Non-Point-Source Nitrogen and Phosphorus Loadings from a Small Watershed in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Non-point-source pollution has become a major threat to the water quality of the Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR);however,nutrient loadings from terrestrial sources are unclear due to a lack of in situ monitoring.A representative small watershed in the central part of the TGR area was selected to monitor the loss of nitrogen(N) and phosphorous(P) continuously along with the runoff from 2007 through 2009 to understand the exact sources and loadings.Results show that the non-point-source nitrogen and phosphorus comes mainly from the storm runoff from residential areas,citrus orchards and sloping croplands,which contributes up to 76% of the loadings in this watershed.Thus,a crucial measure for controlling non-point-source pollution is to intercept storm runoff from the three sources.Paddy fields provide a sink for non-point-source N and P by intercepting the runoff and sediment along with their different forms of nitrogen and phosphorus.The N and P removal efficiency by paddy fields from residential areas is within the range of 56% to 98%.Paddy fields are an important land-use option for reducing the non-point-source loading of N and P in the TGR area.

Contribution of atmospheric nitrogen deposition to diffuse pollution in a typical hilly red soil catchment in southern China

Atmospheric nitrogen （hi） deposition is currently high and meanwhile diffuse N pollution is also serious in China. The correlation between N deposition and riverine N export and the contribution of N deposition to riverine N export were investigated in a typical hilly red soil catchment in southern China over a two-year period. N deposition was as high as 26.1 to 55.8 kg N/（ha-yr） across different land uses in the studied catchment, while the riverine N exports ranged from 7.2 to 9.6 kg N/（ha-yr） in the forest sub-catchment and 27.4 to 30.3 kg N/（ha.yr） in the agricultural sub-catchment. The correlations between both wet N deposition and riverine N export and precipitation were highly positive, and so were the correlations between NH-N or NO2-N wet deposition and riverine NH4-N or NO3-N exports except for NH-N in the agricultural sub-catchment, indicating that N deposition contributed to riverine N export. The monthly export coefficients of atmospheric deposited N from land to river in the forest sub-catchment （with a mean of 14%） presented a significant positive correlation With precipitation, while the monthly contributions of atmospheric deposition to riverine N export （with a mean of 18.7% in the agricultural sub-catchment and a mean of 21.0% in the whole catchment） were significantly and negatively correlated with precipitation. The relatively high contribution of N deposition to diffuse N pollution in the catchment suggests that efforts should be done to control anthropogenic reactive N emissions to the atmosphere in hilly red soil regions in southern China.