Nitrogen leaching in a typical agricultural extensively cropped catchment, China: Experiments and modelling

Abstract

Protecting water resources from nitrogen (N) contamination is an important public-health concern and a major national environmental issue in China. Loss of N in soils due to leaching is not only one of the most important problems in agriculture farming, but is also the main factor causing N pollution in aquatic environments. The study area selected is in a typical agricultural extensively cropped land, Fuxianhu Lake catchment in Yunnan Province, China. Three sets of soil columns laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the migration dynamics and leaching loss of N under different artificial rainfall intensities. One groundwater observation well in agricultural extensively cropped land was built to investigate the groundwater pollution caused by agriculture N loss. Based on the laboratory experiment and field monitoring results, the migration dynamics of ammonia-nitrogen (NH4-N) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) were analysed in detail. The LEACHMN model was used to test against the laboratory and field data to evaluate the drainage water and N leaching loss from the soil. The results indicate that the LEACHMN model is useful to carry out a numerical simulation of the water and N transport both in a laboratory experiment and in field monitoring. The findings of this paper help to demonstrate the distribution and migration of N in agricultural lands, as well as to explore the mechanism of groundwater contamination resulting from agricultural activities. The work presented in this paper is also believed to be useful in formulating management strategies for an extensively cropped catchment to reduce diffusive pollution from agricultural activities. © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 CIWEM.