Forest detritus and cycling of nitrogen in a mountain lake

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 990-998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Wissmar
Keyword(s):  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Mountain Lake ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Microbial Oxidation ◽  
Nitrogen Fluxes ◽  
Nitrogen Concentrations ◽  
Definition Of

Small lakes of forested watersheds can receive large subsidies of forest matter, but little is known about the material's role in the cycling of nutrients within these ecosystems. This paper examines the influence of detritus and dissolved nitrogen from a forest on the nitrogen cycle of a small subalpine lake in the Cascade Mountains of Washington during the ice-free period (98 days). Relationships between changing detrital microbial biomass, oxygen uptake rates, and water conditions indicate that dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations and water temperatures control the decomposition of the nitrogen-depleted detritus. The microbial respiration rates suggest the probable co-occurrence of several microbial oxidation and reduction reactions that could be cycling nitrogen in oxic–anoxic interfaces of detrital deposits, sediments, and riparian areas. Estimates of nitrogen gains and losses (3 and 7%, respectively) by forest detritus are low in comparison with total nitrogen uptake and releases within the lake during the study period (378 and 347 mg•m−2, respectively) and point to the need to examine other methods for measuring detrital nitrogen fluxes. The total nitrogen input to the lake (2600 mg•m−2 for the study period) from the watershed exceeds the lake output (2120 mg•m−2 for the study period). The low output of total nitrogen appears to be due to retention of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and particulate organic nitrogen within the lake. Most dissolved inorganic nitrogen retained is nitrate suggesting possible losses through denitrification. Dissolved organic nitrogen is the major proportion of the total nitrogen fluxes, but related mass balance errors indicate the need for further definition of both the sources and fates of dissolved organic nitrogen for the ecosystem.

Nitrogen removal and cycling in restored wetlands used as filters of nutrients for agricultural runoff

1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco A. Comín ◽  
Jose A. Romero ◽  
Valeria Astorga ◽  
Carmen García
Keyword(s):  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Nitrogen Retention ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Agricultural Runoff ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Restored Wetlands ◽  
Irrigation Network

Four restored wetlands dominated by Phragmites australis, Typha latifolia and Scirpus lacustris were used to improve the quality of agricultural runoff in the Delta of the Ebro River (NE Spain) in 1993. The wetlands were continuously flooded with water from a ricefield irrigation network during the growing season and received water with between 0-270 mg m−2d−1 of total nitrogen, 29-105 mg m−2d−1 of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and 0-27 mg m−2d−1 of dissolved organic nitrogen. Surface outflows contained between 0-80 mg m−2d−1 of total nitrogen, 0-12 mg m−2d−1 of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and 1-19 mg m−2d−1 of dissolved organic nitrogen. The nitrogen retention efficiency was close to 100% of the input, except for dissolved organic nitrogen at the end of the growing season. The denitrification rates measured by the acetylene reduction in the sediment ranged between 0 and 3.46 mg N m−2 d−1 and represented between 0 and 12% of the inflowing dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Emergent macrophytes accumulated between 20 and 100 mg N m−2 d−1, which accounts for between 66 and 100% of the inflowing dissolved inorganic nitrogen. The wetland sediment accumulated between 111 and 250 mg N m−2 d−1 during the six month growing season. The removal rate constants calculated according to a first - order plug - flow kinetics, were between 0.01-0.075 m d−1 for total nitrogen and 0.01-0.3 m d−1 for dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Plant uptake, detritus accumulation and decomposition, and nitrogen recycling in the sediment are major processes for nitrogen retention and recycling in the wetlands. This type of wetlands, restored from ricefields, act as highly efficient water polishing filters for agricultural runoff and, at the same time, can contribute to increase the habitat biodiversity of large areas where rice is cultivated extensively.

