Spatial and temporal patterns of urea content in a eutrophic stream continuum on the Northern Great Plains

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dc.contributor.authorSwarbrick, Vanessa J.
dc.contributor.authorBergbusch, Nathanael T.
dc.contributor.authorLeavitt, Peter R.
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-26T17:57:17Z
dc.date.available2023-04-26T17:57:17Z
dc.date.issued2021-10-21
dc.description© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.en_US
dc.description.abstractUrea can degrade water quality and stimulate toxic phytoplankton in P-rich lakes, yet little is known of its sources, abundance, or transportation in lotic systems, particularly within the Northern Great Plains. We measured physico-chemical parameters biweekly during May–September 2010–2012 at 16 stations along a 250 km lotic continuum to quantify spatial and temporal variation in urea concentrations and discharge, and to identify potential regulatory processes. Urea concentrations were similar to those in regional prairie lakes (range 5.2–792.1, median 78.6 μg N L−1) with variable seasonal mean (± SD) concentrations (96.6  ± 96.1 μg N L−1) and fluxes (4.22 × 105 ± 257.6 μg N s−1). Landscape analysis with generalized additive models explained 68.3% of deviance in urea concentrations, with high temporal variability predicted mainly by positive relationships with nutrient content and chlorophyte abundance, but not temperature, dissolved organic matter, bacterial abundance, or urban effluent. Seasonal analysis revealed that during spring, urea content was correlated negatively with leguminous forage cover (% area) and positively with stream discharge, oilseed and cereal crops, and shrubs or deciduous plants, while during summer, urea concentrations were correlated negatively with discharge and leguminous crop cover, as well as nutrient levels. Mean porewater urea concentrations (528.5 ± 229.8 μg N L−1) were over five-fold greater than stream concentrations, suggesting that hyporheic production may offset declining influx from terrestrial sources during summer. We conclude that urea may be ubiquitous in eutrophic prairie streams and that management of its export from land may reduce detrimental effects on downstream lakes.en_US
dc.description.authorstatusFacultyen_US
dc.description.peerreviewyesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada graduate scholarship, NSERC Canada Discovery Grants program, Canada Research Chairs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Province of Saskatchewan, and the University of Regina.en_US
dc.identifier.citationSwarbrick, V.J., N.T. Bergbusch, and P.R. Leavitt. 2022. Spatial and temporal patterns of urea content in a eutrophic stream continuum on the Northern Great Plains. Biogeochemistry 157: 171-191. doi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00868-7en_US
dc.identifier.doidoi.org/10.1007/s10533-021-00868-7
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/15879
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSpringeren_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectUreaen_US
dc.subjectStreamen_US
dc.subjectPrairieen_US
dc.subjectEutrophicen_US
dc.subjectNitrogenen_US
dc.subjectAgricultureen_US
dc.subjectUrbanen_US
dc.subjectEffluenten_US
dc.subjectHyporheicen_US
dc.subjectQu’Appelle Riveren_US
dc.titleSpatial and temporal patterns of urea content in a eutrophic stream continuum on the Northern Great Plainsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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