Determining nitrogen fate by hydrological pathways and impact on carbonate weathering in an agricultural karst watershed

Identifying the nitrogen(N)fate is complicated and a great challenge in karst watersheds because of the co-existence of natural pools and anthropogenic sources.The objective of the study was to use stable isotopic composition of dual-isotope(δ^(15)NNitrate and δ^(18)O_(Nitrate))and LOADEST model approaches to trace N sources,pathways in karst watershed.The study was conducted in the Houzhai watershed,which is a typical agricultural karst watershed from July 2016 to August 2018,to reveal the N fate and the coupled carbon(C)-N processes occurring in the riverine-watershed with agricultural activities.We found that the wet deposition of total nitrogen(TN)flux was 33.50 kg hm^(-2)·a^(-1)and dissolved nitrogen(DN)flux was 21.66 kg hm^(-2)·a^(-1).The DN runoff loss was 2.10×10^(5)kg·a^(-1)and the loss of DN during the wet season accounted for 95.4%over a year.In the wet season,NO_(3)^(-)-N daily efflux was 977.62±516.66 kg ha^(-1)·day^(-1)and 248.77±57.83 kg ha^(-1)·day^(-1)in the dry season.The NH_(4)^(+)-N efflux was 29.17±10.50 kg ha^(-1)·day^(-1)and 4.42±3.07 kg ha^(-1)·day^(-1)in the wet and dry seasons,respectively.The main form output load of N was NO_(3)^(-)-N which was more than 30 times as much as NH_(4)^(+)-N output loss.The NO_(3)^(-)N caused by rainfall contributed11.82%-53.61%to the export load.Nitrate from soil contributed over 94%of the N to Houzhai river caused by N leaching.In addition,manure and farmland soil were the main sources of groundwater in the Houzhai watersheds,the contribution rates were 25.9%and 22.5%.The chemical N fertilizers affected carbonate weathering strongly,and the HCO_(3)^(-) flux caused by nitrifi-cation due to N fertilizers application in soil accounted for 23.5%of the entire watershed.This study suggested that carbonate weathering may be influenced by nitrogen nitrification in the karst watershed.