Engineering Commons^™

High Resolution Sensing Of Nitrate Dynamics In A Mixed-Use Appalachian Watershed: Quantifying Nitrate Fate And Transport As Influenced By A Backwater Riparian Wetland, Alexandria Kosoma Jensen

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

As harmful algal blooms begin to appear in unexpected places such as rivers in predominantly forested systems, a better understanding of the nutrient processes within these contributing watersheds is necessary. However, these systems remain understudied. Utilization of high-resolution water quality data applied to deterministic numerical modeling has shown that a 0.42% watershed area backwater riparian wetland along the Ohio River floodplain can attenuate 18.1% of nitrate discharged from local mixed-use watersheds and improves in performance during high loading times due to coinciding increased hydrological connectivity and residence times of water in these wetlands. Loading from the Fourpole Creek watershed was …