%AGalella, Joseph%AKaushal, Sujay%AWood, Kelsey%AReimer, Jenna%AMayer, Paul%BJournal Name: Environmental Research Letters; Journal Volume: 16; Journal Issue: 3; Related Information: CHORUS Timestamp: 2022-01-21 21:12:53 %D2021%IIOP Publishing; None %JJournal Name: Environmental Research Letters; Journal Volume: 16; Journal Issue: 3; Related Information: CHORUS Timestamp: 2022-01-21 21:12:53 %K %MOSTI ID: 10361701 %PMedium: X %TSensors track mobilization of ‘chemical cocktails’ in streams impacted by road salts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed %X
Increasing trends in base cations, pH, and salinity of freshwaters have been documented in US streams over 50 years. These patterns, collectively known as freshwater salinization syndrome (FSS), are driven by multiple processes, including applications of road salt and human-accelerated weathering of impervious surfaces, reductions in acid rain, and other anthropogenic legacies of change. FSS mobilizes chemical cocktails of distinct elemental mixtures via ion exchange, and other biogeochemical processes. We analyzed impacts of FSS on streamwater chemistry across five urban watersheds in the Baltimore-Washington, USA metropolitan region. Through combined grab-sampling and high-frequency monitoring by USGS sensors, regression relationships were developed among specific conductance and major ion and trace metal concentrations. These linear relationships were statistically significant in most of the urban streams (e.g.