Relationships of surface water, pore water, and sediment chemistry in wetlands adjacent to Great Salt Lake, Utah, and potential impacts on plant community health

Abstract

We collected surface water, pore water, and sediment samples at five impounded wetlands adjacent to Great Salt Lake, Utah, during 2010 and 2011 in order to characterize pond chemistry and to compare chemistry with plant community health metrics. We also collected pore water and sediment samples along multiple transects at two sheet flow wetlands during 2011 to investigate a potential link between wetland chemistry and encroachment of invasive emergent plant species. Samples were analyzed for a suite of trace and major elements, nutrients, and relevant field parameters. The extensive sampling campaign provides a broad assessment of Great Salt Lake wetlands, including a range of conditions from reference to highly degraded. We used nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) to characterize the wetland sites based on the multiple parameters measured in surface water, pore water, and sediment. NMS results showed that the impounded wetlands fall along a gradient of high salinity/low trace element concentrations to low salinity/high trace element concentrations, whereas the sheet flow wetlands have both elevated salinity and high trace element concentrations, reflecting either different sources of element loading or different biogeochemical/hydrological processes operating within the wetlands. Other geochemical distinctions were found among the wetlands, including Fe-reducing conditions at two sites and sulfate-reducing conditions at the remaining sites. Plant community health metrics in the impounded wetlands showed negative correlations with specific metal concentrations in sediment (THg, Cu, Zn, Cd, Sb, Pb, Ag, Tl), and negative correlations with nutrient concentrations in surface water (nitrite, phosphate, nitrate). In the sheet flow wetlands, invasive plant species were inversely correlated with pore water salinity. These results indicate that sediment and pore water chemistry play an important role in wetland plant community health, and that monitoring and remediation efforts should consider pore water and sediment chemistry in addition to surface water chemistry.