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Auburn University

Year One Research Progress

YEAR 2004

The Auburn University (AU) research team made monthly trips to Lake Martin from April through October 2004 and measured the parameters listed below at 20 sites on the lake following Standard Methods* (APHA 1998):

AU also measured the parameters listed below  from six stream sites, three river sites and two point sources monthly, February-December 2004.

Gages were installed on the six streams (four agricultural and two forested) for the continuous monitoring of water level for developing hydrographs.   

A.  Watershed Sampling

            ►stream, river and point source sites

1. Hydrographs from stream gages indicated that stream flow was highly variable (flashy) in the gaged second order streams; and that for rain-event sampling, water samples should be collected within 6-12 hours after the onset of a rainfall/runoff event to measure nonpoint source nutrient and sediment loading.

2. Agricultural streams (►sites A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4) were about five times greater in TN and TP concentrations and two times greater in TSS concentration than silvicultural streams (►data from 2-10/2004).

3. Sampled point sources (two waste water treatment plants) were 64 times greater in TN concentration, 154 times greater in TP concentration and 18 times greater in TSS concentration than silvicultural streams (►data from 2-7/2004).

4. The silvicultural stream with active clear cutting in the watershed (►site F-2) had two times greater TSS concentration than the silvicultural stream without clear cutting (►site  F-1)  (►data from 2-10/2004).

B.   Lake Sampling

       ► Lake Martin sites

1. Nutrient (TP), Secchi disk visibility and chlorophyll a results indicated that the lower end of Lake Martin (near the dam) was oligotrophic, the middle section of the lake transitioned from oligotrophic to mesotrophic, and the upper section of the lake was eutrophic (►data from 4-10/2004).

2. Coley Creek Embayment, which receives treated municipal wastewater, was the most enriched site sampled (growing season mean chlorophyll a concentration of 18.4 µg/L for the photic zone composite (►data from 4-10/2004).

Auburn University team

Year Two Research Progress

YEAR 2005

The Auburn University (AU) research team, from the AU Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, made seven monthly trips to Lake Wedowee from April through October 2005 to measure the ►same parameters as in Year One at Lake Martin, at 14 sites on the lake following Standard Methods protocols.  Lake sampling was done on both a photic zone composite sample and a 0.5-meter deep sample. The 0.5-meter deep sample was collected specifically for correlation with spectral reflectance analyses.  AU also measured TN, TP, SRP, TSS, pH, alkalinity and discharge from six stream sites, three river sites and two point sources (wastewater treatment plants) monthly, January-December 2005 (the same sites sampled in 2004). Streams were also sampled eight times after significant rainfall/runoff events. Gage data was periodically downloaded from stream gages that were installed in 2004 on the six streams (four agricultural and two forested) for the continuous monitoring of water level for developing hydrographs to be used in estimating nutrient and sediment loading. ►Fish communities were sampled from the six streams and from Mill Creek (below one of the wastewater treatment plants) to determine stream quality.

Watershed Sampling

 YEAR 2005

Sampling was conducted at 11 watershed sample sites

(►stream, river and point source sites)

Streams were classified by the land use/land cover (LU/LC) occupying their watersheds as either forest/silvicultural (►Birdsong Creek, F-1, and Jones Creek, F-2) or agricultural (►Grants Branch, A-1, Pine Hill, A-2, Prairie, A-3, and Rice Branch, A-4).  Forest and agriculture were the predominant LU/LC types of the Middle and Upper Tallapoosa River basins.  Forest LU/LC was composed of a mosaic of clearcut areas, replanted areas, and areas of trees (mostly loblolly pine) at various stages of maturity.  Agricultural LU/LC was composed of some forest, plus pasturelands (33-54% of the watershed) that receive manure from cattle grazing on them and from nearby poultry houses.  Two point sources, the Dadeville Wastewater Treatment Plant (PS-1) and the Lafayette WWTP (PS-2), were also sampled to measure nutrients generated from these two communities.  Eric Reutebuch, Wendy Seesock, David Bayne and graduate students sampled watershed sites for nutrients (TN, TP, SRP), TSS and discharge following Standard Methods protocols on the following dates:

January 6

February 15, 21 and 24 (RE*)

March 8 (RE) and 16

April 7 (RE) and 12

May 11 and 31 (RE)

June 9, July 7 (RE), 11 (RE) and 27

August 30

September 29

October 19

November 9, 29 (RE)

December 7

*RE: rain event

   Eric Reutebuch collecting water from

            the Tallapoosa River

Omar Romagnoli measuring discharge

of Pine Hill Creek

Stream Gage Data

YEAR 2005

Eric Reutebuch downloaded gage data from all stream gages and performed gage maintenance on January 27, April 20 and October 31. Preliminary work began on developing hydrographs for gaged streams.

Lake Sampling

YEAR 2005

Lake sampling was conducted at 14 sites on Lake Wedowee during the growing season (April-October). 

David Bayne, Wendy Seesock, Eric Reutebuch and graduate students sampled 14 sites on Lake Wedowee for chlorophyll a, TN, TP SRP, TSS, pH, alkalinity, hardness, turbidity, conductivity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, Secchi disk visibility and Forel-Ule color following Standard Methods protocols on April 18, May 18, June 20, July 25, August 24, September 27 and October 27, 2005.  Two water samples were collected at each site for water chemistry analyses, one as a composite of the photic zone (determined by a submersed photometer) and the other collected at a discrete depth of 0.5 meters.  The sampling dates were coincident with LWPOA water quality monitoring, UA hyperspectral sampling and Landsat satellite flyovers.

