Denitrification potential in stormwater control structures and natural riparian zones in an urban landscape.

Humans have significantly altered urban landscapes, creating impervious surfaces, and changing drainage patterns that increase volume and velocity as well as frequency and timing of runoff following precipitation events. These changes in runoff have impaired streams and riparian areas that previously reduced watershed nitrogen (N) flux through uptake and denitrification. Stormwater control measures (SCM) are used most frequently to mitigate these hydrologic impacts. While SCM control runoff, their ability to remove N compared to natural riparian areas is not well-known. In this study we compared potential denitrification [as denitrification enzyme activity (DEA)] in five types of SCM (wet ponds, dry detention ponds, dry extended detention, infiltration basin, and filtering practices) and forested and herbaceous riparian areas in Baltimore, MD. DEA was higher in SCM (1.2 mg N kg(-1) hr(-1)) than in riparian areas (0.4 mg N kg(-1) hr(-1)). While DEA was highly correlated with soil moisture, organic matter, microbial biomass, and soil respiration areas across sites, it was always higher in SCM at equivalent levels of these variables. SCM appear to function as denitrification hotspots and, despite having similar microbial biomass, have higher potential denitrification than natural riparian areas.

[1]  Arthur J. Gold,et al.  Nitrate-nitrogen losses to groundwater from rural and suburban land uses , 1990 .

[2]  P. Groffman,et al.  The urban stream syndrome: current knowledge and the search for a cure , 2005, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[3]  D. F. Grigal,et al.  Soil sampling, preparation, archiving and quality control. , 1999 .

[4]  Alan R. Hill,et al.  Nitrate Removal in Stream Riparian Zones , 1996 .

[5]  P. Groffman,et al.  Ground water nitrate removal in subsoil of forested and mowed riparian buffer zones , 1999 .

[6]  David S. Powlson,et al.  The effects of biocidal treatments on metabolism in soil—V: A method for measuring soil biomass , 1976 .

[7]  D. Osmond,et al.  Characterization of turf practices in five North Carolina communities. , 2004, Journal of environmental quality.

[8]  K. R. Reddy,et al.  Nitrogen transformations and loss in flooded soils and sediments , 1984 .

[9]  T. Endreny.  Land Use and Land Cover Effects on Runoff Processes: Urban and Suburban Development , 2006 .

[10]  James M. Tiedje,et al.  Establishment of denitrification capacity in soil: effects of carbon, nitrate and moisture , 1985 .

[11]  Lawrence E. Band,et al.  Nitrogen Fluxes and Retention in Urban Watershed Ecosystems , 2004, Ecosystems.

[12]  N. Grimm,et al.  Nutrients on Asphalt Parking Surfaces in an Urban Environment , 2004 .

[13]  M. Williams,et al.  A method for extracting plant roots from soil which facilitates rapid sample processing without compromising measurement accuracy. , 2007, The New phytologist.

[14]  W. Zipperer,et al.  Soil nitrogen cycle processes in urban riparian zones. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[15]  P. Groffman,et al.  Chloride effects on nitrogen dynamics in forested and suburban stream debris dams. , 2006, Journal of environmental quality.

[16]  P. Holden,et al.  Storm drains are sources of human fecal pollution during dry weather in three urban southern California watersheds. , 2009, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  David J. Nowak,et al.  Projected Urban Growth (2000–2050) and Its Estimated Impact on the US Forest Resource , 2005, Journal of Forestry.

[18]  Nutrients on Asphalt Parking Surfaces in an Urban Environment , 2004 .

[19]  N. Grimm,et al.  A distinct urban biogeochemistry? , 2006, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[20]  L. Band,et al.  Nitrogen input from residential lawn care practices in suburban watersheds in Baltimore county, MD , 2004 .

[21]  Michael E. Barrett,et al.  Comparison of BMP performance using the international BMP database , 2008 .

[22]  Kenneth M. Johnson,et al.  Rural land-use trends in the conterminous United States, 1950-2000 , 2005 .

[23]  Anton Fischer,et al.  Elevated NH3 and NO2 air concentrations and nitrogen deposition rates in the vicinity of a highway in Southern Bavaria , 2005 .

[24]  M. Palmer,et al.  Interaction between urbanization and climate variability amplifies watershed nitrate export in Maryland. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[25]  J. Smith,et al.  Monitoring nitrogen loading and retention in an urban stormwater detention pond. , 2011, Journal of environmental quality.

[26]  P. Groffman,et al.  N processing within geomorphic structures in urban streams , 2005, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[27]  R. Wayland.  Guidance specifying management measures for sources of nonpoint pollution in coastal waters : issued under the authority of Section 6217(g) of the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 , 1993 .

[28]  James M. Tiedje,et al.  Denitrification in north temperate forest soils: Relationships between denitrification and environmental factors at the landscape scale , 1989 .

[29]  P. Vidon.  Riparian zone management and environmental quality: a multi‐contaminant challenge , 2010 .

[30]  F. D. Shields,et al.  The stream channel incision syndrome and water quality. , 2010 .

[31]  P. Mayer,et al.  Meta-analysis of nitrogen removal in riparian buffers. , 2007, Journal of environmental quality.

[32]  N. Grimm,et al.  Urban nitrogen biogeochemistry: status and processes in green retention basins , 2005 .

[33]  M. J. Savage,et al.  Soil Water Potential , 2018, SSSA Book Series.

[34]  S. Hamilton,et al.  Cross-stream comparison of substrate-specific denitrification potential , 2011 .

[35]  P. Groffman,et al.  Denitrification potential in urban riparian zones. , 2003, Journal of environmental quality.

[36]  G. Lovett,et al.  Atmospheric deposition to oak forests along an urban - rural gradient. , 2000 .

[37]  K. Boicourt,et al.  Effects of nutrient enrichment in the nation's estuaries: A decade of change , 2008 .

[38]  William H. McDowell,et al.  Biogeochemical Hot Spots and Hot Moments at the Interface of Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems , 2003, Ecosystems.

[39]  Robert W. Howarth,et al.  Nitrogen as the limiting nutrient for eutrophication in coastal marine ecosystems: Evolving views over three decades , 2006 .

[40]  D. Hogan,et al.  Urbanization and nutrient retention in freshwater riparian wetlands. , 2007, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[41]  E. Davidson,et al.  Nitrogen in Runoff from Residential Roads in a Coastal Area , 2010 .

[42]  J. M. Schultz.  Urban wet deposition nitrate: A comparison to non-urban deposition , 1994 .

[43]  M. Wolman.  A Cycle of Sedimentation and Erosion in Urban River Channels , 1967 .

[44]  P. Templer,et al.  Effects of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid on Nitrogen Losses from Urban and Rural Northern Forest Ecosystems , 2010, Ecosystems.

[45]  K. J. Gregory.  Wolman MG (1967) A cycle of sedimentation and erosion in urban river channels. Geografiska Annaler 49A: 385–395. , 2011 .

[46]  J. Tiedje,et al.  Phases of denitrification following oxygen depletion in soil , 1979 .