『Abstract
This paper examines the combined effects of catchment complexity
in terms of physiography, land use patterns, and lithology on
the export of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved silica
from heterogeneous nested catchments in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.
Using results from water quality monitoring at 24 sampling sites,
we determined the first-order controls on these fluxes. Land cover
with four classes (forest, agriculture, grassland and urban),
dominant lithology (schist, marls, sandstone, limestone, alluvial
sediments), physiographic indices (elevation, flow path length,
ratio of flow path length to flow path gradient, topographic wetness
index, and other), and a suite of hydrological indices )baseflow,
flashiness index and runoff coefficient), were calculated and
used as potential controls. Given the high co-dependence of the
predictors, Partial Least Square Regression was used to shed light
on the linkages between export fluxes and the metrics composed
of the 19 selected catchment characteristics. The first-order
controls were determined by calculating the Variable Influence
on Projection (VIP). These values revealed that the overall dissolved
inorganic nitrogen fluxes are controlled primarily by lithology,
land cover, topographic wetness index and flow path length. The
first-order controls of dissolved silica fluxes are runoff coefficient,
average topographic slope and land cover. Fluxes of dissolved
inorganic nitrogen and dissolved silica did not show any strong
relation to catchment scale. Apart from the widely accepted effect
of land cover, our results indicate that catchment topography
has an essential impact on the fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen.
The ratio of flow path length and flow path gradient, previously
suggested as a proxy of mean water transit time, exerted a relatively
strong control on dissolved inorganic nitrogen fluxes (VIP>1)
with a negative relation to dissolved inorganic nitrogen fluxes,
suggesting that dissolved inorganic nitrogen fluxes decreases
with an increasing flow path gradient.
Keywords: Nutrient fluxes; Hydrology; Physiography; Land cover;
Dissolved silica; Dissolved inorganic nitrogen』
1. Introduction
2. Material and methodology
2.1. Study area
2.2. Model variables
2.3. Chemical analyses
2.4. Data pre-processing, and statistical analysis
2.5. Partial least squares
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References