Combined Effects of Stream Hydrology and Land Use on Basin-Scale Hyporheic Zone Denitrification in the Columbia River Basin

Kyongho Son; Yilin Fang; Jesus D. Gomez-Velez; Kyuhyun Byun; Xingyuan Chen

doi:10.1029/2021WR031131

Combined Effects of Stream Hydrology and Land Use on Basin-Scale Hyporheic Zone Denitrification in the Columbia River Basin

Kyongho Son, Yilin Fang, Jesus D. Gomez-Velez, Kyuhyun Byun, Xingyuan Chen

Watershed Systems Modeling

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Denitrification in the hyporheic zone (HZ) of river corridors is crucial to removing excess nitrogen in rivers from anthropogenic activities. However, previous modeling studies of the effectiveness of river corridors in removing excess nitrogen via denitrification were often limited to the reach-scale and low-order stream watersheds. We developed a basin-scale river corridor model for the Columbia River Basin with random forest models to identify the dominant factors associated with the spatial variation of HZ denitrification. Our modeling results suggest that the combined effects of hydrologic variability in reaches and substrate availability influenced by land use are associated with the spatial variability of modeled HZ denitrification at the basin scale. Hyporheic exchange flux can explain most of spatial variation of denitrification amounts in reaches of different sizes, while among the reaches affected by different land uses, the combination of hyporheic exchange flux and stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration can explain the denitrification differences. Also, we can generalize that the most influential watershed and channel variables controlling denitrification variation are channel morphology parameters (median grain size (D50), stream slope), climate (annual precipitation and evapotranspiration), and stream DOC-related parameters (percent of shrub area). The modeling framework in our study can serve as a valuable tool to identify the limiting factors in removing excess nitrogen pollution in large river basins where direct measurement is often infeasible.

Original language	English
Article number	e2021WR031131
Journal	Water Resources Research
Volume	58
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031131
State	Published - Dec 2022

Funding

This research was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science (SC) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, as part of BER’s Environmental System Science program. This contribution originates from the River Corridor Scientific Focus Area at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This research used resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE-SC User Facility. PNNL is operated for DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of DOE or the U.S. Government. We are thankful to the editors and two anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We also want to thank to Dr. Daniel R. Wise who helps us to better understand the SPARROW model inputs and outputs. This manuscript has been coauthored by staff from UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. This research was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science (SC) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, as part of BER’s Environmental System Science program. This contribution originates from the River Corridor Scientific Focus Area at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This research used resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE‐SC User Facility. PNNL is operated for DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE‐AC05‐76RL01830. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of DOE or the U.S. Government. We are thankful to the editors and two anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We also want to thank to Dr. Daniel R. Wise who helps us to better understand the SPARROW model inputs and outputs. This manuscript has been coauthored by staff from UT‐Battelle, LLC, under contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid‐up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes.

Keywords

and land use
denitrification modeling
hyporheic zone
random forest model
stream size

Access to Document

10.1029/2021WR031131

Cite this

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title = "Combined Effects of Stream Hydrology and Land Use on Basin-Scale Hyporheic Zone Denitrification in the Columbia River Basin",

abstract = "Denitrification in the hyporheic zone (HZ) of river corridors is crucial to removing excess nitrogen in rivers from anthropogenic activities. However, previous modeling studies of the effectiveness of river corridors in removing excess nitrogen via denitrification were often limited to the reach-scale and low-order stream watersheds. We developed a basin-scale river corridor model for the Columbia River Basin with random forest models to identify the dominant factors associated with the spatial variation of HZ denitrification. Our modeling results suggest that the combined effects of hydrologic variability in reaches and substrate availability influenced by land use are associated with the spatial variability of modeled HZ denitrification at the basin scale. Hyporheic exchange flux can explain most of spatial variation of denitrification amounts in reaches of different sizes, while among the reaches affected by different land uses, the combination of hyporheic exchange flux and stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration can explain the denitrification differences. Also, we can generalize that the most influential watershed and channel variables controlling denitrification variation are channel morphology parameters (median grain size (D50), stream slope), climate (annual precipitation and evapotranspiration), and stream DOC-related parameters (percent of shrub area). The modeling framework in our study can serve as a valuable tool to identify the limiting factors in removing excess nitrogen pollution in large river basins where direct measurement is often infeasible.",

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author = "Kyongho Son and Yilin Fang and Gomez-Velez, {Jesus D.} and Kyuhyun Byun and Xingyuan Chen",

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AU - Fang, Yilin

AU - Gomez-Velez, Jesus D.

AU - Byun, Kyuhyun

AU - Chen, Xingyuan

PY - 2022/12

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N2 - Denitrification in the hyporheic zone (HZ) of river corridors is crucial to removing excess nitrogen in rivers from anthropogenic activities. However, previous modeling studies of the effectiveness of river corridors in removing excess nitrogen via denitrification were often limited to the reach-scale and low-order stream watersheds. We developed a basin-scale river corridor model for the Columbia River Basin with random forest models to identify the dominant factors associated with the spatial variation of HZ denitrification. Our modeling results suggest that the combined effects of hydrologic variability in reaches and substrate availability influenced by land use are associated with the spatial variability of modeled HZ denitrification at the basin scale. Hyporheic exchange flux can explain most of spatial variation of denitrification amounts in reaches of different sizes, while among the reaches affected by different land uses, the combination of hyporheic exchange flux and stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration can explain the denitrification differences. Also, we can generalize that the most influential watershed and channel variables controlling denitrification variation are channel morphology parameters (median grain size (D50), stream slope), climate (annual precipitation and evapotranspiration), and stream DOC-related parameters (percent of shrub area). The modeling framework in our study can serve as a valuable tool to identify the limiting factors in removing excess nitrogen pollution in large river basins where direct measurement is often infeasible.

AB - Denitrification in the hyporheic zone (HZ) of river corridors is crucial to removing excess nitrogen in rivers from anthropogenic activities. However, previous modeling studies of the effectiveness of river corridors in removing excess nitrogen via denitrification were often limited to the reach-scale and low-order stream watersheds. We developed a basin-scale river corridor model for the Columbia River Basin with random forest models to identify the dominant factors associated with the spatial variation of HZ denitrification. Our modeling results suggest that the combined effects of hydrologic variability in reaches and substrate availability influenced by land use are associated with the spatial variability of modeled HZ denitrification at the basin scale. Hyporheic exchange flux can explain most of spatial variation of denitrification amounts in reaches of different sizes, while among the reaches affected by different land uses, the combination of hyporheic exchange flux and stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration can explain the denitrification differences. Also, we can generalize that the most influential watershed and channel variables controlling denitrification variation are channel morphology parameters (median grain size (D50), stream slope), climate (annual precipitation and evapotranspiration), and stream DOC-related parameters (percent of shrub area). The modeling framework in our study can serve as a valuable tool to identify the limiting factors in removing excess nitrogen pollution in large river basins where direct measurement is often infeasible.

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Combined Effects of Stream Hydrology and Land Use on Basin-Scale Hyporheic Zone Denitrification in the Columbia River Basin

Abstract

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Keywords

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Model Inputs, Outputs, and Scripts associated with: “Combined effects of stream hydrology and land use on basin-scale hyporheic zone denitrification in the Columbia River Basin”

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Combined Effects of Stream Hydrology and Land Use on Basin-Scale Hyporheic Zone Denitrification in the Columbia River Basin

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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Model Inputs, Outputs, and Scripts associated with: “Combined effects of stream hydrology and land use on basin-scale hyporheic zone denitrification in the Columbia River Basin”

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