Linking DOC and DON Fluxes to Soil Properties at Watershed and Landscape Scales

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Abstract99-81600McDowellLinking DOC and DON Fluxes to Soil Properties at Watershed and Landscape ScalesDissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON) are compounds derived from decomposing leaves and soil that impart taste, odor, and color to water. These compounds can affect water quality, increasing the solubility of metals and pesticides, and causing the formation of trihalomethanes (e.g. chloroform) when drinking water supplies are chlorinated. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the soil profile (soil C/N) reflects the climate, vegetation, topography and geology of a site. Recent work by the PI shows that soil C/N is an accurate predictor of the amount of DOC leaving terrestrial ecosystems in streams and rivers around the world. This relationship will be tested within a single biome, wet tropical forest in Puerto Rico. If the relationship also applies within a biome, then soil C/N may provide a tool for predicting changes in surface water quality that could occur with changes in climate. Such a predictive tool does not exist at present.