The basic idea

• Nutrient cycling ~ transformation and

translocation of nutrients….

algae water
NH4+ Organic N

sediments
NO3-

Ending up where we started from…..In most ecosystems anyway

The basic idea

• Discharge deforms or stretches nutrient
cycle

But this is more than just a pretty concept….

1
2. Modeling approach
Nutrient spiraling

Spiraling length, S

Turnover
Uptake length, SW length,
SP

Velocity, V
Depth,
D

Uptake, U Release, R

Newbold et al. 1981, Webster ….

Defining, measuring nutrient

spiraling
• S = Sw + Sp
– Sw = uptake length
• average distance a nutrient molecule travels downstream in
dissolved form
– Sp = turnover length
• average distance a nutrient molecule travels downstream in
particulate form
Spiraling length, S

Uptake length, SW Turnover

length, SP

Velocity, V
Water

Depth, D

Uptake, U Release, R
Sediment

2
 Defining, measuring nutrient
spiraling
• Sp
– Hard to measure
• Need to keep track of nutrients while in benthic zone
– The good news- when measured, it’s a very short
distance
Spiraling length, S

Uptake length, SW Turnover

length, SP

Velocity, V
Water

Depth, D

Uptake, U Release, R
Sediment

Defining, measuring nutrient

spiraling
• Sw
– Easy to measure
• Need to keep track of nutrients while in water column
– The good news- when measured, it’s the majority of
the spiraling length
Spiraling length, S

Uptake length, SW Turnover

length, SP

Velocity, V
Water

Depth, D

Uptake, U Release, R
Sediment

3
 Now imagine:
Cl- and SRP
• In addition to the Cl- tracer, upstream
Cl- downstream
I also add SRP

concentration
• What does SRP look like
at your site?

• What are SRP and Cl

concentrations along the
entire length of the stream
during the ‘plateau’
phase? t1
conc

t2
Downstream
Injection end of reach
point
distance

Cl- and SRP

upstream
Cl- downstream
concentration

t1 t2
conc

L0 L1 L2 L3 L4

Distance downstream

4
 Defining, measuring nutrient
spiraling
-L
vDC
Sw = Operationally: CL = C0eS W

U
Spiraling length, S

Uptake length, SW Turnover vDC

length, SP
Sw =
U

Velocity, V
Water

Depth, D

Uptake, U Release, R
Sediment

Defining, measuring nutrient

spiraling
• Add nutrient + conservative tracer
– Increase ambient nutrient concentration just a
little bit for a little while
• Don’t want to ‘saturate’ biota- i.e., exceed/alter
their normal nutrient uptake processes
• Want to measure only uptake, not uptake +
release
– Stable isotopes (15N) are great- can add very small
amounts and get very accurate measurements
– Measure downstream decline in both

5
 Defining, measuring nutrient
spiraling
• Normalize the nutrient concentrations
– Normalized Conc at distance L (CL) =
– (CL-Concbackground)/(ClL-Clbackground)

• Plot Ln(Normalized CL) vs. distance (L)

-L
SW
CL = C0e Ln(CL) = Ln(C0) –L/Sw

Defining, measuring nutrient

spiraling
Webster & Ehrman 1996- in H&L

Ln(CL) = Ln(C0) –L/Sw

Or….

Ln(CL) = Ln(C0) –kcL

And Sw = 1/kc

6
 vDC
Determinants of Sw Sw =
U
• The equation says:

Sw (m)

Nutrient Flux (ug/s)

= Q * background nutrient conc (C)

Peterson et al. 2000 Ensign & Doyle in review

7
 vDC
Determinants of Sw Sw =
U
• What this means in terms of the stream:

Sw (m)

As/A
Valett et al. 1996

Recall: Transient storage

Hydrologic
exchange
Transient
storage
m
trea
S

8
 Determinants of Sw

Valett et al. 1996

vDC
Determinants of Sw Sw =
U
• Biotic demand
• Size of transient storage zone

• Discharge
• Concentration

• Alternative = U (uptake rate) for the reach