Optimization of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) measurements in aqueous samples with high inorganic nitrogen concentrations

2007 ◽  
Vol 386 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 103-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Vandenbruwane ◽  
Stefaan De Neve ◽  
Robert G. Qualls ◽  
Joost Salomez ◽  
Georges Hofman
Keyword(s):  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Aqueous Samples ◽  
Nitrogen Concentrations

Dialysis is superior to anion exchange for removal of dissolved inorganic nitrogen from freshwater samples prior to dissolved organic nitrogen determination

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Graeber ◽  
Björn Gücker ◽  
Elke Zwirnmann ◽  
Brian Kronvang ◽  
Christoph Weih ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anion Exchange ◽  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Treatment Technique ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Recovery Rates ◽  
Nitrogen Determination ◽  
Pre Treatment

Environmental context Aquatic ecosystem health may be adversely affected by dissolved organic nitrogen pollution, and accurate analytical techniques are needed to assess these effects. Our study shows that dialysis is the best sample pre-treatment technique to increase the accuracy of dissolved organic nitrogen determination. It will improve analysis and understanding of the role of dissolved organic nitrogen in the nitrogen cycle of affected aquatic ecosystems. Abstract Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is usually determined as the difference between total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). When applying this approach to samples with high DIN concentrations, there is a risk that small relative errors in TDN and DIN measurements may propagate into high absolute errors of the determined DON concentration. To reduce such errors, two pre-treatment methods have been suggested for the removal of DIN before the determination of DON: anion-exchange pre-treatment (AEP) and dialysis pre-treatment (DP). In this study, we tested the suitability of AEP and DP for DIN removal in order to increase the accuracy of DON determination of freshwater samples. The AEP performed well for standard compounds, yielding high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) recovery rates and >99 % removal of nitrate, whereas DON recovery rates varied and no removal occurred for ammonium and nitrite. However, AEP proved not to be suitable for natural samples, as it removed 36–74 % DOC and up to 83 % DON. In contrast, after 72 h of DP, 17–32 % DOC and DON had been removed from the natural samples, whereas >98 % nitrate was removed in all but one case, and >87 % of the ammonium and nitrite were removed. Moreover, we found that DP results in a significant increase in DON determination accuracy. In conclusion, DP is a useful measure to increase DON determination accuracy in natural freshwater samples with high DIN-to-TDN ratios, whereas AEP is not recommended for DON determination of natural freshwater samples.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Comparison between a direct and the standard, indirect method for dissolved organic nitrogen determination in freshwater environments with high dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 4873-4884 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Graeber ◽  
J. Gelbrecht ◽  
B. Kronvang ◽  
B. Gücker ◽  
M. T. Pusch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Measurement Accuracy ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Size Exclusion ◽  
Standard Approach ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Recovery Rates ◽  
Freshwater Systems

Abstract. Research on dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in aquatic systems with high dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, the sum of NO3–, NO2– and NH4+) concentrations is often hampered by high uncertainties regarding the determined DON concentration. The reason is that DON is determined indirectly as the difference between total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) and DIN. In this standard approach to determine DON concentrations, even small relative measurement errors of the DIN and TDN concentrations propagate into high absolute errors of DON concentrations at high DIN : TDN ratios. To improve the DON measurement accuracy at high DIN : TDN ratios, we investigated the DON measurement accuracy of this standard approach according to the DIN : TDN ratio and compared it to the direct measurement of DON by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) for freshwater systems. For this, we used standard compounds and natural samples with and without DIN enrichment. We show that for the standard approach, large errors of the determined DON concentrations at DIN : TDN ratios >0.6 occur for both standard compounds and natural samples. In contrast, measurements of DON by SEC always gave low errors at high DIN : TDN ratios due to the successful separation of DON from DIN. For SEC, DON recovery rates were 91–108% for five pure standard compounds and 89–103% for two standard compounds, enriched with DIN. Moreover, SEC resulted in 93–108% recovery rates for DON concentrations of natural samples at a DIN : TDN ratio of 0.8 and the technique was successfully applied to a range of samples from waste water treatment plants to forest and agricultural streams. With 2.5 h of measurement time per sample, SEC is slower, but more accurate than the standard approach for determination of DON concentrations in freshwaters with DIN : TDN ratios >0.6. To sum up, the direct DON measurement by SEC enables better understanding of the nitrogen cycle of urban and agricultural freshwater systems.

