Estimation of ammonia nitrogen load from nonpoint sources in the XitiaoRiver catchment, China
LIANG Tao , WANG Shanna , CAO Hongying , ZHANG Chaosheng , LI Haitao , LI Hengpeng , SONG Wenchong , CHONG Zhongyi
DOI:
Received December 20, 2007,Revised March 18, 2008, Accepted , Available online
Volume 20,2008,Pages 1195-1201
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Ammonia nitrogen (NH4
+-N) is one of the three main forms of total nitrogen (TN). Most studies have estimated the load of TN from
nonpoint sources instead of one specific form. The relationship between land use and concentrations of NH4
+-N in runo was analyzed
using the hydraulic analysis functions of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and the annual loads of NH4
+-N in the Xitiao River
catchment were estimated according to model results. The results suggested that the calculated annual loads of NH4
+-N agreed well
with the observed ones, which was a good example demonstrating that it was possible to estimate the pollutant loads from nonpoint
sources without enough monitoring data. Results also showed that the concentrations of NH4
+-N in river waters of forest and arable
land in the study area were 0.16 and 0.39 mg/L, respectively. The total nonpoint source load of NH4
+-N from 1995 to 2001 (except
1998 and 2000) varied between 2,098 and 7,992 tons/year in the Xitiao River catchment.
