Results from long-term fertilizer experiments in China: The risk of groundwater pollution by nitrate

Zhao, Bingqiang; Li, X.Y.; Liu, H.; Wang, B.R.; Zhu, Pengfei; Huang, Shaomin; Bao, Dejun; Li, Y.T.; So, H. B.

doi:10.1016/j.njas.2011.09.004

Cited by 64 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Previous research has shown that approximately 50 % or more of N fertilizers (11.34 Mt.) applied are lost via various pathways in China (Zhao et al 2011), causing serious eutrophication and underground water pollution. In this study, the annual growth rate of N and P surplus resulting from excessive use of fertilizer was 1.10 % during 1989-2012, whereas the annual growth rate of N and P discharged from livestock manure was 10 %, which indicated that pollution from livestock breeding became a vital source of eutrophication.…”

Section: Problem Reflected By the Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing environmental risks for high intensity agriculture using the material flow analysis method —a case study of the Dongting Lake basin in South Central China

Yin

Yuan

2015

Environ Monit Assess

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This study primarily examined the assessment of environmental risk in high intensity agricultural areas. Dongting Lake basin was taken as a case study, which is one of the major grain producing areas in China. Using data obtained from 1989 to 2012, we applied Material Flow Analysis (MFA) to show the material consumption, pollutant output and production storage in the agricultural-environmental system and assessed the environmental risk index on the basis of the MFA results. The results predicted that the status of the environmental quality of the Dongting Lake area is unsatisfactory for the foreseeable future. The direct material input (DMI) declined by 13.9%, the domestic processed output (DPO) increased by 28.21%, the intensity of material consumption (IMC) decreased by 36.7%, the intensity of material discharge (IMD) increased by 10%, the material productivity (MP) increased by 27 times, the environmental efficiency (EE) increased by 15.31 times, and the material storage (PAS) increased by 0.23%. The DMI and DPO was higher at rural places on the edge of cities, whereas the risk of urban agriculture has arisen due to the higher increasing rate of DMI and DPO in cities compared with the counties. The composite environmental risk index increased from 0.33 to 0.96, indicating that the total environmental risk changed gradually but seriously during the 24 years assessed. The driving factors that affect environmental risk in high intensity agriculture can be divided into five classes: social, economic, human, natural and disruptive incidents. This study discussed a number of effective measures for protecting the environment while ensuring food production yields. Additional research in other areas and certain improvements of this method in future studies may be necessary to develop a more effective method of managing and controlling agricultural-environmental interactions.

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Section: Problem Reflected By the Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing environmental risks for high intensity agriculture using the material flow analysis method —a case study of the Dongting Lake basin in South Central China

Yin

Yuan

2015

Environ Monit Assess

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“…Use of organic manures as fertilizers can also reduce nutrient losses (Zhao et al, 2011) and climate change impacts (Kustermann et al, 2008), and support similar or higher crop yields than mineral fertilization in certain contexts (Melero et al, 2006;Lin et al, 2009;Seufert et al, 2012). Mäeder et al (2002) reported that while yields were 20% lower in organic systems relying on manure fertilization, they have higher nutrient use efficiencies than conventional systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil microbial community structure and function are significantly affected by long-term organic and mineral fertilization regimes in the North China Plain

Cooper

Zhifang

et al. 2015

Applied Soil Ecology

166

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“…Many studies have reported leaching ranges of 25-90 % of the nitrogen applied to agricultural fields in different crops and countries (Guimerá et al, 1995;McMahon and Woodside, 1997;Neilsen and Neilsen, 2002;Kraft and Stites, 2003;de Paz and Ramos, 2004;Ju et al, 2006;Zhao et al, 2011;Venterea et al, 2011). In Israel, Bar-Yosef et al (1999) reported nitrate leaching of 55-65 % for different vegetables and field crops (18 crop varieties) in a 35-year survey.…”

Section: The Path From Nitrogen Fertilizer To Nitrate In Groundwatermentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling nitrate from land surface to wells' perforations under agricultural land: success, failure, and future scenarios in a Mediterranean case study

Levy

Shapira

Chefetz

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Contamination of groundwater resources by nitrate leaching under agricultural land is probably the most troublesome agriculture-related water contamination worldwide. Contaminated areas often show large spatial variability of nitrate concentration in wells. In this study, we tried to assess whether this spatial variability can be characterized on the basis of land use and standard agricultural practices. Deep soil sampling (10 m) was used to calibrate vertical flow and nitrogen-transport numerical models of the unsaturated zone under different agricultural land uses. Vegetable fields (potato and strawberry) and deciduous orchards (persimmon) in the Sharon area overlying the coastal aquifer of Israel were examined. Average nitrate-nitrogen fluxes below vegetable fields were 210-290 kg ha −1 yr −1 and under deciduous orchards were 110-140 kg ha −1 yr −1 . The output water and nitrate-nitrogen fluxes of the unsaturated-zone models were used as input data for a three-dimensional flow and nitratetransport model in the aquifer under an area of 13.3 km 2 of agricultural land. The area was subdivided into four agricultural land uses: vegetables, deciduous orchards, citrus orchards, and non-cultivated. Fluxes of water and nitratenitrogen below citrus orchards were taken from a previous study in the area. The groundwater flow model was calibrated to well heads by changing the hydraulic conductivity. The nitrate-transport model, which was fed by the abovementioned models of the unsaturated zone, succeeded in reconstructing the average nitrate concentration in the wells. However, this transport model failed in calculating the high concentrations in the most contaminated wells and the large spatial variability of nitrate concentrations in the aquifer. To reconstruct the spatial variability and enable predictions, nitrate fluxes from the unsaturated zone were multiplied by local multipliers. This action was rationalized by the fact that the high concentrations in some wells cannot be explained by regular agricultural activity and are probably due to malfunctions in the well area. Prediction of the nitrate concentration 40 years in the future with three nitrogen-fertilization scenarios showed that (i) under the "business as usual" fertilization scenario, the nitrate concentration (as NO − 3 ) will increase on average by 19 mg L −1 ; (ii) under a scenario of 25 % reduction of nitrogen fertilization, the nitrate concentration in the aquifer will stabilize; (iii) with a 50 % reduction of nitrogen fertilization, the nitrate concentration will decrease on average by 18 mg L −1 .

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Results from long-term fertilizer experiments in China: The risk of groundwater pollution by nitrate

Cited by 64 publications

References 8 publications

Assessing environmental risks for high intensity agriculture using the material flow analysis method —a case study of the Dongting Lake basin in South Central China

Assessing environmental risks for high intensity agriculture using the material flow analysis method —a case study of the Dongting Lake basin in South Central China

Soil microbial community structure and function are significantly affected by long-term organic and mineral fertilization regimes in the North China Plain

Modeling nitrate from land surface to wells' perforations under agricultural land: success, failure, and future scenarios in a Mediterranean case study

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