NITRATE REMOVAL ALONG A COLORADO MONTANE HEADWATER STREAM: THE ROLE OF BIDIRECTIONAL HYDROLOGIC EXCHANGE AT REACH TO CATCHMENT SCALES

Abstract:

Bidirectional hydrologic exchanges between streams and aquifers can influence nutrient concentrations (physical influx/efflux via gaining/losing water), and/or can facilitate biogeochemical cycling (physical and biological processes). Such exchanges therefore act to influence nutrient fate and transport, and have not yet been captured and incorporated into our understanding of stream nutrient retention and export. Along Colorado’s Front Range, research in alpine and subalpine catchments has documented consistent increases in nitrate export, likely due to increased nitrogen deposition from industrialization and fertilization in eastern Colorado. The state of montane zone catchments with respect to their ability to cycle nitrate is not as well understood, however, and such ecosystems have complex hydrologic regimes relative to alpine areas. We applied a fully informed hydrologic mass balance model and nitrate mass balance model that include gross gains and gross losses (bidirectional exchanges) along a 1000 m study reach, to better understand physical and biological nitrate removal for a Colorado montane zone catchment, Lower Gordon Gulch. We collected data during five synoptic stream tracer and sampling campaigns along our study reach during the 2014-2015 water year, and installed wells along the north-facing and south-facing riparian corridor to capture changing water tables. Four distinct hydrologic regimes are captured in our results, including two experiments during baseflow, one experiment following snowmelt, one experiment following late-spring rainfall, and one experiment during the start of the seasonal hydrograph recession in mid-summer. Results show a transition from hydrologic sources of nitrate following snowmelt, to biological sources during rainfall, to biological removal during summer, and finally to hydrologic removal during baseflow. Our findings also corroborate earlier work in montane zone streams that shows preferential flow on south-facing slopes and matrix flow with greater microbial activity on north-facing slopes following snowmelt. Our model acts as a tool to separate physical and biological processes acting to influence nitrate transport, while allowing us to analyze the relative importance of each in tandem.