David Bayne, Wendy Seesock and Eric Reutebuch collecting water samples and in-situ

           measurements on Lake Wedowee

                           Wendy Seesock conducting

                           water quality analysis in the lab at

                          Auburn University

A.   Watershed Sampling

        ►See stream, river and point source sites

1. Hydrographs from stream gages indicated that stream flow was highly variable (flashy), and that for rain event sampling, water samples should be collected within 6-12 hours after the onset of a rainfall/runoff event to measure nonpoint source nutrient and sediment loading. 

2. During regular monthly sampling, agricultural streams were 5.5 times greater in TN, 3.4 times greater in TP and 1.4 times greater in TSS concentrations than silvicultural streams, on average (►see graphics). 

3. During rain event sampling, agricultural streams were 5.8 times greater in TN, 6.7 times greater in TP and 3.2 times greater in TSS concentrations than silvicultural streams, on average (►graphics). 

4. In silvicultural watersheds, average TN concentrations increased by a factor of 1.6 (from 212 µg/L to 335 µg/L), TP concentrations increased by a factor of 2.6 (from 10 µg/L to 26 µg/L), and TSS increased by a factor of 3.4 (from 3.2 mg/L to 10.9 mg/L) during rain events  (►see graphics). 

5. Silvicultural streams were low in nutrient (TN and TP) concentrations during regular and rain event sampling, well below the 100 µg/L TP level recommended as a maximum for flowing streams (►EPA 1986), and well below the 1000 µg/L TN stated as an upper limit for unpolluted natural waters (Boyd 1988).  Silvicultural streams were also relatively low in TSS. 

6. Agricultural streams were much higher in nutrient (TN and TP) concentrations during regular and rain event sampling, oftentimes above the 100 µg/L TP level recommended as a maximum for flowing streams (EPA 1986) during rain events, and oftentimes above the 1000 µg/L TN stated as an upper limit for unpolluted natural waters (Boyd 1988) during both rain event and regular sampling.  During rain events, agricultural streams were also relatively high in TSS.     

7. In agricultural watersheds, average TN concentrations increased by a factor of 1.7 (from 1,158 µg/L to 1,944 µg/L), TP concentrations increased by a factor of 5.1 (from 34 µg/L to 173 µg/L), and TSS increased by a factor of 7.8 (from 4.5 mg/L to 35.2 mg/L) during rain events relative to regular monthly sampling (►see graphics). 

8. The silvicultural stream with active clear cutting in the watershed (site F-2) had two times greater average TSS concentration than the silvicultural stream without clear cutting (site F-1) during rain event sampling relative to regular monthly sampling  (►see graphics).  

9. Preliminary correlation analyses indicated that in the six small watersheds that were gaged and sampled for water chemistry, TSS, TP and total alkalinity were significantly correlated (R = 0.38, 0.15, -0.26 respectively) to stream discharge. TSS was positively correlated to TP, soluble reactive phosphorus and total alkalinity (R = 0.65, 0.52, 0.16 respectively). 

B.   Lake Sampling

        ►See Wedowee sites

1. Nutrient (TP), and Secchi disk visibility results indicated that the lower end of Lake Wedowee (near the dam) was mesotrophic, the middle section of the lake transitioned from mesotrophic to eutrophic, and the upper section of the lake was eutrophic.  Of the six embayments sampled, Piney Creek, Wedowee Creek and Fox Creek were the most enriched, in the eutrophic range, while Allen, Triplet and GLM (confluence of Ginhouse Branch, Lane Branch and Miles Branch) were less enriched, in the mesotrophic range.  TP concentrations measured at a depth of 0.5 meters agreed closely with that measured from photic zone composite samples (►data from 4-10/2005). 

2. According to chlorophyll a (corrected) results, Lake Wedowee was eutrophic from the dam to the most upstream sample site (site 14), but the lower end of the lake was lower eutrophic (average of 8.6 µg/L chlorophyll a) whereas the upper section of the lake was mid-range eutrophic (average of 14.1 µg/L chlorophyll a, ►data from 4-10/2005).

3. The Tallapoosa River system drops significantly in both TP (growing season average of 50.1 down to 5.0 µg/L) and chlorophyll a (growing season average of 14.1 down to 1.3 µg/L) from the upper end of Lake Wedowee (AU site 14) downstream about 100 river- miles to the lower end of Lake Martin (AU site 4, near Martin Dam).  It appears that both lakes Wedowee and Martin are acting as significant nutrient (TP) sinks and waters downstream of both lakes are ‘cleaner’ or less productive in terms of trophic state and nutrient concentrations.  Lake trophic state dropped from eutrophic at the uppermost site (Wedowee - AU site 14) to oligotrophic at the lowermost site (Martin - AU site 4). The trend in Secchi disk visibility was inverse to that of TP and chlorophyll a, as expected, increasing from a low of 1.1 meters (growing season average) at the upper end of Lake Wedowee (AU site 14) to a high of 5.2 meters downstream at the lower end of Lake Martin (AU site 4, ►see graphics).

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ADEM

Research Progress

YEAR 2005

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is the state agency in Alabama that routinely samples the state’s streams, rivers and lakes following Standard Methods protocols. During 2005, ADEM performed sampling in both the Middle and Upper Tallapoosa basins (on both lakes Martin and Wedowee). 

Lake Martin Sampling

ADEM sampled water quality monthly, April-October at 11 sites on Lake Martin following Standard Methods protocols. Photic zone composite samples were collected and analyzed at all 11 sites. Additional water samples were collected at a discrete depth of 0.5 meters at six sites for chlorophyll a, turbidity and TSS measurements for correlation with coincident TWP remote sensing data collected by LWLM.

Gina LoGiudice and Greg Vison of ADEM

 water sampling on Lake Martin

Lake Wedowee Sampling

ADEM sampled water quality monthly, April-October at six sites on Lake Wedowee following Standard Methods protocols.  Samples were collected as a photic zone composite.

 © 2004  Auburn University and TWP