Environmental regulations in the United States lead to improvements in untreated stormwater quality over four decades.

Identifying sources of pollutants in watersheds is critical to accurately predicting stormwater quality. Many existing software used to model stormwater quality rely on decades-old data sets which may not represent current runoff quality in the United States. Because of environmental regulations promulgated at the federal level over previous decades, there is a need to understand long-term trends (and potential shifts) in runoff quality to better parameterize models. Pollutant event mean concentrations (EMCs) from the National Stormwater Quality Database (NSQD) were combined with those from recent sources to understand if untreated stormwater quality has changed over the past 40 years. A significant decreasing monotonic trend (i.e., continually decreasing in a nonuniform fashion) was observed for total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total copper (Cu), total lead (Pb), and total zinc (Zn) in the resultant database, suggesting that runoff quality has become less polluted with time. Median EMCs decreased from 99.2 to 42 mg/L, 0.34 to 0.26 mg/L, 1.27 to 1.03 mg/L, 40 to 6.8 µg/L, 110 to 3.7 µg/L, and 375 to 53.3 µg/L for TSS, TP, TN, Cu, Pb, and Zn, respectively, from the 1980s to the 2010s. These significant reductions often aligned temporally with advancements in clean manufacturing, amendments of the Clean Air Act, and other source control efforts which impact pollutant bioavailability and atmospheric deposition. Results suggest environmental regulations not specifically targeting stormwater management have had a positive impact on stormwater quality and that temporal fluctuations should be considered in modeling.

Risk assessment of imidacloprid use in forest settings on the aquatic macroinvertebrate community.

The isolated effects of a single insecticide can be difficult to assess in natural settings because of the presence of numerous pollutants in many watersheds. Imidacloprid use for suppressing hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae (Annand) (Hemiptera: Adelgidae), in forests offers a rare opportunity to assess potential impacts on aquatic macroinvertebrates in relatively pristine landscapes. Aquatic macroinvertebrate communities were assessed in 9 streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (southern Appalachian Mountains, USA). The streams flow through hemlock conservation areas where imidacloprid soil drench treatments were applied for hemlock woolly adelgid suppression. Sites were located upstream and downstream of the imidacloprid treatments. Baseline species presence data (pre-imidacloprid treatment) were available from previous sample collections at downstream sites. Downstream and upstream sites did not vary in numerous community measures. Although comparisons of paired upstream and downstream sites showed differences in diversity in 7 streams, higher diversity was found more often in downstream sites. Macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups and life habits were similar between downstream and upstream sites. Downstream and baseline stream samples were similar. While some functional feeding group and life habit species richness categories varied, variations did not indicate poorer quality downstream communities. Imidacloprid treatments applied according to US Environmental Protection Agency federal restrictions did not result in negative effects to aquatic macroinvertebrate communities, which indicates that risks of imidacloprid use in forest settings are low. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3108-3119. © 2017 SETAC.

Suspended sediment regimes in contrasting reference-condition freshwater ecosystems: implications for water quality guidelines and management.

Suspended sediment (SS), ranging from nano-scale particles to sand-sized sediments, is one of the most common contributors to water quality impairment globally. However, there is currently little scientific evidence as to what should be regarded as an appropriate SS regime for different freshwater ecosystems. In this article, we compare the SS regimes of ten systematically-selected contrasting reference-condition temperate river ecosystems that were observed through high-resolution monitoring between 2011 and 2013. The results indicate that mean SS concentrations vary spatially, between 3 and 29 mg L(-1). The observed mean SS concentrations were compared to predicted mean SS concentrations based on a model developed by Bilotta et al. (2012). Predictions were in the form of probability of membership to one of the five SS concentration ranges, predicted as a function of a number of the natural environmental characteristics associated with each river's catchment. This model predicted the correct or next closest SS range for all of the sites. Mean annual SS concentrations varied temporally in each river, by up to three-fold between a relatively dry year (2011-2012) and a relatively wet year (2012-2013). This inter-annual variability could be predicted reasonably well for all the sites except the River Rother, using the model described above, but with modified input data to take into account the mean annual temperature (°C) and total annual precipitation (mm) in the year for which the mean SS prediction is to be made. The findings highlight the need for water quality guidelines for SS to recognise natural spatial and temporal variations in SS within rivers. The findings also demonstrate the importance of the temporal resolution of SS sampling in determining assessments of compliance against water quality guidelines.

Fish functional traits correlated with environmental variables in a temperate biodiversity hotspot.

