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Groundwater and Nutrient Discharge into Jiaozhou Bay, North China

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Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus

Abstract

The health of near shore marine ecosystems has long been a concern because of its importance to coastal areas. Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) is one such marine ecosystem experiencing rapid water quality degradation in the last several decades. From the area surrounding the bay, the nutrients discharged into the bay through surface water and groundwater has been greatly changed. The thickness of the aquifers and the permeability is relatively high, the concentrations of nutrients in the groundwater are generally high, and so the groundwater discharged into JZB is very significant. However, no attempt has ever been made to evaluate the amount of nutrients discharged into the bay area via groundwater. In this study, the cross-section method and water balance method were used to estimate the amount of groundwater and nutrients discharged into JZB via the subsurface. Groundwater was monitored and sampled at aquifers surrounding the bay area, and some previously available data was also analyzed. The results indicated that groundwater from the Baisha Aquifer east of JZB now is the major source of nutrients (nitrate, dissolved SiO2) being discharged into the bay. The concentrations of nutrients in the groundwater have been increasing with intensive agricultural land use. However, Dagu Aquifer, the largest aquifer north of JZB, only provides limited nutrients to the bay area because of the construction of a low permeability subsurface dam. Historically, during the 1970s to the 1990s, the Baisha Aquifer experienced seawater intrusion due to excessive groundwater withdrawal. The same was true for the Dagu Aquifer from the 1980s to the 1990s. Because of this, no significant nutrients were discharged into the bay.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. J.X. Liu of the Environmental and Hydrogeologic Station of Qingdao, and Dr. G.F. Cheng of the Qingdao Hydraulic Bureau for providing surface water flux data and groundwater quality data. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. 40036010 and No. 40572171. The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the original manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    G. Q. Liu, S. Y. Wang & X. J. Zhu

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    S. M. Liu & J. Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    J. Zhang

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  1. G. Q. Liu
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  2. S. Y. Wang
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  4. S. M. Liu
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Correspondence to G. Q. Liu.

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Liu, G.Q., Wang, S.Y., Zhu, X.J. et al. Groundwater and Nutrient Discharge into Jiaozhou Bay, North China. Water Air Soil Pollut: Focus 7, 593–605 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11267-007-9127-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11267-007-9127-9

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