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Seasonal drivers and infrastructure impacts on dissolved oxygen dynamics in complex environmental systems
Journal article - Includes Student Work   Open access   Peer reviewed

Seasonal drivers and infrastructure impacts on dissolved oxygen dynamics in complex environmental systems

Jake Black, Atiq Rahman, Gbenga Emmanuel Daniels and Amanda Carneiro Marques
Journal of environmental management, v 418, 130970
01 Oct 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.130970
PMID: 42772111
Featured in Collection :   Drexel's Newest Publications
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.130970View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open Access via Drexel Libraries Read and Publish Program 2026 Open CC BY-NC-ND V4.0

Abstract

Stormwater impacts Dissolved Oxygen
Urban streams are increasingly regulated by the interaction of climate-driven thermal stress and episodic infrastructure disturbances, yet their combined influence on dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics remains insufficiently resolved across temporal scales. This study quantified the combined effects of temperature, hydrology, and combined sewer overflow (CSO) activity on DO across four urban watersheds in Philadelphia, USA, using 12 years of high-frequency monitoring integrated with precipitation, streamflow, and modeled CSO data. A multi-scale framework combining event-stratified comparisons, distributed lag models (0-3 days), and multivariate regression was used to evaluate controls on DO variability. Across all watersheds, DO exhibited a consistent seasonal cycle that reflects background thermal constraints on oxygen solubility and metabolic demand. This seasonal pattern establishes a baseline physical regime, against which shorter-term variability becomes apparent. At event-scales, CSO and wet-weather conditions consistently reduced minimum daily DO relative to dry conditions, with strongest effects observed in more hydraulically connected systems. Distributed lag models further revealed watershed-dependent persistence of CSO impacts, ranging from rapid recovery to multi-day DO suppression in systems with greater retention and reduced flushing capacity. Multivariate models identified temperature as the dominant control on baseline DO conditions, while event-based and lagged analyses showed that CSO activity and hydrologic variability govern short-term deviations and persistence in DO dynamics. Overall, urban DO dynamics are structured primarily by event-scale and lagged CSO and hydrologic responses, with seasonal thermal conditions providing a baseline context for variability.

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