『Abstract
Urban streams often contain elevated concentrations of nitrogen
(N) which can be amplified in systems receiving effluent from
wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). In this study, we evaluated
the importance of denitrification in a stream draining urban Greensboro,
NC, USA, using two approaches: (1) natural abundance of 15N-NO3- in conjunction with background NO3--N concentrations along a 7 km transect
downstream of a WWTP; and (2) C2H2
block experiments at three sites and at three habitat types within
each site. Overall lack of a longitudinal pattern of δ15N-NO3- and NO3--N,
combined with high concentrations of NO3--N
suggested that other factors were controlling NO3--N
flux in the study transect. However, denitrification did appear
to be significant along one portion of the transect. C2H2 block experiments showed that denitrification
rates were much higher downstream of the WWTP compared to upstream,
and showed that denitrification rates were highest in erosional
and depositional areas downstream of the WWTP and in erosional
areas upstream of the plant. Thus, the combination of the two
methods for evaluating denitrification provided more insight into
the spatial dynamics of denitrification activity than either approach
alone. Denitrification appeared to be a significant sink for NO3--N upstream of the WWTP, but not
downstream. Approximately 46% of the total NO3--N
load was removed via denitrification in the upstream, urban section
of the stream, while only 2.3% of NO3--N
was lost downstream of the plant. This result suggests that controlling
NO3--N loading from the plant
could result in considerable improvement of downstream water quality.
Keywords: Denitrification; Nitrogen; δ15N-NO3-;
Urban stream; Wastewater』
Introduction
Materials and methods
Study sites
Field procedures
Laboratory procedures
Statistical analyses
Results
Natural abundance of δ15N-NO3-
Physical and chemical parameters from sediment core sampling
sites
Denitrification rates between sites
Denitrification rates between habitat types
Discussion
Natural abundance of δ15N-NO3-
Spatial variability in denitrification rates (C2H2 Reduction)
Proportion of NO3-N loss to denitrification
Conclusions
References