scholarly journals Organic nitrogen in precipitation across Europe

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 8093-8109 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Cape ◽  
Y. S. Tang ◽  
J. González-Benítez ◽  
M. Mitošinková ◽  
U. Makkonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
N Deposition ◽  
Organic N ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Total N ◽  
Nitrogen Budgets ◽  
Nitrogen Concentrations

Abstract. Measurements of total nitrogen and inorganic nitrogen in precipitation samples from NitroEurope sites across Europe permit the calculation of organic nitrogen concentrations and wet deposition, by difference. The contribution of organic N to total N in precipitation ranged from only a few % to around 40% across sites from Northern Finland to Italy, similar to results from previous individual studies. This paper presents the absolute and relative contributions of organic N to wet N deposition across Europe, and examines seasonal trends. There were only weak correlations with other solutes in precipitation. These simple statistics indicate that sources of organic N in precipitation vary across Europe, and that no single source is responsible. The organic N contributes to total N deposition, yet this input is rarely quantified in nitrogen budgets.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Comparison between a direct and the standard, indirect method for dissolved organic nitrogen determination in freshwater environments with high dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentrations

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 7021-7048 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Graeber ◽  
J. Gelbrecht ◽  
B. Kronvang ◽  
B. Gücker ◽  
M. Pusch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Dissolved Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Measurement Accuracy ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Size Exclusion ◽  
Standard Approach ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
Recovery Rates

Abstract. Research on dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in aquatic systems with high dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, the sum of NO3−, NO2− and NH4+) concentrations is often hampered by high uncertainties of the determined DON concentration. The reason is that DON is determined indirectly as the difference between total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) and DIN. In this standard approach to determine DON concentrations, even small relative measurement errors of the DIN and TDN concentrations propagate into high absolute errors of DON concentrations at high DIN:TDN ratios. To improve the DON measurement accuracy at high DIN:TDN ratios, we investigated the DON measurement accuracy of this standard approach in dependence of DIN:TDN ratio and compared it to the direct measurement of DON by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). For this, we used standard compounds and natural samples with and without DIN enrichment. We show that for the standard approach, large errors of the determined DON concentrations at DIN:TDN ratios >0.6 occur for both standard compounds and natural samples. In contrast, measurements of DON by SEC always resulted in low errors at high DIN:TDN ratios due to the successful separation of DON from DIN. For SEC, DON recovery rates were 90.7–107.9% for five pure standard compounds and 89–103% for two standard compounds, enriched with DIN. Moreover, SEC resulted in 93–101% recovery rates for DON concentrations of natural samples at a DIN:TDN ratio of 0.8. With 2.5 h of measurement time per sample, SEC is a moderately fast and accurate alternative to the standard approach for the determination of DON concentrations in freshwaters with DIN:TDN ratios >0.6. The direct DON measurement by SEC will enable the scientific community to gather accurate information on DON concentrations, especially in anthropogenically disturbed systems with high DIN concentrations.

scholarly journals Organic nitrogen in precipitation across Europe

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 4401-4409 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Cape ◽  
Y. S. Tang ◽  
J. M. González-Beníez ◽  
M. Mitošinková ◽  
U. Makkonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Total Nitrogen ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Organic Nitrogen ◽  
Inorganic Nitrogen ◽  
N Deposition ◽  
Organic N ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Total N ◽  
Nitrogen Budgets ◽  
Nitrogen Concentrations

Abstract. Measurements of total nitrogen and inorganic nitrogen in precipitation samples from NitroEurope sites across Europe permit the calculation of organic nitrogen concentrations and wet deposition, by difference. The contribution of organic N to total N in precipitation ranged from only a few % to around 40% across 18 sites from northern Finland to Italy, similar to results from previous individual studies. This paper presents the absolute and relative contributions of organic N to wet N deposition across Europe, and examines seasonal trends. There were only weak correlations with other solutes in precipitation. These simple statistics indicate that sources of organic N in precipitation vary across Europe, and that no single source is responsible. The organic N contributes to total N deposition, yet this input is rarely quantified in nitrogen budgets.

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