Small Ponds in Headwater Catchments Are a Dominant Influence on Regional Nutrient and Sediment Budgets

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dc.contributor.authorSchmadel, Noah M.en
dc.contributor.authorHarvey, Judson W.en
dc.contributor.authorSchwarz, Gregory E.en
dc.contributor.authorAlexander, Richard B.en
dc.contributor.authorGomez-Velez, Jesus D.en
dc.contributor.authorScott, Durelle T.en
dc.contributor.authorAtor, Scott W.en
dc.date.accessioned2020-06-18T13:16:40Zen
dc.date.available2020-06-18T13:16:40Zen
dc.date.issued2019-08-28en
dc.description.abstractSmall ponds-farm ponds, detention ponds, or impoundments below 0.01 km(2)-serve important human needs throughout most large river basins. Yet the role of small ponds in regional nutrient and sediment budgets is essentially unknown, currently making it impossible to evaluate their management potential to achieve water quality objectives. Here we used new hydrography data sets and found that small ponds, depending on their spatial position within both their local catchments and the larger river network, can dominate the retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment compared to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Over 300,000 small ponds are collectively responsible for 34%, 69%, and 12% of the mean annual retention of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in the Northeastern United States, respectively, with a dominant influence in headwater catchments (54%, 85%, and 50%, respectively). Small ponds play a critical role among the many aquatic features in long-term nutrient and sediment loading to downstream waters. Plain Language Summary Reservoirs created by river damming have extensive impacts on downstream water quality but are not necessarily the most important elements of a diverse aquatic landscape. Many more small ponds have been constructed to serve important human needs ranging from farm irrigation in agricultural areas to flood control and trapping of nutrients and fine sediment in urban areas. The number of human-influenced small ponds is projected to rise worldwide, yet their role in the delivery of nutrients and sediment from headwaters to oceans is currently unresolved. Here we used new data sets and found that small ponds are collectively responsible for trapping a substantial amount of the nutrients and sediment that are exported annually from headwaters. These findings support the need to jointly consider features such as urban detention ponds, farm ponds, and beaver ponds in managing headwaters to decrease long-term nutrient and sediment loading to downstream waters and sensitive coastal areas.en
dc.description.adminPublic domain – authored by a U.S. government employeeen
dc.description.notesThe ideas for this work were formulated during meetings of the John Wesley Powell Center River Corridor Working Group, supported by U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation Hydrologic Sciences Program. The work was carried out at the USGS where N. M. S. is a USGS Mendenhall postdoctoral fellow funded by the Water Mission Area. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. We used publicly available, nationally consistent data sets (see Table S2 for data sources). The SPARROW model source code is also publicly available (https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/sparrow/). The authors declare no conflict of interest.en
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. Geological SurveyUnited States Geological Survey; National Science Foundation Hydrologic Sciences ProgramNational Science Foundation (NSF)NSF - Directorate for Geosciences (GEO); Water Mission Areaen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083937en
dc.identifier.eissn1944-8007en
dc.identifier.issn0094-8276en
dc.identifier.issue16en
dc.identifier.orcidScott, Durelle T. [0000-0002-5792-789X]en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/99045en
dc.identifier.volume46en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/en
dc.titleSmall Ponds in Headwater Catchments Are a Dominant Influence on Regional Nutrient and Sediment Budgetsen
dc.title.serialGeophysical Research Lettersen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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Scholarly Works, Biological Systems Engineering
Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)