Estimating Intermittent Runoff Concentrations of Organic Matter and the Allochthonous Organic Loading of New Mexico Reservoirs

Abstract

ABSTRACT Variations in the concentrations of total and particulate organic matter were estimated from 1979 through 1988 in natural and simulated runoff events to improve estimates of reservoir gross organic loading from intermittent flows. Total organic matter concentrations in natural runoff from pinyon-juniper watersheds and particulate organic matter concentrations in runoff from creosote bush watersheds increased as a natural logarithmic function of discharge. Total organic matter and particulate organic matter discharge-weighted concentrations in natural runoff events were related to measurements of instantaneous discharge and total organic matter and particulate organic matter concentrations, and to estimates of the maximum discharge of total organic matter and particulate organic matter concentrations that occurred in the event. In rainfall simulations conducted in watersheds of creosote bush, desert grass, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and spruce meadow, only particulate organic matter concentra...