『Abstract
Increased phosphorus availability may provoke serious eutrophication
problems in wetlands. Strong evidence indicates that sulphate
induced mobilization of phosphate (internal eutrophication) has
been responsible for a strong decline of the biodiversity in wetlands
during the last decades. It is currently underestimated, however,
that the wide spread leaching of nitrate from agricultural lands
can indirectly provoke strong internal phosphate eutrophication
in wetlands, via its interference with sulphur and iron biogeochemistry
in the subsoil. Nitrate can mobilize sulphate from geological
pyrite deposits by the oxidation of FeSx
in the aquifer, leading to a decrease of nitrate and an increase
of groundwater sulphate concentrations. Furthermore nitrate immobilizes
iron in the subsoil by oxidizing reduced (dissolved) iron. Increased
sulphate concentrations may provoke strong phosphate eutrophication
in wetlands fed directly or indirectly (via surface water) with
groundwater as sulphate strongly interferes with iron phosphorus
chemistry and stimulates anaerobic decomposition of organic matter.
Management of wetlands should therefore be approached at a broader
scale which includes the landscape-scale management of groundwater
systems. Leaching of nitrate to the groundwater, for instance,
should not only receive attention for its potential effects on
drinking water quality but above all because of the resulting
large scale mobilization of sulphate from geological pyrite deposits
and the immobilization of ferrous iron.
Keywords: Nitrate; Sulphate; Eutrophication; Phosphorus; Groundwater;
wetland』
Introduction
Nitrate pollution
Nitrate reduction
Internal eutrophication
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Open Access
References