Applications of a UV optical nitrate sensor in a surface water/groundwater quality field study
| Autor: | David Wood, Steve de Lima, Lee Burbery, Phil Abraham |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Water table Drainage basin 010501 environmental sciences Management Monitoring Policy and Law 01 natural sciences chemistry.chemical_compound Nitrate Tributary Spring (hydrology) Groundwater 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science Hydrology geography Nitrates geography.geographical_feature_category Water Agriculture Storm General Medicine Pollution chemistry Environmental science Surface water Water Pollutants Chemical Environmental Monitoring |
| Zdroj: | Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 193 |
| ISSN: | 1573-2959 0167-6369 |
| Popis: | Examples of the utility of UV optical nitrate sensors are provided for two field applications, investigating nitrate pollution in a lowland, peri-urban catchment. In one application, rapid, in-stream longitudinal nitrate surveys were made in summer and winter, by fixing an optical nitrate sensor operating in continuous measurement mode to a kayak that was paddled along 10 km of the mainstem of the low-order stream in under 4 h. Nitrate concentrations ranged between 3.45 and 6.39 mg NO3-N/L. Nitrate hot-spots and cool-spots were mapped and found to relate to point discharges from spring-fed tributaries and land drains. Effective nitrate removal (dN/dx = − 0.08 mg N/L/km), inferred to be from assimilation reactions, was evident in the summer dataset, but not the winter nitrate dataset. In a second application, the optical sensor was configured with appropriate technology to establish an autonomous and fully automated nitrate monitoring station. The station makes daily nitrate measurements of surface water, and groundwater, sampled from a cluster of four multi-level wells. Quarterly maintenance of the nitrate sensor has proven sufficient to keep measurement errors under 5%. Most nitrate variation has been recorded at or near the water table where concentrations have ranged between 3.47 and 5.88 mg NO3-N/L, and annual maxima have occurred in late winter/spring, which coincides with when most nitrate leaching occurs from agricultural land. Seasonal nitrate patterns are not evident in groundwater sampled from 8-m depth, or deeper. High-frequency monitoring has revealed that some infra-season, short-term variability also occurs in shallow groundwater nitrate, driven by storm events, and which on occasion results in a temporary inversion of the groundwater nitrate-depth profile. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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