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Visualizing wetland water: Watershed and buffer conditions organize cross-USA wetland water quality
Citation:
Trebitz, A. AND A. Herlihy. Visualizing wetland water: Watershed and buffer conditions organize cross-USA wetland water quality. Wisconsin Wetland Association Conference, Steven's Point, WI, February 15 - 17, 2022. https://doi.org/10.23645/epacomptox.19333166
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation uses data collected from the 2016 EPA Office-of-Water led National Wetland Condition Assessment to illustrate that water quality in wetlands is substantially influenced by anthropogenic activities on the wetland perimeter and watershed. Such anthropogenic impacts are well documented for lakes and streams but are relatively unexplored in wetlands, especially on a continental scale. This presentation is part of a larger ORD effort to support Office of Water in the planning of and subsequent analysis of NARS surveys across the USA.
Description:
The impact of watershed and riparian anthropogenic activities on lake and stream water quality is well established, but has been much less studied in wetlands. Here, we use data from the 2016 National Wetland Condition Assessment – collected via a U.S. EPA partnership with states and tribes – to characterize wetland water quality in relation to proximal and distal anthropogenic impacts. The dataset has measurements of surface water pH, nutrients, salinity/ions, turbidity, and algal chlorophyll for over 500 inland wetlands across the continent, including 31 in Minnesota, 23 in Wisconsin, and 10 in Michigan. Proximal impact scores were synthesized from checklist items such as livestock grazing, vehicle ruts, dredge/fill, etc., and distal impacts were characterized from watershed NLCD landcover classification (natural, agricultural, or urban). Only 13% of sampled wetlands were unimpacted at both spatial scales, but proximal vs distal impact intensity were uncorrelated and varied considerably across biogeographic regions and wetland types. Anthropogenic impacts tended to elevate the concentration of all water quality analytes, and changed analyte interrelationships in ways that were sometimes diagnostic of stressor type. Our presentation will illustrate these patterns for relevant combinations of impacts and wetland region/HGM type, including for upper midwest wetlands (i.e., WI, MN, MI) of particular relevance to this conference.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Visualizing wetland water: Watershed and buffer conditions organize cross-USA wetland water quality
TREBITZ_WWA2022_NWCA_WQTALKV3_REC.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 1948.108 KB, about PDF)