| Title: |
Freshwater faces a warmer and saltier future from headwaters to coasts: climate risks, saltwater intrusion, and biogeochemical chain reactions |
| Authors: |
Kaushal, Sujay S; Shelton, Sydney A; Mayer, Paul M; Kellmayer, Bennett; Utz, Ryan M; Reimer, Jenna E; Baljunas, Jenna; Bhide, Shantanu V; Mon, Ashley; Rodriguez-Cardona, Bianca M; Grant, Stanley B; Newcomer-Johnson, Tamara A; Malin, Joseph T; Shatkay, Ruth R; Collison, Daniel C; Papageorgiou, Kyriaki; Escobar, Jazmin; Rippy, Megan A; Likens, Gene E; Najjar, Raymond G; Mejia, Alfonso I; Lassiter, Allison; Li, Ming; Chant, Robert J |
| Source: |
Biogeochemistry, vol 168, iss 2 |
| Publisher Information: |
eScholarship, University of California |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
University of California: eScholarship |
| Subject Terms: |
4101 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (for-2020); 41 Environmental Sciences (for-2020); 13 Climate Action (sdg); 14 Life Below Water (sdg); 15 Life on Land (sdg); Anthropogenic salt cycle; Carbon cycle; Climate change; Global biogeochemical cycles; Metals; Nitrogen cycle; 0399 Other Chemical Sciences (for); 0402 Geochemistry (for); 0502 Environmental Science and Management (for); Agronomy & Agriculture (science-metrix); 3703 Geochemistry (for-2020); 4104 Environmental management (for-2020) |
| Description: |
Alongside global climate change, many freshwater ecosystems are experiencing substantial shifts in the concentrations and compositions of salt ions coming from both land and sea. We synthesize a risk framework for anticipating how climate change and increasing salt pollution coming from both land and saltwater intrusion will trigger chain reactions extending from headwaters to tidal waters. Salt ions trigger ‘chain reactions,’ where chemical products from one biogeochemical reaction influence subsequent reactions and ecosystem responses. Different chain reactions impact drinking water quality, ecosystems, infrastructure, and energy and food production. Risk factors for chain reactions include shifts in salinity sources due to global climate change and amplification of salinity pulses due to the interaction of precipitation variability and human activities. Depending on climate and other factors, salt retention can range from 2 to 90% across watersheds globally. Salt retained in ecosystems interacts with many global biogeochemical cycles along flowpaths and contributes to ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ chain reactions associated with temporary acidification and long-term alkalinization of freshwaters, impacts on nutrient cycling, CO2, CH4, N2O, and greenhouse gases, corrosion, fouling, and scaling of infrastructure, deoxygenation, and contaminant mobilization along the freshwater-marine continuum. Salt also impacts the carbon cycle and the quantity and quality of organic matter transported from headwaters to coasts. We identify the double impact of salt pollution from land and saltwater intrusion on a wide range of ecosystem services. Our salinization risk framework is based on analyses of: (1) increasing temporal trends in salinization of tributaries and tidal freshwaters of the Chesapeake Bay and freshening of the Chesapeake Bay mainstem over 40years due to changes in streamflow, sea level rise, and watershed salt pollution; (2) increasing long-term trends in concentrations and loads of major ions in rivers along the ... |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
unknown |
| Relation: |
qt1sf73345; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sf73345; https://escholarship.org/content/qt1sf73345/qt1sf73345.pdf |
| DOI: |
10.1007/s10533-025-01219-6 |
| Availability: |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sf73345; https://escholarship.org/content/qt1sf73345/qt1sf73345.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-025-01219-6 |
| Rights: |
CC-BY |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.52974C35 |
| Database: |
BASE |