Nutrient cycling in the Columbia River Basin eutrophication in part due to the use of the river and its tributaries to irrigate over seven million acres of farmland, an extraction that comprises an average of 93 percent of daily water use in the basin. Natural run-off caused by precipitation and snowpack melt across agricultural lands further transports more of these nutrients into the river. In the late 1990s, the nitrogen load in the Columbia river was over twice the concentration historically observed. Forests are important terrestrial sinks for nutrients due to the ability of vegetation to sequester excess nutrients into their biomass. Additionally, plant roots stabilize soils
Dispersal vector excess algae and non-native plant growth. Eutrophication can lead to decreased long distance dispersal because the lack of nutrients to native plants causes a decrease in seed release height. However, because of the lowered release height, eutrophication can sometimes lead to an increase in short distance dispersal. Climate change effects on wind patterns have the potential increase average wind velocity. However, it can also lead to lower levels of wind dispersal for each individual plant or organism because of the effects climate change has on the normal conditions needed for plant growth, such as temperature and rainfall. Hydrochory is dispersal