Small Ponds in Headwater Catchments Are a Dominant Influence on Regional Nutrient and Sediment Budgets

Noah M. Schmadel; Judson W. Harvey; Gregory E. Schwarz; Richard B. Alexander; Jesus D. Gomez-Velez; Durelle Scott; Scott W. Ator

doi:10.1029/2019GL083937

Small Ponds in Headwater Catchments Are a Dominant Influence on Regional Nutrient and Sediment Budgets

Noah M. Schmadel, Judson W. Harvey, Gregory E. Schwarz, Richard B. Alexander, Jesus D. Gomez-Velez, Durelle Scott, Scott W. Ator

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

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small ponds—farm ponds, detention ponds, or impoundments below 0.01 km²—serve important human needs throughout most large river basins. Yet the role of small ponds in regional nutrient and sediment budgets is essentially unknown, currently making it impossible to evaluate their management potential to achieve water quality objectives. Here we used new hydrography data sets and found that small ponds, depending on their spatial position within both their local catchments and the larger river network, can dominate the retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment compared to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Over 300,000 small ponds are collectively responsible for 34%, 69%, and 12% of the mean annual retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in the Northeastern United States, respectively, with a dominant influence in headwater catchments (54%, 85%, and 50%, respectively). Small ponds play a critical role among the many aquatic features in long-term nutrient and sediment loading to downstream waters.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	9669-9677
Number of pages	9
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	46
Issue number	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083937
State	Published - Aug 28 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The ideas for this work were formulated during meetings of the John Wesley Powell Center River Corridor Working Group, supported by U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation Hydrologic Sciences Program. The work was carried out at the USGS where N. M. S. is a USGS Mendenhall postdoctoral fellow funded by the Water Mission Area. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. We used publicly available, nationally consistent data sets (see Table S2 for data sources). The SPARROW model source code is also publicly available (https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/sparrow/). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Keywords

ponded waters
regional nutrient and sediment budgets
river corridor
small ponds

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10.1029/2019GL083937

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abstract = "Small ponds—farm ponds, detention ponds, or impoundments below 0.01 km2—serve important human needs throughout most large river basins. Yet the role of small ponds in regional nutrient and sediment budgets is essentially unknown, currently making it impossible to evaluate their management potential to achieve water quality objectives. Here we used new hydrography data sets and found that small ponds, depending on their spatial position within both their local catchments and the larger river network, can dominate the retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment compared to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Over 300,000 small ponds are collectively responsible for 34%, 69%, and 12% of the mean annual retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in the Northeastern United States, respectively, with a dominant influence in headwater catchments (54%, 85%, and 50%, respectively). Small ponds play a critical role among the many aquatic features in long-term nutrient and sediment loading to downstream waters.",

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AU - Harvey, Judson W.

AU - Schwarz, Gregory E.

AU - Alexander, Richard B.

AU - Gomez-Velez, Jesus D.

AU - Scott, Durelle

AU - Ator, Scott W.

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PY - 2019/8/28

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Small Ponds in Headwater Catchments Are a Dominant Influence on Regional Nutrient and Sediment Budgets

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