After three decades of active research in hydrology and stream ecology, the connection between solute transport, stream metabolism and nutrient dynamics is still unresolved. This existing gap obscures the functionality of stream ecosystems and how they interact with other landscape processes. To date, determining rates of metabolism is accomplished with...
A “smart” tracer is a tracer that provides, directly or through measurement of its concentration or in combination with another compound, at least one “bit” more of information about the environment through which it travels than a conservative tracer. In this study we propose and present the chemical compound resazurin...
Water transient storage zones are hotspots for metabolic activity in streams although the contribution of different types of transient storage zones to the whole-reach metabolic activity is difficult to quantify. In this study we present a method to measure the fraction of the transient storage that is metabolically active (MATS)...
Quantification of the transient storage zone (A[subscript s]) has become critical in stream biogeochemical studies addressed to examine factors controlling nutrient uptake. It is expected that higher A[subscript s] may enhance the interaction between nutrients and biota and thus, increase nutrient uptake. However, results from the literature are controversial. We...
Coastal wetlands are characterized by high biodiversity, which is one of the main criteria considered when establishing protection policies or when proposing adequate management actions. In this study, the crustacean and aquatic insect composition of the Emporda wetlands is described. These two faunal groups contribute highly to the total biodiversity...
This study examined the effect of increasing in-channel leaf standing stocks on hydrologic transient storage and nutrient retention in a Mediterranean mountain stream. A flood at the end of the leaf fall period provided the opportunity to examine the effect of abrupt removal of much of the leaf material. Twenty-one...
The hyporheic zone is of great interest for stream ecologists because of its role in stream biogeochemical processing. Our study addresses the effects of leaf-litter inputs and varying discharge on surface–hyporheic water exchange and their possible consequences for the hyporheic zone biogeochemistry. Our study was conducted during autumn in Riera...
Small hydropower plants divert part of the water from wide and physically complex
stream channels with active hyporheic areas to narrow and hydraulically simple concrete canals,
and thus, might affect nutrient dynamics. We compared nutrient uptake in diversion canals and
in stream channels in the Leitzaran Stream (Basque Country, northern...
Stream functioning includes simultaneous interaction among solute transport, nutrient processing, and metabolism. Metabolism is measured with methods that have limited spatial representativeness and are highly uncertain. These problems restrict development of methods for up-scaling biological processes that mediate nutrient processing. We used the resazurin–resorufin (Raz-Rru) tracer system to estimate metabolism...
In a set of streamside mesocosms, stream ecosystem respiration (ER) increased with biofilm biomass and flow heterogeneity (turbulence) generated by impermeable bed forms, even though those bed forms had no hyporheic exchange. Two streamside flumes with gravel beds (single layer of gravel) were operated in parallel. The first flume had...