The ability of headwater bed and suspended sediments to mitigate non-point agricultural phosphorus (P) loads to the lower Great Lakes is recognized, but the specific biogeochemical processes promoting sediment P retention or internal P release remain poorly understood. To elucidate these mechanisms, three headwater segments located within priority watersheds of Southern Ontario, Canada, were sampled through the growing season...

Microbial assessments of recreational water have traditionally focused on culturing or DNA‐based approaches of the planktonic water column, omitting influence from microbe–sediment relationships. Sediment (bed and suspended) has been shown to often harbour levels of bacteria higher than the planktonic phase. The fate of suspended sediment (SS) bacteria is extensively related to transport dynamics (e.g., deposition) of the asso...

Summary Pathogenic bacteria associated with freshwater ecosystems can pose significant health risks particularly where recreational water use is popular. Common water quality assessments involve quantifying indicator Escherichia coli within the water column but neglect to consider physical and geochemical factors and contributions from the sediment. In this study, we used high‐throughput sequencing to investigate sediment micr...

An assessment of bed sediment stability was carried out over biostabilized and nonbiostabilized cohesive sediment within a laboratory wave flume. Biofilms of 5, 9, and 15 d were grown over kaolinite, and changes in bed shear stress were applied through increasing wave height. Results show that the stability of the bed was highly related to the structural integrity of the overlying and integrated biofilm. Biofilms with substant...