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Assessment of the sources of nitrate in the Chaohu Lake, China, using a nitrogen and oxygen isotopic approach

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Abstract

Nitrate pollution is an increasingly serious problem in Chaohu Lake, China, with the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization surrounding the lake. The dual isotopic approach was employed to determine the sources of nitrate. Thirty-five and thirty-one water samples were collected in summer and winter, respectively. The concentrations of nitrate in the surface waters and lake waters were lower in summer than that in winter, due to the dilution of the wet deposition in summer. The concentrations of nitrate in the western part of the Chaohu Lake are higher than that in the eastern part, due to the inflow river discharge. The δ15N values of nitrate in winter are higher than that in summer, which is consistent with the seasonal variation of nitrate. The primary nitrate sources in northwestern part of the Chaohu Lake are the input of soil organic nitrogen and sewage/manure effluents, while the soil organic nitrogen is the main source in the southwestern and eastern part of the Chaohu Lake. Meanwhile, the data concerning δ18O–NO3 − values in this study indicate that the nitrification process is one important source for the variability of nitrate in Chaohu Lake. This study can provide useful scientific guidance for the remediation and management of Chaohu Lake.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Key Basic Program for Science and Technology Education of Anhui Province (No. KJ2013ZD07), Research Program for Environmental Protection of Anhui Province (2014-003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41173032 and 41373110). We thank reviewers for revising the grammar and giving us many constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China

    Shanshan Xi, Guijian Liu, Chuncai Zhou, Lei Wu & Rongqiong Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, Shaanxi, China

    Shanshan Xi, Guijian Liu & Chuncai Zhou

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  1. Shanshan Xi
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  2. Guijian Liu
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  3. Chuncai Zhou
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  4. Lei Wu
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  5. Rongqiong Liu
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Correspondence to Guijian Liu.

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Xi, S., Liu, G., Zhou, C. et al. Assessment of the sources of nitrate in the Chaohu Lake, China, using a nitrogen and oxygen isotopic approach. Environ Earth Sci 74, 1647–1655 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4170-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4170-8

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