Abstract
Understanding transport mechanisms and temporal patterns in the context of metal concentrations in urban streams is important for developing best management practices and restoration strategies to improve water quality. In some cases, in-situ sensors can be used to estimate unknown concentrations of trace metals or to interpolate between sampling events. Continuous sensor data from the United States Geological Survey were analyzed to determine statistically significant relationships between lead, copper, zinc, cadmium, and mercury with turbidity, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and discharge for the Hickey Run, Watts Branch, and Rock Creek watersheds in the Washington, D.C. region. We observed a significant negative linear relationship between concentrations of Cu and dissolved oxygen at Rock Creek (p < 0.05). Sometimes, turbidity had significant positive linear relationships with Pb and Hg concentrations. There were negative or positive linear relationships between Pb, Cd, Zn, and Hg and specific conductance. There also appeared to be relationships between watershed areal fluxes of Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cd in streams with turbidity. Watershed monitoring approaches using continuous sensor data have the potential to characterize the frequency, magnitude, and composition of pulses in concentrations and loads of trace metals, which could improve the management and restoration of urban streams.
Highlights
Urbanization is expected to increase over the century with significant impacts on water quality in streams and rivers across space and time [1,2,3,4]
We explore changes in metal concentrations across three urban watersheds varying in size and impervious surface cover, and analyze relationships between trace metals and in-stream continuous sensor data
The impact of urbanization on the transport and transformation of multiple metals in urban streams has led to a need for characterizing the constituents of this chemical cocktail more holistically
Summary
Urbanization is expected to increase over the century with significant impacts on water quality in streams and rivers across space and time [1,2,3,4]. Metals, such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and mercury (Hg), are commonly found together at elevated concentrations in many urban streams [4,5,6,7]. Analyzing concentrations of metals in urban watersheds and relationships between sensor data and multiple metals can provide insights on tracking the transport of complex chemical mixtures in urban streams
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call