Identification of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is a great challenge in the North China Plain, which has modified rivers and insufficient data. In this study, a simple and reasonable method was developed to estimate the total nitrogen (TN) load in rural areas of the North China Plain. The method was found to work well and produce results consistent with monitoring data when considering various TN sources and transfer mechanisms. The annual TN loads from rural living, livestock and the farmlands were 121.9 × 103, 45.6 × 103 and 78.5 × 103 kg/yr, respectively. The TN load in the region along the river contributed much more to the NPS pollution than that in areas far from the river, with average TN loads of approximately 3394 and 602 kg km−2 yr−1, respectively. Overall, the results indicate that this method is suitable for NPS load estimates in severely disturbed watersheds with insufficient data.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
January 21 2014
Estimation of the nonpoint source nitrogen load in a strongly disturbed watershed of the North China Plain
Wenzan Li;
Wenzan Li
1State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for other works by this author on:
Xuyong Li;
1State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
E-mail: xyli@rcees.ac.cn
Search for other works by this author on:
Xinzhong Du;
Xinzhong Du
1State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for other works by this author on:
Xiaoxue Wang
Xiaoxue Wang
1State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Search for other works by this author on:
Water Sci Technol (2014) 69 (6): 1304–1311.
Article history
Received:
October 29 2013
Accepted:
January 06 2014
Citation
Wenzan Li, Xuyong Li, Xinzhong Du, Xiaoxue Wang; Estimation of the nonpoint source nitrogen load in a strongly disturbed watershed of the North China Plain. Water Sci Technol 1 March 2014; 69 (6): 1304–1311. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2014.023
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Impact Factor 2.430
CiteScore 3.4 • Q2
13 days submission to first
decision
1,439,880 downloads in 2021
42
Views
7
Citations