Increases in salinity following a shift in hydrologic regime in a constructed wetland watershed in a post-mining oil sands landscape

Biagi, Kelly; Oswald, Claire J.; Nicholls, Erin M.; Carey, Sean K.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.341

Cited by 32 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Future studies should include marshes as additional wetland site types for comparisons against SHF. For reduced EC, sulfate, and chloride, our values at SHF after 6 years were slightly higher than those reported by Biagi et al (2019), which assessed spatial distributions of ions across the reclamation site during the first 3 years. We put forward that concentrations for many ions are increasing annually at SHF, and porewater chemistry has yet to stabilize after six growing seasons.…”

Section: Environmental Conditions and Porewater Patternscontrasting

confidence: 87%

“…We put forward that concentrations for many ions are increasing annually at SHF, and porewater chemistry has yet to stabilize after six growing seasons. Considering the fresh water source used for site flooding in 2012, the unique ion‐rich chemical signatures specific to the reclamation site likely manifest from upward movement of oil sand process water and underlying tailings materials into the wetland (Biagi et al, ). In brief, the major ions in oil sand process water are derived from the oil extraction process and additions of gypsum [CaSO 4 + 2H 2 O] (gypsum enhances settlement of materials during dewatering; Vessey, Lindsay, & Barbour, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although achieving equivalent land capability could be partially met with non‐peat‐forming wetlands, which are likely a very achievable end point for wetland reclamation efforts, peat‐forming wetland creation will pose a bigger challenge. Some fundamental challenges to overcome include de novo construction of entire watersheds, water quantity and quality management (Ketcheson et al, ; ; Biagi, Oswald, Nicholls, & Carey, ), and lastly, restoring belowground functional processes such as nutrient‐cycling back to levels representative of natural systems (Hartsock, House, & Vitt, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nutrient supply patterns across the Sandhill Fen reclamation watershed and regional reference fens in Alberta, Canada: An ion exchange membrane study

Hartsock

Bremer²,

Vitt

2020

Ecohydrology

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Using Plant Root Simulator (PRS®) probes, we evaluate nutrient supply rates at the Sandhill Fen reclamation watershed across a gradient of increasing water table position and compare observations with three reference fens (a poor, moderate‐rich, and saline fen). Our objectives were threefold: (a) determine the behavior of PRS probes across multiple peatland classes, (b) determine which type of peatland Sandhill Fen is most analogous to in terms of nutrient supply patterns and site chemistry, and (c) attempt to provide a repeatable approach for assessing nutrient supply in peatlands. In terms of porewater chemistry, conditions at Sandhill Fen were quite unique, yet, most comparable to the saline fen. Consistent with porewater analysis, PRS probes had low nitrate supply at all sites, high calcium and magnesium supply at all sites (except the poor fen), and much higher sulfur supply at Sandhill Fen. Site differences in PRS probe measurements were smaller for 20‐ than 2‐day burial periods due to displacement of less strongly held elements (e.g., potassium) on ion exchange membranes. Because long‐term incubations may underrepresent supply rates for weakly held ions due to displacement by divalent ions, we recommend that reclamation assessments over a wide range of fen types should use a relatively short burial period of 1 to 3 days. With few exceptions (sulfate and iron), nutrient supply patterns at Sandhill Fen were quite comparable to the reference fens. For future wetland reclamation performance assessments in the AOSR, PRS probes could serve an important role for evaluating belowground functional components.

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Section: Environmental Conditions and Porewater Patternscontrasting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nutrient supply patterns across the Sandhill Fen reclamation watershed and regional reference fens in Alberta, Canada: An ion exchange membrane study

Hartsock

Bremer²,

Vitt

2020

Ecohydrology

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“…There is also little information on the relationship between SWMP treatment and water age at the catchment scale. This knowledge is critical for understanding how contaminants, for example, chloride from road salts, move through urban water systems (Biagi, Oswald, Nicholls, & Carey, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water age in stormwater management ponds and stormwater management pond‐treated catchments

