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Per Persson. Photo.

Per Persson

Dean

Per Persson. Photo.

Differential Trends in Iron Concentrations of Boreal Streams Linked to Catchment Characteristics

Author

  • M. Škerlep
  • S. Nehzati
  • R. A. Sponseller
  • P. Persson
  • H. Laudon
  • E. S. Kritzberg

Summary, in English

Increasing iron (Fe) concentrations have been reported for freshwaters across northern Europe over the last decades. This increase, together with elevated concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), leads to browning of freshwaters, which affects aquatic organisms, ecosystem functioning, biogeochemical cycles, and brings challenges to drinking water production. However, how such increasing trends in stream Fe concentrations reflect the contribution of different catchment sources remains poorly resolved. Here, we explored how catchment characteristics, that is, mires and coniferous soils, regulate spatial and temporal patterns of Fe in a boreal stream network. For this, we determined Fe speciation in riparian and mire soils, and studied temporal Fe dynamics in soil-water and stream-water over a span of 18 years. Positive Fe trends were found in the solution of the riparian soil, while no long-term trend was observed in the mire. These differences were reflected in stream-water, where three headwater streams dominated by coniferous cover also displayed positive Fe trends, whereas the mire dominated stream showed no trend. Surprisingly, the majority of higher order streams showed declining Fe trends, despite long-term increases in DOC. In addition, we found that an extreme drought event led to a prolonged release of Fe and DOC from the riparian soils, that could have long-term effects on stream Fe concentrations. Our results show that riparian forest soils can be major contributors to ongoing increases in freshwater Fe concentrations and that drought can further promote the release of Fe from organic soils.

Department/s

  • MAX IV Laboratory
  • Department of Biology
  • Microbial Ecology
  • MEMEG
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Division aquatic ecology
  • Aquatic Ecology

Publishing year

2023

Language

English

Publication/Series

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

Volume

37

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Topic

  • Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Keywords

  • browning
  • catchment
  • iron
  • mire
  • riparian zone
  • stream

Status

Published

Research group

  • Microbial Ecology
  • Aquatic Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0886-6236