2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
5/22/2018 | 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM | EFFECT OF DAM REMOVALS ON BIOGEOCHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSES | 330 B
EFFECT OF DAM REMOVALS ON BIOGEOCHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSES
Across the United States, advocacy of dam removals is increasing for reasons including restoring migratory fish passage, reestablishing more natural flow and sediment regimes, and decreasing threats to human safety from aging infrastructure. While these are justifiable concerns, the effect of dam-related impoundments on physical and biogeochemical processes and river network-scale water quality, and how these processes change when a dam is removed, are not entirely clear. Here, we take advantage of a planned dam removal on the Ipswich River in northeastern Massachusetts to investigate processes controlling nutrient transformations and removal, sediment retention, and greenhouse gas (GHG) production within impoundments. Preliminary results using high frequency in situ sensors reveal substantial nitrate (NO3) removal during the summer low flow period, and little to no impact during higher flows. Dissolved methane (CH4) was similar at the inflow and outflow across 2016 and 2017. However, CH4 concentrations were significantly greater in an off-channel area, suggesting lentic zones within impoundments may be sizable sources of GHGs to the atmosphere. This project will aid in understanding how dam removals affect nutrient and sediment fluxes and GHG production and will help inform future dam removal projects.
- Dams
- Environmental Regulation
- Nutrients
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Presenters/Authors
Christopher Whitney
(), University of New Hampshire, chris.whitney@unh.edu;
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Wilfred Wollheim
(), University of New Hampshire, wil.wollheim@unh.edu;
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