Exploring temporal and spatial variation in cotton tensile-strength loss to assess the ecosystem health of non-wadeable rivers

Abstract Cotton strip assays are becoming a widely utilised functional indicator to assess and interpret ecosystem health of non-wadeable rivers. Cotton decomposition may be sensitive to seasonal variation in key drivers, the aim of this study therefore, was to elucidate the temporal variation in cotton strip decomposition across a land-use gradient to underpin the utility of this technique as an indicator. Twelve sites, spanning a range of water quality, related to upstream land-use intensity were sampled monthly for 16 months. Mean cotton tensile-strength loss per day ranged from 0.8% to 13.2% per day across the study sites. Cotton tensile-strength loss was significantly related to mean water temperature, the concentration of dissolved nutrients, water clarity, and dissolved ions, in linear mixed models (all p