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Sediment‐associated organic matter sources and sediment oxygen demand in a Special Area of Conservation (SAC): a case study of the River Axe, UK

Sediment‐associated organic matter sources and sediment oxygen demand in a Special Area of Conservation (SAC): a case study of the River Axe, UK
Sediment‐associated organic matter sources and sediment oxygen demand in a Special Area of Conservation (SAC): a case study of the River Axe, UK
Oxygen demand in river substrates providing important habitats for the early life stages of
aquatic ecology, including lithophilous fish, can arise due to the oxidation of sediment‐associated organic matter. Oxygen depletion associated with this component of river biogeochemical cycling, will, in part, depend on the sources of such material. A reconnaissance survey was therefore undertaken to assess the relative contributions from bed sediment associated organic matter sources potentially impacting on the River Axe Special Area of Conservation (SAC), in SW England. Source fingerprinting, including Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, suggested that the relative frequency‐weighted average median source contributions ranged between 19% (uncertainty range 0–82%) and 64% (uncertainty range 0–99%) for farmyard manures or slurries, 4% (uncertainty range 0–49%) and 35% (uncertainty range 0–100%) for damaged road verges, 2% (uncertainty range 0–100%) and 68% (uncertainty range 0–100%) for decaying instream vegetation, and 2% (full uncertainty range 0–15%) and 6% (uncertainty range 0–48%) for human septic waste. A reconnaissance survey of sediment
oxygen demand (SOD) along the channel designated as a SAC yielded a mean SOD5 of 4 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment and a corresponding SOD20 of 7 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment, compared with respective ranges of 1–15 and 2–30 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment, measured by the authors for a range of river types across the UK. The findings of the reconnaissance survey were used in an agency (SW region) catchment appraisal exercise for informing targeted management to help protect the SAC.
1535-1459
Collins, Adrian
e5af9eaa-4e2e-46d9-84df-8bd4d059cdb8
Zhang, Y
f812509d-2a3c-41aa-8ba1-68210952d5a6
McMillan, Simon
3188c4d5-4a0d-44fe-9c45-15546c0dae04
Dixon, Elizabeth
431298df-fad3-4a31-9875-b435b2f5c3c3
Stringfellow, Anne
024efba8-7ffc-441e-a268-be43240990a9
Bateman, Samantha
0b329138-a192-4229-8414-883689896b6b
Sear, David
76188159-d464-43ab-bb76-504bbebf63a7
Collins, Adrian
e5af9eaa-4e2e-46d9-84df-8bd4d059cdb8
Zhang, Y
f812509d-2a3c-41aa-8ba1-68210952d5a6
McMillan, Simon
3188c4d5-4a0d-44fe-9c45-15546c0dae04
Dixon, Elizabeth
431298df-fad3-4a31-9875-b435b2f5c3c3
Stringfellow, Anne
024efba8-7ffc-441e-a268-be43240990a9
Bateman, Samantha
0b329138-a192-4229-8414-883689896b6b
Sear, David
76188159-d464-43ab-bb76-504bbebf63a7

Collins, Adrian, Zhang, Y, McMillan, Simon, Dixon, Elizabeth, Stringfellow, Anne, Bateman, Samantha and Sear, David (2017) Sediment‐associated organic matter sources and sediment oxygen demand in a Special Area of Conservation (SAC): a case study of the River Axe, UK. River Research and Applications. (doi:10.1002/rra.3175).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Oxygen demand in river substrates providing important habitats for the early life stages of
aquatic ecology, including lithophilous fish, can arise due to the oxidation of sediment‐associated organic matter. Oxygen depletion associated with this component of river biogeochemical cycling, will, in part, depend on the sources of such material. A reconnaissance survey was therefore undertaken to assess the relative contributions from bed sediment associated organic matter sources potentially impacting on the River Axe Special Area of Conservation (SAC), in SW England. Source fingerprinting, including Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, suggested that the relative frequency‐weighted average median source contributions ranged between 19% (uncertainty range 0–82%) and 64% (uncertainty range 0–99%) for farmyard manures or slurries, 4% (uncertainty range 0–49%) and 35% (uncertainty range 0–100%) for damaged road verges, 2% (uncertainty range 0–100%) and 68% (uncertainty range 0–100%) for decaying instream vegetation, and 2% (full uncertainty range 0–15%) and 6% (uncertainty range 0–48%) for human septic waste. A reconnaissance survey of sediment
oxygen demand (SOD) along the channel designated as a SAC yielded a mean SOD5 of 4 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment and a corresponding SOD20 of 7 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment, compared with respective ranges of 1–15 and 2–30 mg O2 g−1 dry sediment, measured by the authors for a range of river types across the UK. The findings of the reconnaissance survey were used in an agency (SW region) catchment appraisal exercise for informing targeted management to help protect the SAC.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 25 May 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 June 2017

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 417402
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/417402
ISSN: 1535-1459
PURE UUID: 24be3dc5-ded0-4bea-87ce-9b0e8303df91
ORCID for Anne Stringfellow: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8873-0010

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Date deposited: 30 Jan 2018 17:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:06

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Contributors

Author: Adrian Collins
Author: Y Zhang
Author: Simon McMillan
Author: Elizabeth Dixon
Author: Samantha Bateman
Author: David Sear

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