Geology topics

Kenneth H. Foreman

Publications and source records attributed to Kenneth H. Foreman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2025

Using multiple lines of evidence to evaluate spatio‐temporal trends in nitrogen loading to a eutrophic estuary

Nitrogen (N) pollution in groundwater in coastal watersheds can have negative impacts on the health of estuaries. West Falmouth Harbor, a shallow lagoon on Cape Cod, MA, USA, has experienced a marked increase in N load since the 1990s due to input from a groundwater aquifer contaminated by a municipal wastewater treatment facility. As part of a broader, long-term research effort to understand the changes to the ecosystem associated with this N input, this study takes an integrative approach at quantifying groundwater N load to the estuary from 1985 through 2024 by combining traditional groundwater well sampling with a wintertime open water mixing model. The latter gives a robust spatially averaged nitrate concentration in discharged groundwater, supplementing the spatial and temporal patterns from the well data. We calculate a conservative estimate for the mean N load to West Falmouth Harbor during peak loading years (2008–2013) of 3.1 mmol m−2 d−1. This then decreased by approximately 25% by 2024 as a result of wastewater treatment improvements and should continue to decline over the next decade. The long-term trends observed in the groundwater well network complement the open water sampling, providing confidence in the accuracy of the latter approach and allowing us to interpolate an estimate of N loading to West Falmouth Harbor back to 1985. This integrative approach to evaluating groundwater inputs to this ecosystem dramatically improves our ability to quantify total N load and can be a powerful tool for studies in groundwater-fed lagoonal estuaries with a short residence time.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2013

Metabolism of a nitrogen-enriched coastal marine lagoon during the summertime

We measured metabolism rates in a shallow, nitrogen-enriched coastal marine ecosystem on Cape Cod (MA, USA) during seven summers using an open-water diel oxygen method. We compared two basins, one directly receiving most of the nitrogen (N) load (“Snug Harbor”) and another further removed from the N load and better flushed (“Outer Harbor”). Both dissolved oxygen and pH varied greatly over the day, increasing in daylight and decreasing at night. The more N-enriched basin frequently went hypoxic during the night, and the pH in both basins was low (compared to standard seawater) when the oxygen levels were low, due to elevated carbon dioxide. Day-to-day variation in gross primary production (GPP) was high and linked in part to variation in light. Whole-ecosystem respiration tended to track this short-term variation in GPP, suggesting that respiration by the primary producers often dominated whole-system respiration. GPP was higher in the more N-loaded Snug Harbor. Seagrasses covered over 60 % of the area of the better-flushed, Outer Harbor throughout our study and were the major contributors to GPP there. Seagrasses covered 20 % of the area in Snug Harbor for the first 5 years of our study, and their contribution to GPP was relatively small. The seagrasses in Snug Harbor died off completely in the 6th year, but GPP remained high then and in the subsequent year. Overall, rates of phytoplankton GPP were relatively low, suggesting that benthic micro- and macro-algae may be the dominant primary producers in Snug Harbor in most years. Net ecosystem production in both Snug Harbor and the Outer Harbor was variable from year to year, showing net heterotrophy in some years and net autotrophy in others, with a trend towards increasing autotrophy over the 7 years reported here.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2013

Exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between a shallow lagoon and coastal waters

West Falmouth Harbor, a shallow lagoon on Cape Cod, has experienced a threefold increase in nitrogen load since the mid- to late 1990s due to input from a groundwater plume contaminated by a municipal wastewater treatment plant. We measured the exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between the harbor and the coastal waters of Buzzards Bay over several years when the harbor was experiencing this elevated nitrogen load. During summer months, the harbor not only retained the entire watershed nitrogen load but also had a net import of nitrogen from Buzzards Bay. During the spring and fall, the harbor had a net export of nitrogen to Buzzards Bay. We did not measure the export in winter, but assuming the winter net export was less than 112 % of the load, the harbor exported less than half of the watershed nitrogen load on an annual basis. For phosphorus, the harbor had a net import from coastal waters in the spring and summer months and a net export in the fall. Despite the large increase in nitrogen load to the harbor, the summertime import of phosphorus from Buzzards Bay was sufficient to maintain nitrogen limitation of primary productivity during the summer. Our findings illustrate that shallow systems dominated by benthic producers have the potential to retain large terrestrial nitrogen loads when there is sufficient supply of phosphorus from exchange with coastal waters.

Buzzards Bay, West Falmouth Harbor↗