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We used a recently published, open‐access data set of U.S. streamwater nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations to test whether watershed land use differentially influences N and P concentrations, including the relative availability of dissolved and particulate nutrient fractions. We tested the hypothesis that N and P concentrations and molar ratios in streams and rivers of the United States reflect differing nutrient inputs from three dominant land‐use types (agricultural, urban and forested). We also tested for differences between dissolved inorganic nutrients and suspended particulate nutrient fractions to infer sources and potential processing mechanisms across spatial and temporal scales. Observed total N and P concentrations often exceeded reported thresholds for structural changes to benthic algae (58, 57% of reported values, respectively), macroinvertebrates (39% for TN and TP), and fish (41, 37%, respectively). The majority of dissolved N and P concentrations exceeded threshold concentrations known to stimulate benthic algal growth (85, 87%, respectively), and organic matter breakdown rates (94, 58%, respectively). Concentrations of both N and P, and total and dissolved N:P ratios, were higher in streams and rivers with more agricultural and urban than forested land cover. The pattern of elevated nutrient concentrations with agricultural and urban land use was weaker for particulate fractions. The % N contained in particles decreased slightly with higher agriculture and urbanization, whereas % P in particles was unrelated to land use. Particulate N:P was relatively constant (interquartile range = 2–7) and independent of variation in DIN:DIP (interquartile range = 22–152). Dissolved, but not particulate, N:P ratios were temporally variable. Constant particulate N:P across steep DIN:DIP gradients in both space and time suggests that the stoichiometry of particulates across U.S. watersheds is most likely controlled either by external or by physicochemical instream factors, rather than by biological processing within streams. Our findings suggest that most U.S. streams and rivers have concentrations of N and P exceeding those considered protective of ecological integrity, retain dissolved N less efficiently than P, which is retained proportionally more in particles, and thus transport and export high N:P streamwater to downstream ecosystems on a continental scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse global change processes are reshaping the biogeochemistry of stream ecosystems. Nutrient enrichment is a common stressor that can modify flows of biologically important elements such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) through stream foodwebs by altering the stoichiometric composition of stream organisms. However, enrichment effects on concentrations of other important essential and trace elements in stream taxa are less understood. We investigated shifts in macroinvertebrate ionomes in response to changes in coarse benthic organic matter (CBOM) stoichiometry following N and P enrichment of five detritus-based headwater streams. Concentrations of most elements (17/19) differed among three insect genera (Maccaffertium sp., Pycnopsyche spp., and Tallaperla spp.) prior to enrichment. Genus-specific changes in the body content of: P, magnesium, and sodium (Na) in Tallaperla; P, Na, and cadmium in Pycnopsyche; and P in Maccaffertium were also found across CBOM N:P gradients. These elements increased in Tallaperla but decreased in the other two taxa due to growth dilution at larger body sizes. Multivariate elemental differences were found across all taxa, and ionome-wide shifts with dietary N and P enrichment were also observed in Tallaperla and Pycnopsyche. Our results show that macroinvertebrates exhibit distinct differences in elemental composition beyond C, N, and P and that the ionomic composition of common stream taxa can vary with body size and N and P enrichment. Thus, bottom-up changes in N and P supplies could potentially influence the cycling of lesser studied biologically essential elements in aquatic environments by altering their relative proportions in animal tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrient-driven perturbations to the resource base of food webs are predicted to attenuate with trophic distance, so it is unclear whether higher-level consumers will generally respond to anthropogenic nutrient loading. Few studies have tested whether nutrient (specifically, nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P]) enrichment of aquatic ecosystems propagates through multiple trophic levels to affect predators, or whether N vs. P is relatively more important in driving effects on food webs. We conducted two-year whole-stream N and P additions to five streams to generate gradients in N and P concentration and N:P ratio (target N:P=2, 8, 16, 32, 128). Larval salamanders are vertebrate predators of primary and secondary macroinvertebrate consumers in many heterotrophic headwater streams in which the basal resources are detritus and associated microorganisms. We determined the effects of N and P on the growth rates of caged and free-roaming larval Desmognathus quadramaculatus and the average body size of larval Eurycea wilderae. Growth rates and average body size increased by up to 40% and 60%, respectively, with P concentration and were negatively related to N:P ratio. These findings were consistent across both species of salamanders using different methodologies (cage vs. free-roaming) and at different temporal scales (3 months vs. 2 yr). Nitrogen concentration was not significantly related to increased growth rate or body size of the salamander species tested. Our findings suggest that salamander growth responds to the relaxation of ecosystem-level P limitation and that moderate P enrichment can have relatively large effects on vertebrate predators in detritus-based food webs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]