Nitrate pollution of groundwater; all right…, but nothing else?

Contamination from agricultural sources and, in particular, nitrate pollution, is one of the main concerns in groundwater management. However, this type of pollution entails the entrance of other substances into the aquifer, as well as it may promote other processes. In this study, we deal with hydr...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Science of the total environment Jg. 539; S. 241 - 251
Hauptverfasser: Menció, Anna, Mas-Pla, Josep, Otero, Neus, Regàs, Oriol, Boy-Roura, Mercè, Puig, Roger, Bach, Joan, Domènech, Cristina, Zamorano, Manel, Brusi, David, Folch, Albert
Format: Journal Article Verlag
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.01.2016
Schlagworte:
Agriculture
Aigües subterrànies
Aquifers
calcium
chlorides
Contaminació
Enginyeria civil
Entrances
Environmental Monitoring
Fertilization
fertilizer application
Geologia
Groundwater
Groundwater - chemistry
Groundwater management
Hidrologia subterrània
hydrochemistry
ions
magnesium
multivariate analysis
nitrate isotopes
nitrate pollution
Nitrates
Nitrates - analysis
Pollution
Pollution abatement
potassium
Resources management
sodium
Spain
sulfates
water management
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
Water Supply - statistics & numerical data
water-rock interaction
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
Spain
Spain, Catalonia
nitrate isotopes
water-rock interaction
groundwater
hydrochemistry
multivariate analysis
nitrate pollution
ISSN:0048-9697, 1879-1026
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Zusammenfassung:Contamination from agricultural sources and, in particular, nitrate pollution, is one of the main concerns in groundwater management. However, this type of pollution entails the entrance of other substances into the aquifer, as well as it may promote other processes. In this study, we deal with hydrochemical and isotopic analysis of groundwater samples from four distinct zones in Catalonia (NE Spain), which include 5 different aquifer types, to investigate the influence of fertilization on the overall hydrochemical composition of groundwater. Results indicate that intense fertilizer application, causing high nitrate pollution in aquifers, also homogenize the contents of the major dissolved ions (i.e.; Cl-, SO42-, Ca2+, Na+, K+, and Mg2+). Thus, when groundwater in igneous and sedimentary aquifers is compared, significant differences are observed under natural conditions for Cl-, Na+ and Ca2+ (with p-values ranging from <0.001 to 0.038), and when high nitrate concentrations occur, these differences are reduced (most p-values ranged between 0.054 and 0.978). Moreover, positive linear relationships between nitrate and some ions are found indicating the magnitude of the fertilization impact on groundwater hydrochemistry (with R2 values of 0.490, 0.609 and 0.470, for SO42-, Ca2+ and Cl-, respectively). Nevertheless, the increasing concentration of specific ions is not only attributed to agricultural pollution, but to their enhancing effect upon the biogeochemical processes that control water-rock interactions. Such results raise awareness that these processes should be evaluated in advance in order to assess an adequate groundwater resources management. [Display omitted] •The effects of nitrate pollution have been evaluated in five different aquifer types•Statistical and multivariate analyses are used to identify groundwater changes•Agricultural pollution modifies groundwater conditions and geochemical processes•Manure application affects major ions concentration in all studied aquifers
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.08.151