Land use affects the timing and magnitude of material delivery to headwater streams in coastal North Carolina

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  • March 21, 2019
Creator
  • Schwartz, Rebecca
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Environment and Ecology
Abstract
  • Headwater streams are both the transport vectors and receiving waters for landscape-derived materials. This high level of connectivity to their surrounding watershed imparts headwater streams with the ability to act as sentinels of impacts that may occur due to changing land uses. Determining the impacts of land use and precipitation patterns on material delivery by streams is requisite for quantifying and mitigating degradation resulting from watershed development. Headwater streams in the New River Estuary, NC, USA were monitored for one year, during which water samples were collected during base- and throughout storm-flow. Samples were analyzed for nutrient and total suspended solid (TSS) concentrations, and flow was measured continuously. This research determined that in developed watersheds, loading of some constituents (nitrate, ammonium, TSS) and stream discharge increased, as did the relative importance of storm flow delivery, when compared to reference watersheds. Flow measurement method and data analysis approach, both affected results.
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  • In Copyright
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  • "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology."
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  • Piehler, Michael
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  • Chapel Hill, NC
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  • Open access

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