Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9 (2011): 229–238, doi:10.1890/080211.
Description:
Agricultural and urban development alters nitrogen and other biogeochemical cycles in rivers worldwide. Because such biogeochemical processes cannot be measured empirically across whole river networks, simulation models are critical tools for understanding river-network biogeochemistry. However, limitations inherent in current models restrict our ability to simulate biogeochemical dynamics among diverse river networks. We illustrate these limitations using a river-network model to scale up in situ measures of nitrogen cycling in eight catchments spanning various geophysical and land-use conditions. Our model results provide evidence that catchment characteristics typically excluded from models may control river-network biogeochemistry. Based on our findings, we identify important components of a revised strategy for simulating biogeochemical dynamics in river networks, including approaches to modeling terrestrial–aquatic linkages, hydrologic exchanges between the channel, floodplain/riparian complex, and subsurface waters, and interactions between coupled biogeochemical cycles.
Description:
This research was supported by NSF (DEB-0111410).
Additional support was provided by NSF for BJP and
SMT (DEB-0614301), for WMW (OCE-9726921 and
DEB-0614282), for WHM and JDP (DEB-0620919), for
SKH (DEB-0423627), and by the Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation for AMH, GCP, ESB, and JAS, and by
an EPA Star Fellowship for AMH.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
Permalink
