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Landscape properties and precipitation as determinants for high summer nitrogen load from boreal catchments

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Abstract

Context

Hydrological conditions are among the most important factors influencing nutrient concentrations in rivers and their fluxes out of the catchments. In the boreal area extreme hydrological conditions are typical with intense floods during the snow-melt period in spring and the base-flow conditions during winter and summer.

Objectives

In this study we compared nitrate–nitrogen (NO3–N), ammonium–nitrogen (NH4–N) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations and fluxes among summer seasons (June–August) with contrasting hydrology in four small boreal rivers with differing land-use in southern Finland.

Methods

For the analysis we selected 3 years of the lowest summer discharge (1999, 2010, 2011) and 3 years of the highest summer discharge (1996, 1998, 2004).

Results

During high discharge summers NH4–N and DON concentrations were on average 187 and 240 % higher than during low discharge summers. Because of large differences in discharge between the summers the flux values of the different N fractions were at maximum 10–20 times higher during high discharge summers. The effect of heavy rains on N loading was clearly demonstrated in summer 2004 when two consecutive floods transported 42 % of the annual NO3–N flux, 44 % of the NH4–N flux and 57 % of the DON flux out of the catchment.

Conclusions

Available nitrogen storages in the studied catchment areas were probably in excess especially during the wet summers when the plant uptake was presumably lower compared to dryer and warmer summers. When the hydrological conditions were suitable for surface and subsurface runoff, the concentrations and fluxes of NO3–N, NH4–N and DON increased substantially.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation, Grant number 2008292, by the PRO-DOC and CLIMES projects (Academy of Finland), by the N-SINK project (LIFE12 ENV/FI/597), and the Lammi Biological Station, University of Helsinki. The authors also wish to thank Drs. Glen George, Tuija Mattsson and Ishi Buffam for their valuable comments for the earlier versions of the manuscript, and Dr. John Loehr for checking the language, and three reviewers for their constructive suggestions and corrections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lammi Biological Station, University of Helsinki, Pääjärventie 320, 16900, Lammi, Finland

    Lauri Arvola & Eeva Einola

  2. Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Jyväskylä Office, Survontie 9A (Technopolis), 40500, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Marko Järvinen

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  1. Lauri Arvola
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  2. Eeva Einola
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  3. Marko Järvinen
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Correspondence to Lauri Arvola.

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Arvola, L., Einola, E. & Järvinen, M. Landscape properties and precipitation as determinants for high summer nitrogen load from boreal catchments. Landscape Ecol 30, 429–442 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0166-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0166-8

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