Abstract
The sources of nitrate in the shallow groundwater at urban area, Hangzhou City, China were investigated using chemical and isotopic techniques. Groundwater electric conductivity was high in the study area and ranged from 369–1,544 μS/cm. Most of the groundwater was weakly alkaline and the groundwater chemistry was seriously influenced by land use in the city. There was a high frequency of groundwater (43% of total) with nitrate above World Heath Organization’s standards of 10 mg NO3/L. The different land-use areas had different nitrate concentrations (0.04–34.41 mgN/L) and δ15N NO3 values (7.8~35.5‰). Domestic wastewater was the major nitrate source of shallow groundwater in the urban area, and the point source (septic tank) still existed in residential settings. At agricultural settings manure was the major NO3 sources. High δ15N NO3 value (>20‰) and temporal variations of the δ15N NO3 value suggested that in residential areas it probably resulted from denitrification.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Key Basic Research Special Foundation Program (973 program, No. 2002CB410807) for their financial support. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Laboratory of Aquatic Environmental Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan, for supporting the chemical analysis and collection of samples. The authors appreciate the assistance of Dr. S. Ueda, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, Japan, for his help on stable isotope analysis.
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Jin, Z., Chen, Y., Wang, F. et al. Detection of nitrate sources in urban groundwater by isotopic and chemical indicators, Hangzhou City, China. Env Geol 45, 1017–1024 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-0962-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-0962-y