Do Stream Restoration Projects Change Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics in These Streams?

Elaine Langone Center, Terrace Room

Pennsylvania is known for its river life. Property owners in the upper Susquehanna River basin in particular, take pride in any flowing water on their land. When these streams are degraded, conservancies and government agencies can provide help to landowners to install plantings, materials, devices and earth-moving to restore the stream channel. These strategies attempt to anchor sediments, re-vegetate the stream bank, remove nutrients from runoff, provide shade to the channel, and add structures that improve the stream bottom for improved fish and insect habitat. A stream prioritization tool from the Chesapeake Conservancy identified properties on Elk Creek in Central PA as a priority for restoration based on new hi-resolution land cover, flowpath analysis, and stream forests. Carbon and nitrogen in both stream water and stream sediments are being monitored during the stream restoration to determine if these concentrations change during after the stream channel is improved. By examining a range of PA streams, the carbon:nitrogen ratio of stream waters are about 44 for mountain trout streams while severely impaired streams have a ratio of about 1. In sediments, these ratios are 17 for pristine streams and <1 in severely impaired streams. We are monitoring these ratios at 4 sites along Elk Creek to determine if this ratio can be improved following a stream>restoration.