Laboratory experiments of phosphorus loss with surface runoff during simulated rainfall
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Laboratory experiments of phosphorus loss with surface runoff during simulated rainfall Lingqing Wang • Tao Liang • Qian Zhang
Received: 19 May 2012 / Accepted: 21 February 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract Surface runoff accounts for much of the phosphorus (P) input to and accelerated eutrophication of the fresh waters. The environmental fate of P receives increasing attention but the key mechanisms of P transport with surface runoff remain unclear. Through artificial rainfall experiments, characteristics of P loss with surface runoff during simulated rainfall are investigated under the conditions of various slope gradient and rainfall intensity and the factors of influencing are also discussed. Results show that the amount of runoff and sediment increased rapidly in a shorter time after runoff producing, then gradually turned to be stable. It shows significant correlation between the runoff volume and sediment. The amount of runoff and sediment increased with the increasing of slope gradient and rainfall intensity. P content in the runoff was higher in the early stage after runoff producing, and then stabilized gradually. Most of the P transformed through the sediment loss. Keywords Simulated rainfall Slope gradient Rainfall intensity Phosphorus Runoff
L. Wang Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographical Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China L. Wang T. Liang (&) Q. Zhang Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Eutrophication is one of the most serious environmental issues resulting from excessive nutrient loading into surface water system. In most cases, eutrophication restricts water uses for fisheries, recreation, and industry due to the increased growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds followed by oxygen shortages resulting from their deaths and decomposition (Sharpley et al. 2000; Wang et al. 2011). Excessive nutrients come from both point pollution such as waste water from industry and municipal sewage, and non-point pollution like irrigation water, surface run water containing fertilizer from farmland, etc. (Daniel et al. 1998; Hart et al. 2004). Nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) are the major nutrients required for freshwater eutrophication because the supply rates of these nutrients most often control or limit aquatic plant primary production and biomass formation. However, most attention has focused on controlling P inputs, because of the free air–water exchange of N and C and fixation of atmospheric N by some blue-green algae (Haygarth et al. 1998; Sharpley et al. 2004). Therefore, P is often the limiting element, and its control is of prime importance in reducing the accelerated eutrophication of fresh waters (Dougherty et al. 2004; Bertol et al. 2007). Hence, a clearer understanding of the key mechanisms of P transport with surfa
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