High‐frequency water quality monitoring in an urban catchment: hydrochemical dynamics,primary production and implications for the Water Framework Directive

This paper describes the hydrochemistry of a lowland, urbanised river‐system, The Cut in England, using in situ sub‐daily sampling. The Cut receives effluent discharges from four major sewage treatment works serving around 190 000 people. These discharges consist largely of treated water, originally abstracted from the River Thames and returned via the water supply network, substantially increasing the natural flow. The hourly water quality data were supplemented by weekly manual sampling with laboratory analysis to check the hourly data and measure further determinands. Mean phosphorus and nitrate concentrations were very high, breaching standards set by EU legislation. Although 56% of the catchment area is agricultural, the hydrochemical dynamics were significantly impacted by effluent discharges which accounted for approximately 50% of the annual P catchment input loads and, on average, 59% of river flow at the monitoring point. Diurnal dissolved oxygen data demonstrated high in‐stream productivity. From a comparison of high frequency and conventional monitoring data, it is inferred that much of the primary production was dominated by benthic algae, largely diatoms. Despite the high productivity and nutrient concentrations, the river water did not become anoxic, and major phytoplankton blooms were not observed. The strong diurnal and annual variation observed showed that assessments of water quality made under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) are sensitive to the time and season of sampling. It is recommended that specific sampling time windows be specified for each determinand, and that WFD targets should be applied in combination to help identify periods of greatest ecological risk. © 2015 The Authors. Hydrological Processes published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Flood effects on phosphorus immobilisation in a river water filled pit lake—Case study Lake Goitsche (Germany)

Between 1999 and 2002, a former open-cast mine was filled with river water forming the recent Lake Goitsche. During filling initially acid water was neutralised. Phosphorus (P) imported from Mulde River was nearly completely removed from the water column by co-precipitation with iron (Fe) and aluminium (Al) and deposited in the sediment.During extremely high waters of the Mulde River in 2002, a dike breach facilitated a second high import of P into Lake Goitsche with suspended and dissolved matter. The analysis of total phosphorus (TP), however, showed that P again had been eliminated from the water body a few months after the flood event. Sediment investigations before filling with river water, during filling, and after the flood event were used to analyse the process of P immobilisation in a lake with acid mine drainage history.The ratios of Fe to soluble reactive P (SRP) of sediment pore water were up to three orders of magnitudes higher than in natural lakes and can serve as an indicator for potential internal P loading from sediments. The SRP concentrations at the oxic/anoxic boundary were near or below the limit of quantification (< 0.2 μmol/L). Fe and manganese (Mn) redox cycling were responsible for hindering P dissolution from sediment to lake water.Finally it can be stated, that the risk of eutrophication for such a lake seems to be low.     

Nitrogen and phosphorus intake by phytoplankton in the Xiamen Bay

This paper describes a time series experiment examining the nitrogen and phosphorus intake of natural phytoplankton communities by a microcosms approach.Seawater samples containing natural phytoplankton communities were collected from waters around Baozhu Islet in inner Xiamen Bay and around Qingyu Islet in the outer bay.The goal was to elucidate the relationship between phytoplankton population enhancement,the biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from the seawater,and the phytoplankton nitrogen an...     

云南白登浅海相磷块岩与青龙哨陆相磷块岩的对比研究

白登磷矿是我国重要的浅海相磷块岩矿床,而青龙哨磷矿是我国重要的陆相磷块岩矿床.两地磷矿品位高,储量大,是滇池地区正在开采的2个重要磷矿基地.野外工作研究发现,青龙哨角砾状磷块岩顶板的磷锶铝石矿层和高岭土黏土岩二者呈超覆式不整合接触.深入研究发现其具有陆相磷块岩的许多特征,而没有浅海相磷块岩的原生沉积构造特征.同时,白登磷矿见上下2层工业矿体,而青龙哨磷矿仅见1层工业矿体.对此二矿床特点进行了对比分析.     

Characteristics and Influence of Phosphorus Accumulated in the Bed Sediments of a Stream Located in an Agricultural Watershed

We investigated the accumulation and influence of bioavailable P (BAP) in sediments of a stream located in an agricultural area of the Lake Mendota watershed in Wisconsin, USA. During hydrologic events, the stream carried high concentrations of suspended sediment (up to 250 mg/l) and BAP (up to 2.5 mg/l). Bed sediments were highly enriched in BAP, as inventories of BAP in the top 10 cm of sediment ranged from 143 to 14,500 μg P/cm². Space variations in BAP inventories were related to site-specific hydrodynamics and geochemical factors, including iron (Fe; r ² = 0.71) and aluminum (Al; r ² = 0.54) concentrations. Most sites behaved as potential sinks for dissolved reactive phosphate during hydrologic events and potential sources during base-flow periods. Through the combination of site-specific factors and geochemical controls, Dorn Creek modifies the amount, timing, and composition of P delivered from the watershed to downstream sites and water bodies.     

Estimation of phosphorus loads with sparse data for agricultural watersheds in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Agricultural watersheds in the Czech Republic are one of the primary sources of non-point-source phosphorus (P) loads in receiving waters. Since such non-point sources are generally located in headwater catchments, streamflow and P concentration data are sparse. We show how very short daily streamflow and P concentration records can be combined with nearby longer existing daily streamflow records to result in reliable estimates of daily and annual P concentrations and loads. Maintenance of variance streamflow record extension methods (MOVE) can be employed to extend short streamflow records. Constituent load regressions are used to predict daily P constituent loads from streamflow and other time varying characteristics. Annual P loads are then estimated for individual watersheds. Resulting annual P load estimates ranged from 0.21 to 95.4 kg year^-1 with a mean value of 11.77 kg year^-1. Similarly annual P yield estimates ranged from 0.01 to 0.3 kg ha^-1 year^-1 with an average yield of 0.07 kg ha^-1 year^-1. We document how short records of daily streamflow and P concentrations can be combined with a national network of daily streamflow records in the Czech Republic to arrive at meaningful and reliable estimates of annual P loads for small agricultural watersheds.

Citation Beránková, T., Vogel, R. M., Fiala, D. & Rosendorf, P. (2010) Estimation of phosphorus loads with sparse data for agricultural watersheds in the Czech Republic. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(8), 1417–1426.     

Uncertainties in mean discharges from two large South American rivers due to rating curve variability

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of land application of sewage sludge on phosphorus (P) losses during intense rainfall. Three rainfall simulations (40 mm h^?1 of 30 min duration) were conducted on a field amended with sewage sludge. The overland flow water (OFW) was monitored and sampled every minute. The suspended solid, the dissolved and total phosphorus (respectively SS, TP and DP) concentrations were analysed. The forms of particulate bound P (PP) were investigated. Several results stem from this experiment: (a) sludge application induced a large increase in the DP content of the OFW; the concentrations obtained (0.15–0.57 mg l^?1) were shown to result from desorption processes from the SS; and (b) in contrast, sludge application affected neither the SS content nor the TP concentration of OFW (9.5 g mg l^?1 P, consisting of PP for 95%). However, sludge preserved the structure of soil surface and led to a 45% decrease in runoff rate (150 m³ ha^?1 collected on the test surface compared to 290 m³ ha^?1 on a reference). This indirectly reduced TP losses (2.7 kg ha^?1 on the reference surface compared to 1.4 kg ha^?1 on the test surface).