Jennifer D. Drummond

Stochastic modeling of fine particulate organic carbon dynamics in rivers

The majority of particulate organic matter standing stock in streams is < 1 mm in diameter, and the mobile phase is primarily very fine particles. Such fine particles transport downstream in a series of deposition and resuspension events mediated by interactions with coarser bed sediment, yielding fine particle retention over a wide range of time scales. This retention controls the opportunity for biogeochemical processing of particulate organic carbon in streams. We present a conceptual model of particulate organic carbon transport in rivers categorized in three cyclic processes: (i) migration of fine particles from the water column to the underlying and surrounding sediments, (ii) fine particle transport and retention within the bed sediments, and (iii) resuspension of fine particles back to the water column. We developed a stochastic model to describe the transport and retention of fine suspended particles in rivers, including advective delivery of particles to the streambed, transport through pore waters, and reversible filtration within the streambed. We then apply this model to observations of fine particle transport in two small streams, and show that the stochastic mobile-immobile model supports improved interpretation of particulate organic carbon dynamics under base flow conditions. Analysis of in-stream solute and particle data shows that particles engage in multiple deposition and resuspension events during downstream transport, and that long-term retention in the streambed produces extended slow releases to the stream even during base flow conditions. We also show how multiscale stochastic modeling can be used to incorporate local observations of particle retention in predictions of whole-stream particle dynamics.

Effects of benthic and hyporheic reactive transport on breakthrough curves

In streams and rivers, the benthic and hyporheic regions harbor the microbes that process many stream-borne constituents, including O2, nutrients, C, and contaminants. The full distribution of transport time scales in these highly reactive regions must be understood because solute delivery and extended storage in these metabolically active zones control the opportunity for biogeochemical processing. The most commonly used transport models cannot capture these effects. We present a stochastic model for conservative and reactive solute transport in rivers based on continuous-time random-walk theory, which is capable of distinguishing and capturing processes not described by classical approaches. The model includes surface and subsurface storage zones with arbitrary residence-time distributions. We used this model to evaluate the effects of sorption and biological uptake on downstream solute transport. Linear or mildly nonlinear sorption in storage delays downstream transport without changing the fundamental shape of the breakthrough curves (BTCs). Highly nonlinear sorption isotherms can induce power-law tailing in stream BTCs. Model simulations show that sorption of commonly used solute tracers is not sufficient to explain the power-law tailing that has been observed in field tracer-injection studies, and instead, such tailing most probably reflects broad distributions of hyporheic exchange time scales. First-order biological uptake causes an exponential decline in in-stream tracer concentrations at the time scale of the uptake kinetics, thereby tempering power-law BTCs. The model can be used to calculate reach-scale reaction-rate coefficients in surface and subsurface storage from observed BTCs of co-injected conservative and reactive solutes, providing new capability to determine reaction-rate coefficients in storage zones with broad residence-time distributions.

Microbial Transport, Retention, and Inactivation in Streams: A Combined Experimental and Stochastic Modeling Approach

Long-term survival of pathogenic microorganisms in streams enables long-distance disease transmission. In order to manage water-borne diseases more effectively we need to better predict how microbes behave in freshwater systems, particularly how they are transported downstream in rivers. Microbes continuously immobilize and resuspend during downstream transport owing to a variety of processes including gravitational settling, attachment to in-stream structures such as submerged macrophytes, and hyporheic exchange and filtration within underlying sediments. We developed a stochastic model to describe these microbial transport and retention processes in rivers that also accounts for microbial inactivation. We used the model to assess the transport, retention, and inactivation of Escherichia coli in a small stream and the underlying streambed sediments as measured from multitracer injection experiments. The results demonstrate that the combination of laboratory experiments on sediment cores, stream reach-scale tracer experiments, and multiscale stochastic modeling improves assessment of microbial transport in streams. This study (1) demonstrates new observations of microbial dynamics in streams with improved data quality than prior studies, (2) advances a stochastic modeling framework to include microbial inactivation processes that we observed to be important in these streams, and (3) synthesizes new and existing data to evaluate seasonal dynamics.

