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TECHNICAL REPORTS

Surface Water Quality

Litter Contributions to Dissolved Organic Matter and Disinfection Byproduct Precursors in California Oak Woodland Watersheds

^a Dep. of Biosystems Engineering, and Dep. of Forestry and Natural Resources, Clemson Univ., SC 29634
^b Gyeongsangnamdo Agricultural Research and Extension Services, 1085-1 Chojeon-Dong, Jinju 660-360, Korea; A.T
^c Dep. of Land, Air and Water Resources, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95616
^d Dep. of Biology, The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
^e Dep. of Plant Sciences, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95626

^* Corresponding author (achow{at}clemson.edu).

Received for publication August 31, 2008. Export of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from California oak woodland ecosystems is of a great concern because DOM is a precursor for carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) formed during drinking water treatment. Fresh litter and decomposed duff materials for the four dominant vegetation components of California oak woodlands: blue oak (Quercus douglassi H. & A.), live oak (Quercus wislizenii A. DC.), foothill pine (Pinus sabiniana Dougl.), and annual grasses, were exposed in natural condition for an entire rainy season (December to May) to evaluate their contributions of particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon, particulate (PON) and dissolved (DON) organic nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen (NH₄⁺ and NO₃^–), and trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetonitrile (HAN) formation potentials, to surface waters. Litter and duff materials can be significant sources of DOC (litter = 29– 126 mg DOC g^–1 C; duff = 6.5–37 mg DOC g^–1 C) and THMs and HANs (up to 4600 mg-THMs g-C^–1 and 137 µg-HANs g-C^–1). Blue oak litter had the highest yield of DOC, THM, and HAN precursors. When scaled to the entire watershed, leachate production yielded 445 kg-DOC ha^–1, as compared to DOC export via streams of 5.25 kg-DOC ha^–1. DOC transport to surface waters is facilitated by subsurface lateral flow through A horizons during storm events. The majority of DOM and DBP precursors was leached from plant materials in the initial rainfall events and thus may explain the seasonal stream pattern of a DOC pulse early in the rainy season.

Abbreviations: BO, blue oak • C/N, carbon to nitrogen ratio • DBP, disinfection byproduct • DOC, dissolved organic carbon • DOM, dissolved organic matter • GR, annual grass • HAN, haloacetonitriles • HAN-FP, haloacetonitrile formation potential • LO, live oak • MDL, minimum detection level • OM, organic matter • PI, foothill pine • POC, particulate organic carbon • PON, particulate organic nitrogen • SFREC, Sierra Foothill Research Extension Center • SHAN-FP, specific haloacetonitrile formation potential • STHM-FP, specific trihalomethane formation potential • TDN, total dissolved nitrogen • THM, trihalomethane • THM-FP, trihalomethane formation potential