Warming increases carbon-nutrient fluxes from sediments in streams across land use

Abstract. Rising water temperatures due to climate and land-use change can accelerate biogeochemical fluxes from sediments to streams. We investigated impacts of increased streamwater temperatures on sediment fluxes of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and sulfate. Experiments were conducted at 8 long-term monitoring sites across land use (forest, agricultural, suburban, and urban) at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Over 20 yr of routine water temperature data showed substantial variation across seasons and years, and lab incubations were conducted at 4 temperatures (4 °C, 15 °C, 25 °C and 35 °C) for 48 h. Results indicated: (1) warming consistently increased sediment DOC fluxes to overlying water across land use but decreased DOC quality via increases in the humic-like to protein-like fractions (2) warming consistently increased SRP fluxes from sediments to overlying water across land use (3) warming increased sulfate fluxes from sediments to overlying water at rural/suburban sites but decreased sulfate fluxes at urban sites likely due to sulfate reduction (4) nitrate fluxes showed an increasing trend with temperature but with larger variability than SRP. Sediment fluxes of nitrate, SRP and sulfate were strongly related to watershed urbanization and organic matter content. Using relationships of sediment fluxes with temperature, we estimate a 5 °C warming would increase the annual sediment release by 1.0–3.9 times. In addition to hydrologic variability, understanding warming impacts on coupled biogeochemical cycles in streams (e.g., organic matter mineralization, P sorption, nitrification, denitrification, and sulfate reduction) is critical for forecasting changes in carbon and nutrient exports across watershed land use.