Tracer-based characterization of hyporheic exchange and benthic biolayers in streams

Shallow benthic biolayers at the top of the streambed are believed to be places of enhanced biogeochemical turnover within the hyporheic zone. They can be investigated by reactive stream tracer tests with tracer recordings in the streambed and in the stream channel. Common in-stream measurements of such reactive tracers cannot localize where the processing primarily takes place, whereas isolated vertical depth profiles of solutes within the hyporheic zone are usually not representative of the entire stream. We present results of a tracer test where we injected the conservative tracer bromide together with the reactive tracer resazurin into a third-order stream and combined the recording of in-stream breakthrough curves with multi-depth sampling of the hyporheic zone at several locations. The transformation of resazurin was used as an indicator of metabolism, and high-reactivity zones were identified from depth profiles. The results from our subsurface analysis indicate that the potential for tracer transformation (i.e., the reaction rate constant) varied with depth in the hyporheic zone. This highlights the importance of the benthic biolayer, which we found to be on average 2 cm thick in this study, which ranged from one third to one half of the full depth of the hyporheic zone. The reach-scale approach integrated the effects of processes along the reach length, isolating hyporheic processes relevant for whole-stream chemistry and estimating effective reaction rates. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

FracFit: A robust parameter estimation tool for fractional calculus models

Anomalous transport cannot be adequately described with classical Fickian advection-dispersion equations (ADE) with constant coefficients. Rather, fractional calculus models may be used, which capture salient features of anomalous transport (e.g., skewness and power law tails). FracFit is a parameter estimation tool based on space-fractional and time-fractional models used by the hydrology community. Currently, four fractional models are supported: (1) space-fractional advection-dispersion equation (sFADE), (2) time-fractional dispersion equation with drift (TFDE), (3) fractional mobile-immobile (FMIM) equation, and (4) temporally tempered Levy motion (TTLM). Model solutions using pulse initial conditions and continuous injections are evaluated using stable distributions or subordination integrals. Parameter estimates are extracted from measured breakthrough curves (BTCs) using a weighted nonlinear least squares (WNLS) algorithm. Optimal weights for BTCs for pulse initial conditions and continuous injections are presented. Two sample applications are analyzed: (1) pulse injection BTCs in the Selke River and (2) continuous injection laboratory experiments using natural organic matter. Model parameters are compared across models and goodness-of-fit metrics are presented, facilitating model evaluation.

Linking in-stream nutrient uptake to hydrologic retention in two headwater streams

Stream hydraulics control flux into and out of slow-moving water transient storage (WTS) zones and, thus, hydrologic retention in stream channels. In-stream nutrient uptake is thought to depend on hydrologic retention, so stream hydraulics could influence the extent to which in-stream nutrient biogeochemistry affects nutrient export downstream. Our goals were to: 1) characterize WTS with an emphasis on water residence time and 2) evaluate its influence on nutrient uptake. We analyzed data from 2 y of monthly solute-tracer injections with accompanying nutrient-uptake estimates in 2 hydrogeomorphically different streams. We fit the conservative tracer breakthrough curves to 2 hydrodynamic models: the one-dimensional transport with inflow and storage (OTIS) and the stochastic mobile–immobile model (SMIM), which allows for a wide distribution of water residence times. The 2 streams differed hydraulically, especially in water residence-time distributions in WTS zones. SMIM parameters depended less on discharge than did OTIS parameters, indicating that SMIM may be influenced more by local features of channel morphology than by hydrologic conditions. NH4+ uptake differed between streams, was correlated with all SMIM hydraulic parameters, and was weakly correlated with only 1 OTIS parameter. Based on SMIM correlations, the parameters related to the exchange of free-flowing water with water storage zones and the in-stream retention times explained 43 and 41%, respectively, of the variation in NH4+ uptake in the streams. Soluble reactive P (SRP) uptake was similar between streams and was not correlated with hydraulic parameters. These results indicate that hydraulics and residence time of water can be important regulators of WTS zones and nutrient uptake in headwater streams, but other environmental factors must be considered for complete understanding of in-stream nutrient processing capacity.

Fine particle retention within stream storage areas at base flow and in response to a storm event

