Chemostatic behaviour of major ions and contaminants in a semiarid spring and stream system near Los Alamos,NM, USA |
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| Authors: | Jace M Koger Brent D Newman Timothy J Goering |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA;2. Environmental Management, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA |
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| Abstract: | Recent studies have focused on the relationship between solute concentrations and discharge in streams, demonstrating that concentrations can vary little relative to changes in discharge (chemostatic behaviour). Chemostatic behaviour is dependent on catchment characteristics (e.g., lithology, geomorphology, and vegetation) and chemical characteristics of the solute (e.g., availability, reactivity, and mobility). An investigation of 3 springs and a stream near Los Alamos, NM, reveals that springs can behave in a chemostatic fashion as stream systems tend to do. Another unique finding of this study is that the anthropogenic contaminants barium and the high explosive RDX (hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine) can also behave chemostatically. The chemostatic behaviour of a contaminant has important implications for the residence time of contaminants in a system as well as having a major control on contaminant flux and mass transport. Redox (reduction–oxidation) and biogeochemically sensitive analytes (e.g., Fe, SO4, and NO3) display a combination of chemostatic and chemodynamic behaviour, showing the influence of temporally variable conditions on stream and spring chemistries. |
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| Keywords: | chemostatic concentration– discharge contaminants semiarid springs |
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