Water quality in a large complex catchment: Significant effects of land use and soil type but limited ability to detect trends

Abstract

Globally, significant societal resources are devoted to mitigating negative effects of eutrophication from excessive phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) loading. Potential effectiveness of mitigation measures and possible confounding factors are often assessed using studies conducted in headwater catchments. However, success is often evaluated based on trends in river mouth water chemistry. It is not clear how transferrable insights from headwater catchments are to larger rivers. Here, relationships between P and suspended solids (SS) identified in small agricultural headwater catchments were applied to 30 larger, mixed land use catchments draining into Malaren, a Swedish great lake. Relationships identified in headwater streams between SS concentration, catchment agricultural land percentage and arable land clay content were corroborated for the larger catchments (R2 = 0.59, p-value

Keywords

Water quality trends; Catchment characteristics; Mitigation measures; Trend analysis; Environmental monitoring; Diffuse sources

Published in

Journal of Environmental Management
2024, volume: 349, article number: 119500

SLU Authors

• Sandström, Sara

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

• Elmi Lannergård, Emma

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

• Futter, Martyn

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

• Djodjic, Faruk

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

Global goals (SDG)

SDG6 Clean water and sanitation

UKÄ Subject classification

Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources
Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119500

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/127129