Abstract

Climate change is expected to cause an increased frequency of extreme events such as heavy floods and major storms. Such stochastic events have an immediate impact on surface water quality, but the long-term effects are largely unknown. In this study, we assess long-term monitoring data from two Swedish headwater catchments affected by extreme weather events. At one site, where nitrogen effects in soil water, groundwater, and stream water were studied after storm-felling and subsequent forest dieback from bark beetle attack, long-term (>5 years) but relatively modest (generally <1 mg L-1) increases in ammonium (NH4-N) and nitrate (NO3-N) concentrations were observed in the various aqueous media. At the other site, where effects on benthic fauna were studied in a stream impacted by extreme geophysical disturbances caused by rainstorm-induced flashflood, only short-term (1 year) effects were revealed both regarding diversity and composition of species.

Keywords

Storm-felling; Bark beetle; Nitrate; Rainstorm; Flashflood; Benthic macroinvertebrates

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2014, Volume: 43, pages: 58-76
Publisher: SPRINGER

SLU Authors

• Löfgren, Stefan

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Grandin, Ulf

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts


UKÄ Subject classification

Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources
Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0562-3

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/63683