Abstract
Purpose
Sediments are an important archive of rich information about the natural environmental changes and human activities in the basin. Exploring the historical trends and environmental significance of nutrients in the sediments will provide a reference for the restoration of the water environment.
Materials and methods
In this study, two sediment cores were collected in the northern Taihu Basin, China. Total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) values in the sediments were measured by the potassium persulfate digestion method and molybdenum-antimony spectrometry, respectively. Total organic carbon (TOC) level was analyzed by a TOC-L analyzer. The historical source of organic matter (OM) was identified by combining the C/N ratio and nitrogen isotope (δ15N). Comprehensive pollution index and organic pollution index (OI) were performed to evaluate the TN/TP pollution levels and organic pollution status of sediments, respectively.
Results and discussion
The results showed that TN, TP, and TOC concentrations were 0.16–3.19 mg g−1, 0.03–0.15 mg g−1, and 1.08–37.44 mg g−1, respectively. A rising trend of TN, TP, and TOC levels was observed after the 1960s. The correlation results revealed that nutrient concentrations (TN and TP) were positively correlated with the concentration of TOC and silty sand (p ≤ 0.01), respectively. The combined C/N ratio (1.55–25.39) and δ15N value (2.96–9.96‰) reflected the increasing input of exogenous OM. The result of the pollution risk assessment showed that the standard index of TN (STN) and TP (STP) ranged from 0.30–5.79 and 0.05–0.25, respectively, and the OI fluctuated widely from 0.22 × 10–2 to 1.13, indicating that TN and TOC were the dominant control factor of sedimentary environmental quality in the study area, and N and organic pollution of sediments cannot be ignored.
Conclusions
TOC and silty sand showed a great positive effect on the distribution of TN and TP. The primary source of sediment OM turned from algae and plankton to terrestrial plants since the 1940s, and soil N loss and agricultural effluent were the dominant reasons for N accumulation in the sediments. The values of STN and OI reflect the mild-severe contamination and potential risk to the aquatic environment.
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Data Availability
Due to the sensitive nature of the data, information will be available if contacting the corresponding author.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFC3201502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41673107), and the Major Project of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education (No. 20KJA170001).
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Sun, T., Yu, K., Zhao, Z. et al. Occurrence characteristics and environmental significance of nutrients over the past 100 years in the northern Taihu Basin, China. J Soils Sediments 23, 2600–2612 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03509-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03509-8