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SFS Annual Meeting

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LANDSCAPE PATTERNS DRIVE VARIABILITY IN WATER CHEMISTRY ACROSS SUB-TROPICAL URBAN STREAMS

As more people move into densely populated urban areas, anthropogenic pressures on urban ecosystems continue to rise. Our understanding of how urbanization affects stream ecosystems has grown considerably over the past 20 years, but the long-term effects of geomorphology and surrounding landscape practices on urban stream nutrient dynamics remain unclear. Through regular monitoring of six sub-tropical streams spanning an urban gradient encompassing variability in land-use, stream bed compositions, and nutrient sources, we hope to gain a broader understanding of how landscapes shape urban stream nutrient fluxes. We hypothesize that streams with more urbanized watersheds will exhibit higher mean nutrient concentrations and greater temporal variability due to altered hydrology and nutrient sources. Preliminary results suggest that nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations are increased in urban streams relative to a reference stream. However, a concrete-lined stream draining the most urbanized watershed consistently has lower nutrient concentrations than other sites. Our regular monitoring will capture short- and long-term effects of the variety of stormwater, land, and wastewater management strategies employed in our sub-tropical study region. Results of our study will provide a better understanding of how landscape practices affect water quality in urban streams.

Alexander Reisinger (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Florida, reisingera@ufl.edu;
Alexander J. Reisinger is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida.

Emily Taylor (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Florida, etaylor21@ufl.edu;