SREL Reprint #3868

Pulse of the storm: 2024 Hurricane Helene’s impact on riverine nutrient fluxes across the Oconee River watershed in Georgia

Arka Bhattacharjee1, Grace Stamm2,3, Blaire Myrick4, Gayatri Basapuram2, Avishek Dutta2,5, and Srimanti Duttagupta2

1School of Computing, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
2Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
4Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
5Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Abstract: Tropical cyclones can rapidly alter watershed chemistry by shifting hydrologic pathways and mobilizing stored nutrients, yet these disturbances often remain undetected when storms cause little visible flooding or geomorphic damage. During Hurricane Helene 2024, intense rainfall across the Oconee River watershed in Georgia generated sharp increases in discharge that triggered substantial nutrient export despite minimal physical alteration to the landscape. High-frequency measurements of nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate in urban, forested, and recreational settings revealed pronounced and synchronous post-storm increases in all three solutes. Nitrate showed the strongest and most persistent response, with mean concentrations increasing from approximately 1–3 mg/L during pre-storm conditions to 6–14 mg/L post-storm across sites, and remaining elevated for several months after hydrologic conditions returned to baseline. Phosphate concentrations increased sharply during the post-storm period, rising from pre-storm means of ≤0.3mg/L to a post-storm average of 1.5mg/L, but declined more rapidly during recovery, consistent with sediment-associated mobilization and subsequent attenuation. Sulfate concentrations also increased substantially across the watershed, with post-storm mean values commonly exceeding 20 mg/L and maximum concentrations reaching 41 mg/L, indicating sustained dissolved-phase release and enhanced temporal variability. Recovery trajectories differed by solute: phosphate returned to baseline within weeks, nitrate declined gradually, and sulfate remained elevated throughout the winter. These findings demonstrate that substantial chemical perturbations can occur even in the absence of visible storm impacts, underscoring the importance of event-based, high-resolution monitoring to detect transient but consequential shifts in watershed biogeochemistry. They also highlight the need to better resolve solute-specific pathways that govern nutrient mobilization during extreme rainfall in mixed-use watersheds with legacy nutrient stores and engineered drainage networks.

Keywords: hurricane; storm-driven nutrient transport; event-based monitoring; nutrient release; runoff; mobilization

SREL Reprint #3868

Bhattacharjee, A., G. Stamm, B. Myrick, G. Basapuram, A. Dutta, and S. Duttagupta. 2026. Pulse of the storm: 2024 Hurricane Helene’s impact on riverine nutrient fluxes across the Oconee River watershed in Georgia. Environments 13(76).

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).