Morales

Oswald

2020

Hydrological Processes

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Expansion of impervious surface cover results in "flashy" hydrologic response, elevated flood risk, and degraded water quality in urban watersheds. Stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) are often engineered into stream networks to mitigate these issues. A clearer understanding of how water is stored and released from SWMPs and SWMP-treated catchments is required to better represent these engineered systems in hydrological and water quality models of urban and urbanizing watersheds. Stable water isotopes were used to compare water age in SWMPs and SWMP-treated catchments in an urbanizing watershed. We sampled water biweekly from two SWMPs and five stream sites with varying land cover and stormwater control in their catchments. Two inverse transit time proxies (damping ratio and young water fraction) were computed along with the mean transit time (MTT) by sine-wave fitting for each SWMP and stream site using the δ 18 O and δ 2 H data. Water entering the SWMPs was consistently older (224 and 177 days) than water in or exiting the ponds (ranging from 46 to 91 days and 39 to 67 days, respectively). This finding is likely due to a combination of groundwater infiltration into broken sewer pipes that transport water into the ponds and a bias toward baseflow sampling. At the catchment scale, detention provided by SWMPs was not found to be more significant than the interactive effects of impervious cover, surficial geology, land use proportions, and catchment size in determining MTT. Overall, surficial geology explained the most variation in MTT among the seven sites. This study illustrates the potential for isotope-based approaches of water age to provide information on individual SWMP functioning and the influence of SWMPs on catchment-scale water movement. K E Y W O R D Sisotope tracers, retention pond, stable water isotope, stormwater management, transit time, urban hydrology

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“…The SFW (57.0403 • N, 111.5890 • W) was designed to reclaim sand-capped soft tailings with the conditions needed to promote the long-term development of a peat-forming boreal plains ecosystem (Wytrykush et al, 2012). Details of the SFW construction were described by Wytrykush et al (2012) and others (Biagi et al, 2019;Nicholls et al, 2016;Oswald and Carey, 2016;Vitt et al, 2016). Clark et al (2019) described the three main topographic features of the SFW as a lowland region (the wetland), a midland region (drained but moist organic soils), and an upland region lying 2 to 6 m above the wetland with well-drained sandy soils and two experimental perched wetland sites with moist organic soils ( Fig.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Low methane emissions from a boreal wetland constructed on oil sand mine tailings

2020

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Abstract. A 58 ha mixed upland and lowland boreal plains watershed called the Sandhill Fen Watershed was constructed between 2008 and 2012. In the years following wetting in 2013, methane emissions were measured using manual chambers. The presence of vegetation with aerenchymous tissues and saturated soils were important factors influencing the spatial variability of methane emissions across the constructed watershed. Nevertheless, median methane emissions were equal to or less than 0.51 mg CH4 m−2 h−1 even from the saturated organic soils in the lowlands. Although overall methane emissions remained low, observations of methane ebullition increased over the 3 study years. Ebullition events occurred in 10 % of measurements in 2013, increasing to 21 % and 27 % of measurements in 2014 and 2015, respectively, at the plots with saturated soils. Increasing metal ion availability and decreasing sulfur availability was measured using buried ion exchange resins at both seasonal and annual timescales potentially as a result of microbial reduction of these ions. Using principle component analysis, methane fluxes had a significant positive correlation to the leading principle component which was associated with increasing ammonium, iron, and manganese and decreasing sulfur availability (r=0.31, p<0.001). These results suggest that an abundance of alternative inorganic electron acceptors may be limiting methanogenesis at this time.

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Increases in salinity following a shift in hydrologic regime in a constructed wetland watershed in a post-mining oil sands landscape

Cited by 32 publications

References 44 publications

Nutrient supply patterns across the Sandhill Fen reclamation watershed and regional reference fens in Alberta, Canada: An ion exchange membrane study

Nutrient supply patterns across the Sandhill Fen reclamation watershed and regional reference fens in Alberta, Canada: An ion exchange membrane study

Water age in stormwater management ponds and stormwater management pond‐treated catchments

Low methane emissions from a boreal wetland constructed on oil sand mine tailings

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