tributaries leaving eastern tributaries Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08493-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. T. J. Maguire (*) : R. P. Weidman : S. O. C. Mundle Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] R. P. Weidman : J. W. Moore : D. T. Selbie School of Resources and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada S. O. C. Mundle Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada J. W. Moore : K. A. Chezik Earth to Oceans Research Group, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada D. T. Selbie Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Science Branch, Pacific Region, Cultus Lake Salmon Research Laboratory, Cultus Lake, BC, Canada
available as reference. We assessed concentrations and export of key compounds in three reference and six potentially impacted tributaries and watersheds in 2015 and 2016. Sulfate (SO4), fluoride (F), nitrate (NO3), and chloride (Cl) were significantly higher in impacted tributaries. F concentrations exceeded the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guideline for aquatic life in 83% of samples collected from impacted streams. Watershed export and associated uncertainty were determined by bootstrapped flow-stratified Beale’s unbiased estimator. Impact of emissions on watershed export was modeled in a Bayesian approach to include variance in the export estimate to inform the uncertainty of model parameters. Export of SO4 and Ca increased significantly within 16 km and 8 km, respectively, toward the smelter emissions. The corresponding impacted area for SO4 and Ca was approximately 100 km2 and 45 km2, respectively. SO4 export is likely due to direct impacts of S deposition, with excess S being flushed from the watersheds. Ca export patterns likely result from indirect impacts of S deposition on soil chemistry and flushing of Ca. These impacts may contribute to effects within tributaries on benthic stream communities and regionally impo
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