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Riparian Zone Influence on Stream Water Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentrations at the Swedish Integrated Monitoring Sites

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Abstract

Short-term variability in stream water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations is controlled by hydrology, climate and atmospheric deposition. Using the Riparian flow-concentration Integration Model (RIM), we evaluated factors controlling stream water DOC in the Swedish Integrated Monitoring (IM) catchments by separating out hydrological effects on stream DOC dynamics. Model residuals were correlated with climate and deposition-related drivers. DOC was most strongly correlated to water flow in the northern catchment (Gammtratten). The southern Aneboda and Kindla catchments had pronounced seasonal DOC signals, which correlated weakly to flow. DOC concentrations at Gårdsjön increased, potentially in response to declining acid deposition. Soil temperature correlated strongly with model residuals at all sites. Incorporating soil temperature in RIM improved model performance substantially (20–62% lower median absolute error). According to the simulations, the RIM conceptualization of riparian processes explains between 36% (Kindla) and 61% (Aneboda) of the DOC dynamics at the IM sites.

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Acknowledgments

The Swedish Integrated Monitoring program has been funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. This work would not have been possible without the efforts of all the people who collected and analyzed samples from the IM sites, and those who maintained the data archive. MNF was funded by the Mistra FutureForests programme. Financial support for JT was provided by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency programme CLEO, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7050, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Mattias Winterdahl, Johan Temnerud, Martyn N. Futter, Stefan Löfgren & Kevin Bishop

  2. Research Department, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Folkborgsvägen 1, 601 76, Norrköping, Sweden

    Johan Temnerud

  3. IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB, Box 21060, 100 31, Stockholm, Sweden

    Filip Moldan

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

    Kevin Bishop

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  1. Mattias Winterdahl
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  2. Johan Temnerud
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  3. Martyn N. Futter
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  4. Stefan Löfgren
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  5. Filip Moldan
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  6. Kevin Bishop
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Correspondence to Mattias Winterdahl.

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Winterdahl, M., Temnerud, J., Futter, M.N. et al. Riparian Zone Influence on Stream Water Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentrations at the Swedish Integrated Monitoring Sites. AMBIO 40, 920–930 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0199-4

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