Dissolved Oxygen Relationships of Under‐Ice Water Column and Pore Water Habitat: Implications for Environmental Guidelines

Substantial reductions in dissolved oxygen concentration in freshwaters can negatively affect aquatic biota. Thus, existing regulatory criteria are designed to avoid environmental conditions that cause acute lethality, thereby reducing the likelihood of biological impairment. In North America, dissolved oxygen (DO) guidelines for protecting aquatic life assume that pore water and water column DO are correlated, with pore water values expected to be on average ≤3 mg/L below water column values. Our study assessed the validity of this assumption during the winter period of ice cover in a large, northern river ecosystem (Wapiti River, Alberta, Canada). We investigated the relationship between water column and pore water DO concentrations and examined whether this relationship was affected by industrial and municipal effluents. Water column DO fell from near saturation during open water periods to 80–84% under winter ice cover. DO concentrations in the pore water were significantly lower than in the water column at reference and effluent‐exposed sampling sites. Pore water DO values ranged widely from 0.27 to 13.28 mg/L. In contrast, water column DO concentrations (10.25–13.60 mg/L) were more narrowly distributed over the same period. Indeed, differences between winter pore water and water column DO were often as large as 9–12 mg/L and, notably, were significantly greater than the 3 mg/L difference upon which North American guidelines are based. Consequently, under‐ice DO concentrations of river pore water could not be accurately predicted from water column DO alone. Risk factors that may increase the potential for pore water DO to be more than 3 mg/L lower than water column values include the input of oxygen poor groundwater, infilling of the streambed with small inorganic and organic particles, water exchange rates between the water column and the streambed and effluent discharges that raise nutrient concentrations and biochemical oxygen demand. Given that low pore water DO was evident even in undeveloped reference sites, future work must establish the ecological relevance of chronic exposure to low, pore water DO and its impact on river biota. © 2016 Environment and Climate Change Canada. River Research Application StartCopTextStartCopText© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.