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Date of Award

Fall 2024

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department or Program Affiliation

Environmental Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Sciences

First Advisor

Bodensteiner, Leo R., 1957-

Second Advisor

Montaño, Manuel D.

Third Advisor

Rowles, Garrett

Abstract

Surface water chemistry can vary in a basin on various spatial and temporal scales due to differing geology, land use, seasons, and groundwater contribution. Trace elements from ambient water can be assimilated into calcified structures of fish which have been widely used to understand their life history. Understanding the spatial distribution and temporal stability of elements in the water is first required for this application. I investigated the spatiotemporal signatures of trace elements in the Skagit River Basin for the potential application to otolith-based determination of fish life habits by analyzing trace element concentrations in surface waters collected from 27 unique sites, each season, over two years.

Variations in concentrations of strontium and magnesium to calcium showed potential for spatial discrimination at a subbasin level, however, the temporal overlap of signatures limits the ability to differentiate between individual sites. Site separation without temporal consideration could be achieved for the South Fork Sauk River and Nookachamps Creek due to their unique arsenic, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and barium concentrations. Higher resolution site separation may be achieved by combining multiple elemental signatures. Summer Year 1 samples provided the clearest spatial groupings of sites by subbasin while all other seasons showed no geographically significant groupings. Intra-year variation was heavily influenced by glacial melt in the Sauk subbasin during summers, and proximity to urbanized areas in the Lower Skagit subbasin. The least variability of elemental concentrations between seasons was observed in Upper Skagit subbasin sites.

Type

Text

Keywords

Water chemistry, otoliths, Skagit River, ICP-MS, Trace elements

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1478555211

Subject – LCSH

Water chemistry--Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.); Otoliths; Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry--Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.); Trace elements--Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.)

Geographic Coverage

Skagit River (B.C. and Wash.)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/

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