Nitrate loads and concentrations from forested watersheds and implications for Long Island Sound

Reduction in point sources of nitrogen has led to improvement in water quality of the Long Island Sound (LIS) since 2000, but changes in nonpoint sources are less clear. A significant yet poorly quantified nonpoint nitrogen source is the forested landscape. Because a large proportion of the LIS basin is forested, even small areal inputs from the forested landscape have a large cumulative effect on nitrogen loading to LIS. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition, the primary source of nitrogen to forested landscapes in LIS basin, has been declining for several decades. However, nitrogen export in streams does not necessarily mirror nitrogen deposition. To assess forest nitrogen export to LIS, we estimated annual average concentrations and fluxes of nitrate in 17 forested watersheds in and near the LIS basin. Average flow-normalized nitrate-nitrogen concentrations ranged from less than 0.05–0.43 mg per liter among all sites; annual flow-normalized yields ranged from 0.45 to 4.3 kg per hectare. Flow-normalized annual average concentrations and yields of nitrate between water years 1991–2021 did not monotonically increase or decrease at most watersheds. Where determined, the other major N species generally had comparable magnitude and trends. Based on the watersheds analyzed in this study, forested areas are not responding uniformly to the continued decline of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. The variability among sites may indicate that local-scale factors exert substantial influence over the magnitude and trends in nitrogen exports. One watershed that had increasing development showed an increasing trend in nitrate, but not in dissolved organic nitrogen.