The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been no trait-based study of community structure in the system. We identified 211 localities in the upper Tennessee River that were sampled by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 2009 and 2011 and compiled fish functional traits for the observed species and environmental variables for each locality. Using fourth corner analysis, we identified significant correlations between many fish functional traits and environmental variables. Functional traits associated with an opportunistic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to greater land use disturbance and less flow regulation, while functional traits associated with a periodic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to regular disturbance and regulated flow. These are patterns observed at the continental scale, highlighting the generalizability of trait-based methods. Contrary to studies that found no community structure differences when considering riparian buffer zones, we found that fish functional traits were correlated with different environmental variables between analyses with buffer zones vs. entire catchment area land cover proportions. Using existing databases and fourth corner analysis, our results support the broad application potential for trait-based methods and indicate trait-based methods can detect environmental filtering by riparian zone land cover.

Use of fish functional traits to associate in-stream suspended sediment transport metrics with biological impairment.

Loss of ecological integrity due to excessive suspended sediment in rivers and streams is a major cause of water quality impairment in the USA. Current assessment protocols for development of sediment total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) lack a means to link temporally variable sediment transport rates with specific losses of ecological functions as loads increase. In order to accomplish this linkage assessment, a functional traits-based approach was used to correlate site occurrences of 17 fish species traits in three main groups (preferred rearing habitat, trophic feeding guild, and spawning behavior) with suspended sediment transport metrics. The sediment transport metrics included concentrations, durations, and dosages for a range of exceedance frequencies; and mean annual suspended sediment yields (SSY). In addition, this study in the Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion examined trait relationships with three environmental gradients: channel stability, drainage area, and elevation. Potential stressor responses due to elevated suspended sediment concentration (SSC) levels were correlated with occurrences of five traits: preferred pool habitat; feeding generalists, omnivores, piscivores, and nest-building spawners; and development of ecologically based TMDL targets were demonstrated for specific SSC exceedance frequencies. In addition, reduced site occurrences for preferred pool habitat and nest-building spawners traits were associated with unstable channels and higher SSY. At an ecoregion scale, a functional traits assessment approach provided a means to quantify relations between biological impairment and episodically elevated levels of suspended sediment, supporting efforts to develop ecologically based sediment TMDLs.

Physiological stress in native southern brook trout during episodic stream acidification in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Episodic stream acidification from atmospheric deposition is suspected to detrimentally impact native southern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) headwater streams. To test the hypothesis that episodes of stream acidification cause physiological distress to native trout, caged fish at three sites were exposed to acid episodes during in situ bioassays conducted in June 2006 and March 2007. Stream pH decreased (>0.7 pH units) and total dissolved aluminum (Al(TD)) increased (>175 microg/L) at all three sites during acid episodes in both bioassays. Whole-body sodium concentrations were significantly reduced (10-20%) following the acid episodes, when preceding 24-h mean pH values of 4.88, 5.09, and 4.87 and corresponding 24-h time-weighted average Al(TD) concentrations of 210, 202, and 202 microg/L were observed. Lower whole-body sodium concentrations were correlated with elevated H+ and Al(TD) concentrations. Loss of sodium ions in native southern brook trout was consistent with physiological distress resulting from acid exposure reported in salmonids in other investigations. Further research is necessary to conclude whether acid episodes are responsible for extirpation of brook trout from headwater streams in the GRSM.

Temporal variation and persistence of bacteria in streams.

Better understanding of bacterial fate and transport in watersheds is necessary for improved regulatory management of impaired streams. Novel statistical time series analyses of coliform data can be a useful tool for evaluating the dynamics of temporal variation and persistence of bacteria within a watershed. For this study, daily total coliform data for the Little River in East Tennessee from 1 Oct. 2000 to 31 Dec. 2005 were evaluated using novel time series techniques. The objective of this study was to analyze the total coliform concentration data to: (i) evaluate the temporal variation of the total coliform, and (ii) determine whether the total coliform concentration data demonstrated any long-term or short-term persistence. For robust analysis and comparison, both time domain and frequency domain approaches were used for the analysis. In the time domain, an autoregressive moving average approach was used; whereas in the frequency domain, spectral analysis was applied. As expected, the analyses showed that total coliform concentrations were higher in summer months and lower in winter months. However, the more interesting results showed that the total coliform concentration exhibited short-term as well as long-term persistence ranging from about 4 wk to approximately 1 yr, respectively. Comparison of the total coliform data to hydrologic data indicated both runoff and baseflow are responsible for the persistence.