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Spatio-temporal variation of erosion-type non-point source pollution in a small watershed of hilly and gully region, Chinese Loess Plateau

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 23, pages 10957–10967 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Loss of nitrogen and phosphorus in the hilly and gully region of Chinese Loess Plateau not only decreases the utilization rate of fertilizer but also is a potential threat to aquatic environments. In order to explore the process of erosion-type non-point source (NPS) pollution in Majiagou watershed of Loess Plateau, a distributed, dynamic, and integrated NPS pollution model was established to investigate impacts of returning farmland on erosion-type NPS pollution load from 1995 to 2012. Results indicate that (1) the integrated model proposed in this study was verified to be reasonable; the general methodology is universal and can be applicable to the hilly and gully region, Loess Plateau; (2) the erosion-type NPS total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) load showed an overall decreasing trend; the average nitrogen and phosphorus load modulus in the last four years (2009–2012) were 1.23 and 1.63 t/km2 · a, respectively, which were both decreased by about 35.4 % compared with the initial treatment period (1995–1998); and (3) The spatial variations of NPS pollution are closely related to spatial characteristics of rainfall, topography, and soil and land use types; the peak regions of TN and TP loss mainly occurred along the main river banks of the Yanhe River watershed from northeast to southeast, and gradually decreased with the increase of distance to the left and right river banks, respectively. Results may provide scientific basis for the watershed-scale NPS pollution control of the Loess Plateau.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51309194), the Special Research Foundation for Young Teachers (2452015374), the Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory, Institute of Water and Soil Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources (K318009902-1417), the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (20130204120034), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (QN2013047), the Initial Scientific Research Funds for PhD from Northwest A&F University (2012BSJJ004).

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Affiliations

  1. College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, No. 23 Weihui Street, Yangling District, Shaanxi, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Wu & Xiao-yi Ma

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Wu

  3. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid Regions <Ministry of Education>, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Wu & Xiao-yi Ma

  4. Construction Department, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People’s Republic of China

    Xia Liu

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  1. Lei Wu
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  2. Xia Liu
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  3. Xiao-yi Ma
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Correspondence to Lei Wu.

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Wu, L., Liu, X. & Ma, Xy. Spatio-temporal variation of erosion-type non-point source pollution in a small watershed of hilly and gully region, Chinese Loess Plateau. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 10957–10967 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6312-2

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Keywords

  • Erosion-type nonpoint source pollution
  • Returning farmland
  • Dynamic model
  • Spatio-temporal variation
  • Chinese Loess Plateau