Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
DOI
10.1007/s00027-026-01311-5
Publication Title
Aquatic Sciences
Volume
88
Issue
3
Pages
87
Abstract
Coastal watersheds are highly productive biogeochemical systems supporting robust coastal fisheries and contributing significantly to the marine gross primary production flux. These ecosystems are comprised of civil infrastructure, farms, forests, and marshes, and their diversity is reflected in the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Here, we assess the role of farming in influencing DOM from surface waters of six coastal tidal creeks adjacent to forest and farm sites in the US Critical Zone Network. Molecular fingerprinting using electrospray ionization - Fourier transform - ion cyclotron resonance - mass spectrometry revealed that farm-influenced DOM was enriched in nitrogen-, sulfur-, and phosphorus-containing compounds. The concentration of ammonium [NH₄+] correlated significantly with nitrogen-containing formulas that could comprise NH₃ adducts, suggesting that NH₄+ (e.g., from fertilizer) can be incorporated into DOM through two-electron chemical reaction pathways such as the Michael addition, one-electron reactions such as Fenton oxidation, or biotic pathways. This suggests the use of [NH₄+] measurements as a potential approach to parameterize the impact of agriculture on coastal environments. Collectively, these results establish a foundation for future studies in the U.S. Critical Zone Network on how land and water interact. More broadly, our molecular fingerprinting of DOM corroborated with the global observations of elevated concentrations of nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in farm-influenced freshwater DOM, showing that agricultural activities (e.g., annual fertilizer application) can also influence the DOM composition in coastal environments of high salinity and pH.
Rights
© 2026 The Authors
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Data Availability
Article states: "Molecular formula catalogs have been published in the Mendeley Data Repository (https://doi.org/10.17632/8p6v8rjtvx.1). Any other ancillary measurements used in this publication are provided in Table 1 or the supporting information."
Original Publication Citation
Goranov, A. I., Whitney, E. V., Moyer, B. R., Tully, K. L., Hatcher, P. G., & Chin, Y.-P. (2026). Land use influences dissolved organic matter composition in the U.S. Coastal Critical Zone Network. Aquatic Sciences, 88(3), Article 87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-026-01311-5
ORCID
0000-0002-5103-0838 (Goranov), 0000-0002-1606-1305 (Hatcher)
Repository Citation
Goranov, Aleksandar I.; Whitney, Elizabeth V.; Moyer, Brian R.; Tully, Katherine L.; Hatcher, Patrick G.; and Chhin, Yu-Ping, "Land Use Influences Dissolved Organic Matter Composition in the U.S. Coastal Critical Zone Network" (2026). Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications. 393.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/chemistry_fac_pubs/393
Electronic Supplementary Material
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Agricultural Science Commons, Biogeochemistry Commons, Chemistry Commons