Nitrate, ammonium, total N, soluble reactive P, total P, and dissolved organic C are monitored in four streams draining watersheds with 1 (N01B), 2 (N02B), 4 (N04D), and 20 (N20B) year target burn frequencies. Bison have grazed these treatments since May 1992. The number of sites sampled has been expanded since 1992 to include sites that may reflect anthropogenic, groundwater, and bison influences on water chemistry. These sites include the south branch of Kings Creek as it leaves watershed N01A (tube), a site immediately below the NO4D weir at Konza Falls that is heavily influenced by groundwater (kzfl), the north fork of Kings Creek draining watersheds without bison (nfkc), the south fork of Kings Creek that drains the watersheds with bison (sfkc), Kings Creek below the USGS gauging station above the first agricultural field (hokn), a small creek that drains into Kings Creek after flowing past the bison handling facilities, two private residences, the site headquarters and an agricultural field (stck), a pristine prairie groundwater site (edlr), and Kings Creek at the bottom of Konza as it leaves the agricultural land in watershed AL (hikx). Early samples were preserved with phenyl mercuric acetate. Future plans to restore agricultural land to prairie may influence downstream nutrient concentrations.
DOI: 10.6073/pasta/87b7aa2800b79e9c93bfc8e4eecfd8d9
