Abstract
With the large-scale application of nitrogen fertilizers in the agricultural area, the karst area in southwest China is increasingly polluted by nitrogen. Understanding the distribution, transportation, and sources of nitrogen is the premise for effective pollution control in the catchment. The present study used the nitrogen and oxygen isotopes technique to explore the dynamic changes and sources of nitrates during rainfall in various land uses in a typical karst catchment in southwestern China. The results of hydrochemistry composition indicated that agricultural activities have caused the deterioration of water quality, while intensive rainfall during the wet season has played a positive role in promoting it. NO3−–N was the major inorganic N, accounting for 78.7 ± 21.6% (N = 38) of the total nitrogen. Dryland and paddy field provided a large amount of nitrogen for the water environment by rain, which contributed to high NO3−-N concentration in spring (6.1 ± 0.9 mg/L) and runoff (7.2 ± 0.9 mg/L) at the catchment outlet. Nitrate isotopic compositions (δ15N–NO3− and δ18O–NO3−) and water isotopes (δD and δ18O–H2O) revealed that isotopic composition in dryland and paddy field was mainly affected by nitrification. Source analysis showed that dryland and paddy field was dominated by chemical fertilizers and manure, while precipitation and soil organic nitrogen were the major sources in abandoned land, forest and shrub. This study highlighted that land management and nitrogen fertilizer application should be reasonable to reduce the risk of nitrogen surplus in the water environment.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Numbers 42073076 and 41403105]; the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB40000000]; the Independent Innovative Foundation of Tianjin University (Grant No. 2022XJS-0123); the construction project of Key Laboratory of State Ethnic Affairs Commission ([2020] No 0.91 of DDA office, i.e., The karst environmental geological hazard prevention laboratory of Guizhou Minzu University) and Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (20JCQNJC01600).
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PZ: data curation, formal analysis, and writing the original draft. F-JY: conceptualization, supervision, investigation, writing, review, and editing. X-DW: formal analysis, methodology, supervision, writing, review and editing. S-NC, Z-HL, ML, and Z-YS: review and editing.
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Zhang, P., Wang, XD., Yue, FJ. et al. Dynamic characteristics of nitrogen transport in various land use in a typical karst catchment during rainfall events. Environ Earth Sci 82, 332 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-023-10980-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-023-10980-6