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The Role of Pore Structure on Nitrate Reduction in Peat Soil: A Physical Characterization of Pore Distribution and Solute Transport

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Abstract

Soil type is an important factor defining terrestrial ecosystems and plays a major role for the movement of solutes and cycling of nutrients and carbon. This paper focuses on the effect of peat complex dual-porosity structure on nitrate reduction, with the main objective to show how this process is controlled by pore-scale mass transfer and exchange of nitrate between mobile and immobile pore fractions. A mesocosm experiment was conducted where input solutions of bromide (Br−) and nitrate (NO3 −) were continuously supplied downward into 40 cm depth of peat. Br− and NO3 − breakthrough curves were used to constrain transport parameters and nitrate reduction rates in the peat depth profile. The vertical distribution of potential nitrate reduction rates were compared with depth distributions of partitioning mobile-immobile pores and the exchange coefficient between the pores. The results showed that an increase of immobile pore fractions with depth increases the common interface surface area between mobile and immobile pores which constitutes to a more pronounced exchange between the two transport domains and enhances the nitrate reduction. Hence, the pore structure with mobile-immobile pore fractions and exchange rate of solutes between mobile and immobile phases play a major role in nitrate reduction in peat soils.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was provided by the University of Rostock, Baltic TRANSCOAST Research Training Program (DFG-GRK2000) and the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) program in Ecohydrology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecohydrology Research Group, Water Institute and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, N2L3G1, Canada

    Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Tatjana Milojevic, Tobias Karl David Weber & Philippe Van Cappellen

  2. Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059, Rostock, Germany

    Christian Kleimeier, Haojie Liu & Bernd Lennartz

  3. Institute of Geoecology, Division of Soil Science and Soil Physics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Tobias Karl David Weber

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  1. Fereidoun Rezanezhad
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  2. Christian Kleimeier
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Correspondence to Fereidoun Rezanezhad.

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Rezanezhad, F., Kleimeier, C., Milojevic, T. et al. The Role of Pore Structure on Nitrate Reduction in Peat Soil: A Physical Characterization of Pore Distribution and Solute Transport. Wetlands 37, 951–960 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0930-4

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