Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Spatial distribution characteristics of nitrogen pollution in a typical karst groundwater system

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Arabian Journal of Geosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Based on the formation structure and status of land use, sampling, and analysis to determine the water quality in eastern suburbs of Guilin City, there are 27 samples include surface and groundwater. The results showed that there was serious nitrate pollution of groundwater in the area belonging to class III groundwater standards, not suitable for drinking. Twenty-six percent of the samples exceed the drinking water NO3--N content standards of the World Health Organization (N 10 mg/L). And different land use types had different NO3--N levels (N 0.088~46.7 mg/L). The main NO3--N pollution sources in shallow groundwater was domestic sewage. Point source pollution also existed in residential areas, such as pig farms; organic fertilizer applied for planting vegetables was the NO3--N sources of pollution in the agricultural area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Chen JY, Wang Y, Zhang HB, Zhao XF (2006) Summary of nitrate pollution of groundwater. Prog Geogr 1:34–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Dai XQ, Liu CM, Li LJ (2007) Rural drinking water safety problems discussed and countermeasures in our country. J Geogr 9:907–912

    Google Scholar 

  • Durka W, Schulze ED, Gebauer G (1994) Effects of forest decline on uptake and leaching of deposited nitrate determined from 15N and 18O measurements. Nature 372(6508):765–767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goss MJ, Barry DAJ, Rudolph DL (1998) Contamination in Ontario farmstead domestic wells and its association with agriculture: 1. Results from drinking water wells. J Contam Hydrol 3(4):267–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulis G (2002) An ecologic study of nitrate in municipal drinking water and cancer incidence in Trnava District, Slovakia. Environ Res 3:182–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heaton THE (1986) Isotopic studies of nitrogen pollution in the hydrosphere and atmosphere: a review. Chem Geol 1:87–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jalali M (2011) Nitrate pollution of groundwater in Toyserkan, Western Iran. Environ Earth Sci 62(5):907–913

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jia YN, Yuan DX, He DX (2006) A study on the relationship between land use change and karst groundwater quality. J Southwest Norm Univ (Nat Sci) 4:167–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiang Y (2013) The contribution of human activities to dissolved inorganic carbon fluxes in a karst underground river system: evidence from major elements and δ13CDIC in Nandong, Southwest China. J Contam Hydrol 152:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang JJ, Wen DG (2005) Exploitation of groundwater resources reasonable to alleviate water shortage. China Water Resour 13:36–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Ju X, Kou CL, Zhang F, Christie P (2006) Nitrogen balance and groundwater nitrate contamination: comparison among three intensive cropping systems on the North China Plain. Environ Pollut 1:117–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall C, Mc Donnell JJ (1998) Isotope tracers in catchment hydrology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 517–576

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohl DH, Shearer GB, Commoner B (1974) Fertilizer nitrogen: contribution to nitrate in surface in a corn belt watershed. Science:1331–1334

  • Li YZ, Zhao JC (2010) Summary on deduction and trace the source methods for ground water nitrate contamination. Chin Agric Sci Bull 18:374–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu HB, Li ZH, Zhang YG, Zhang WL, Lin B (2006) Beijing plain area groundwater nitrate pollution and its influencing factors. Acta Pedol Sin 3:405–413

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu BX, Wang XQ, Liang CW, He WX (2009) Health status of rural drinking water projects in Weifang City Survey. Occup Health 17:1868–1869

    Google Scholar 

  • Lv DQ, Tong YN, Sun BH, Emteryd O (1998) Nitrogen fertilizers on the study of the impact of environmental pollution. J Plant Nutr Fertil 1:8–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajmohan N, Elango L (2005) Nutrient chemistry of groundwater in an intensively irrigated region of Southern India. Environ Geol 6:820–830

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheng T, Yang PH, Xie GW et al (2018) Nitrate-nitrogen pollution sources of an underground river in karst agricultural area using 15N and 18O isotope technique. Environ Sci 39(10):4547–4555

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorburn PJ, Biggs JS, Weier KL, Keating BA (2003) Nitrate in groundwaters of intensive agricultural areas in coastal Northeastern Australia. Agric Ecosyst Environ 1:49–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang KR, Guo F, Jiang GH, Chen GF, Zhou WL (2013) Spatial distribution of nitrogen contamination in karst aquifer in Guilin peak forest plain. Res Environ Sci 26(3):281–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang KR, Guo F, Jiang GH, Bian HY (2014) Application of 15N and 18O to nitrogen pollution source in karst water in Eastern Guilin. China Environ Sci 34(9):2223–2230

    Google Scholar 

  • Xing M, Liu W (2016) Using dual isotopes to identify sources and transformations of nitrogen in water catchments with different land uses, Loess Plateau of China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23(1):388–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu CY, Li YZ, Li QZ, Wang LM, Dong YW, Jia XF (2011) The nitrate pollution of groundwater status quo and δ15N traceability in Shandong Weifang. Acta Ecol Sin 21:6579–6587

    Google Scholar 

  • Xue D, Botte J, Baets BD, Accoe F, Nestler A, Taylor P (2009) Present limitations and future prospects of stable isotope methods for nitrate source identification in surface-and groundwater. Water Res 43(5):1159–1170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang QL, Wang H, Zhang LQ (2008) Drinking water nitrate pollution on human health. Groundwater 1:57–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang T, Pu JB, Yuan DX, Li JH (2016) Biogeochemical controls on daily cycling of DIC and NO3- of Guancun Karst Stream in Guangxi. Acta Geol Sin 90(08):1965–1977

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the chief editor, associate editor, and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions for improving the quality of this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41572242, 41102161), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (no. ZR2019QEE036), and the Ministry of Water Resources Special Funds for Scientific Research on Public Welfare (no. 201401003).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kairan Wang.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Helder I. Chaminé

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, K., Chen, H., Li, F. et al. Spatial distribution characteristics of nitrogen pollution in a typical karst groundwater system. Arab J Geosci 13, 351 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05401-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05401-y

Keywords

Navigation