Factors that affect the spatial and temporal distribution of nitrate in a free aquifer of an agricultural plain basin
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THEMATIC ISSUE
Factors that affect the spatial and temporal distribution of nitrate in a free aquifer of an agricultural plain basin Carolina Calvi1 · Cristina Dapeña1 · Daniel E. Martinez2 Received: 14 February 2020 / Accepted: 29 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The behavior of nitrate in shallow aquifers depends on several factors, such as geomorphology, soil type, thickness of the vadose zone, and its lithology, sampling period, among others. In the free aquifer of the basin of the La Ballenera creek in southeastern of Buenos Aires province, Argentina, nitrate varies in a range between 4 and 250 mg/L in samples taken in spring and winter. This basin has a large agricultural production where fertilizers are applied, and nitrates come from them. Statistical analysis of the data allow to make conclusion about the main factors that influence the variation of the nitrate content in aquifers, in this case are the lithology and the thickness of the vadose zone, related to the different transit times. The results obtained can be extrapolated to analogous basins, considering that in the spatial analysis of nitrates the heterogeneities of the system should be considered. The importance of characterizing a system with more than one sampling at several sufficiently spaced times is emphasized. Keywords Groundwater · Vadose zone · Soil · Geomorphology · Natural background · Contamination
Introduction Elevated nitrate concentrations in groundwater are undesirable and it has become an important environmental indicator of human impact (Edmunds and Shand 2008; Sutton et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2015; Kim et al. 2015). The nitrate contamination of groundwater can cause risks to human health and the environment (L’hirondel and L’hirondel 2001; Powlson et al. 2008). The World Health Organization (WHO 2011) has set the threshold of 50 mg/L as NO3− for drinking water. Excess nitrate leads to methaemoglobinaemia (blue-baby syndrome) in infants less than 6 months old. Furthermore, This article is a part of the Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Advances in Environmental Geochemistry” guest edited by Dr. Eleanor Carol, Dr. Lucia Santucci and Dr. Lia Botto. * Carolina Calvi [email protected] 1
Instituto de Geocronología y Geología Isotópica (INGEIS, CONICET-UBA), Pabellón INGEIS, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
CONICET e Instituto de Geología de Costas y del Cuaternario (CGCyC)-UNMDP, CC 722, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina
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it can pose health problems to pregnant women and gastric troubles in older adult, among other diseases (L’hirondel and L’hirondel 2001). Other researchers argue that there are other critical factors than the nitrate content in drinking water (Fewtrell 2004; Manassaram et al. 2010). The natural background range and the threshold allow identified anomalous N O3 concentrations in groundwater (Panno et al. 2006; Masetti et al. 2008; Giuliano Albo and Blarasin 2014; Cruz and Andrade 2015). Several researchers have indi
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