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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #369217
Research Project: Integrating Remote Sensing, Measurements and Modeling for Multi-Scale Assessment of Water Availability, Use, and Quality in Agroecosystems

Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory

Title: Modeling riverine dissolved and particulate organic carbon fluxes from two small watersheds in the northeastern United States

Author
item QI, J. - University Of Maryland
item DU, X. - Collaborator
item ZHANG, X. - University Of Maryland
item LEE, S. - University Of Maryland
item WU, Y. - Jiaotong University
item Moglen, Glenn
item Sadeghi, Ali
item McCarty, Gregory

Submitted to: Environmental Modelling & Software
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/9/2019
Publication Date: 12/16/2019
Citation: Qi, J., Du, X., Zhang, X., Lee, S., Wu, Y., Moglen, G.E., Sadeghi, A.M., McCarty, G.W. 2019. Modeling riverine dissolved and particulate organic carbon fluxes from two small watersheds in the northeastern United States. Environmental Modelling & Software. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104601.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104601

Interpretive Summary: Understanding the amount of carbon moving within a watershed is important for purposes of watershed assessment and planning.The ARS hydrologic model, Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) can be used to model the movement of particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Accurate modeling of carbon movement within terrestrial and aquatic environments is difficult. In this study, we extend SWAT with new modules that specifically address POC and DOC movement. The new SWAT modules performed well from a daily flux perspective, although high flows and fluxes of POC and DOC tended to be underestimated. The modules developed here are useful for examining ecosystem services that depend on, or relate to, carbon and its movement in these systems.

Technical Abstract: The coupled carbon (C) cycle across terrestrial and aquatic environments at the watershed scale has been identified as an important, but poorly constrained component of the global carbon budget. Here, we extended Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with coupled riverine particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) modules (referred to as SWAT-C hereafter). Results show that SWAT-C reproduced daily POC and DOC fluxes well in two watersheds in the Northeastern United States. We found that SWAT-C tended to underestimate high flows and peak DOC and POC fluxes. Uncertainty analysis indicated flux uncertainties associated with POC and DOC simulation were larger than those for flow simulation. Sensitive parameters controlling POC and DOC biogeochemical processes were identified along with how these parameters influence mechanisms underlying C cycling. We anticipate that the tool developed and applied here will inform C related ecosystem services in watershed assessment and planning.