Fine particles (1-100 µm), including particulate organic carbon (POC) and fine sediment, influence stream ecological functioning because they may contain or have a high affinity to sorb nitrogen and phosphorus. These particles are immobilized within stream storage areas, especially hyporheic sediments and benthic biofilms. However, fine particles are also known to remobilize under all flow conditions. This combination of downstream transport and transient retention, influenced by stream geomorphology, controls the distribution of residence times over which fine particles influence stream ecosystems. The main objective of this study was to quantify immobilization and remobilization rates of fine particles in a third-order sand-and-gravel bed stream (Difficult Run, Virginia, USA) within different geomorphic units of the stream (i.e., pool, lateral cavity, thalweg). During our field injection experiment, a thunderstorm-driven spate allowed us to observe fine particle dynamics during both baseflow and in response to increased flow. Solute and fine particles were measured within stream surface waters, porewaters, sediment cores, and biofilms on cobbles. Measurements were taken at four different subsurface locations with varying geomorphology and at multiple depths. Approximately 68% of injected fine particles were retained during baseflow until the onset of the spate. Retention was evident even after the spate, with 15.4% of the baseflow-deposited fine particles retained within benthic biofilms on cobbles and 14.9% within hyporheic sediment after the spate. Thus, through the combination of short-term remobilization and long-term retention, fine particles can serve as sources of carbon and nutrients to downstream ecosystems over a range of timescales.

Sensitivity of stoichiometric ratios in the Mississippi River to hydrologic variability

The ratio of key elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica determines nutrient limitations that are important to regulating primary productivity and species composition in aquatic ecosystems. The flux of these nutrients in streams, as dissolved constituents or as particulate matter, is sensitive to variability in flow conditions. Most previous research on nutrient flux and hydrologic variability has focused on the response of individual elements, especially nitrogen, to changes in flow over time. This study examines how the ratios of total nitrogen to total phosphorus (N:P) and total nitrogen to dissolved silica (N:Si) respond to hydrologic variability in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. A doubling of the discharge by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico is found to increase the N:P by 10% and the N:Si by 4%. Analysis of data from upstream stations indicates that the N:P increases with discharge in subbasins with intensive row crop agriculture and high fertilizer application rates but is less predictable in other subbasins. Conversely, the response of N:Si to discharge does not vary predictably with the land use characteristics of the subbasin. The response of the nutrient ratios to variability in flow may be linked to the different sources and sinks of each nutrient, as well as the difference between the dominant transport pathways of each nutrient. High-resolution data and models that describe the dissolved and particulate nutrient cycling are needed to assess the relative contribution of different drivers to these observed patterns and to identify the response of nutrient ratios to hydrologic variability under future land use and climate change.

Woody debris is related to reach-scale hotspots of lowland stream ecosystem respiration under baseflow conditions

Stream metabolism is a fundamental, integrative indicator of aquatic ecosystem functioning. However, it is not well understood how heterogeneity in physical channel form, particularly in relation to and caused by in‐stream woody debris, regulates stream metabolism in lowland streams. We combined conservative and reactive stream tracers to investigate relationships between patterns in stream channel morphology and hydrological transport (form) and metabolic processes as characterized by ecosystem respiration (function) in a forested lowland stream at baseflow. Stream reach‐scale ecosystem respiration was related to locations (“hotspots”) with a high abundance of woody debris. In contrast, nearly all other measured hydrological and geomorphic variables previously documented or hypothesized to influence stream metabolism did not significantly explain ecosystem respiration. Our results suggest the existence of key differences in physical controls on ecosystem respiration between lowland stream systems (this study) and smaller upland streams (most previous studies) under baseflow conditions. As such, these findings have implications for reactive transport models that predict biogeochemical transformation rates from hydraulic transport parameters, for upscaling frameworks that represent biological stream processes at larger network scales, and for the effective management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.

Benthic biofilm controls on fine particle dynamics in streams

Benthic (streambed) biofilms metabolize a substantial fraction of particulate organic matter and nutrient inputs to streams. These microbial communities comprise a significant proportion of overall biomass in headwater streams, and they present a primary control on the transformation and export of labile organic carbon. Biofilm growth has been linked to enhanced fine particle deposition and retention, a feedback that confers a distinct advantage for the acquisition and utilization of energy sources. We quantified the influence of biofilm structure on fine particle deposition and resuspension in experimental stream mesocosms. Biofilms were grown in identical 3-m recirculating flumes over periods of 18-47 days to obtain a range of biofilm characteristics. Fluorescent, 8-μm particles were introduced to each flume, and their concentrations in the water column were monitored over a 30-minute period. We measured particle concentrations using a flow cytometer and mesoscale (10 μm to 1 cm) biofilm structure using optical coherence tomography. Particle deposition-resuspension dynamics were determined by fitting results to a stochastic mobile-immobile model, which showed that retention timescales for particles within the biofilm-covered streambeds followed a power-law residence time distribution. Particle retention times increased with biofilm areal coverage, biofilm roughness, and mean biofilm height. Our findings suggest that biofilm structural parameters are key predictors of particle retention in streams and rivers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.