Decreasing organic nitrogen concentrations in European water bodies - links to organic carbon trends and land cover

Abstract

European rivers experience increasing concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) from terrestrial sources due to factors involving changes in land use, climate and soil acidity. However, low interest is given to the evolution of total organic nitrogen (TON) concentrations in surface waters, the links with TOC concentrations and the influence of the surrounding land cover on nutrient inputs. Investigating TON concentrations in parallel with TOC concentrations on a wide spatiotemporal scale would help understanding the role and implications of TON on surface water quality and on the occurence of eutrophication episodes. Consequently, linking concentration trends to the surrounding land cover would help understanding the influence of human development on surface water quality in Europe.
By filtering TOC and TON annual concentration means from the EU’s Waterbase aggregated database, we gathered data from monitoring sites distributed over Europe and spread from 1990 to 2012. For each site, a concentration anomaly was first calculated as the difference between a given year and a reference year, and then regressed as a linear fonction of time. Annually averaged concentration differences and rates of change were also calculated for each site to apprehend the intensity and visualize the distribution of nutrient inputs in Europe. TON concentrations were also regressed on TOC concentrations to study possible correlations between them. Using GIS spatial analysis tools and the Corine Land Cover 2012 dataset, monitoring sites were categorized into dominant land cover types (depending on the land cover found within a 1-km buffer). Trends and correlation analysis were then detailed and linked to those specific categories.
We showed that TON and TOC concentrations observed in European surface waters are qualified high compared to ranges observed globally for rivers and estuaries in the Northern hemisphere. Nonetheless, these observations are to be considered with care as they do not relate to the water bodies’ morphologies. The highest TOC concentrations are observed for “Reference” sites (>95% natural land cover) and the highest TON concentrations observed for “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites. The TOC:TON ratios observed are consequently high, regardless of the surrounding land use, with a strong positive correlation observed in ratio ranging from 0.25 to 0.40 in favor of organic C. TOC concentrations showed an increasing trend overall from 1990 to 2012, with “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites showing slightly decreasing trends and “Natural” and “Reference” sites showing steeply increasing trends. TON concentrations showed the opposite behavior with decreasing trends for all land cover categories, with particularly strong correlation R2 coefficient for “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites. TON decreasing trends follow the observations made of decreasing N and P concentrations in European freshwaters and can be explained as the results of improved monitoring methodologies and policies applied by the EU. They suggest optimistic outcomes on the occurrence of eutrophication episodes and the improvement of water quality.

Popular Abstract

You might have heard of it but it appears that we, as human kind, are not completely innocent when it comes to the current health of our surrounding water ecosystems. And despite what some might dare say, the effects of human development on the quality of freshwaters are well-documented by the scientific community. The ever-increasing development of urban and agricultural areas are responsible for increasing nutrient inputs leaching in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. These nutrient ”overloads” can in turn raise health concern, decrease water availiblity, increase water treatment costs and even destabilize a whole ecosystem for example. Organic carbon is one of those nutrient that is well-documented, with effects on water ecosystems well-understood by the scientific community. On the other hand, we know that organic nitrogen is another major nutrient being released from human-made parcels but without much quantitative and qualitative knowledge. In this project, we aim to fill this gap by studying organic nitrogen concentrations in European freshwaters, find links with organic carbon concentrations and the surrounding land cover.
In 2018, the European Union and the European Environmental Agency published the Waterbase, a substantial database containing up to 3.2 million records of water chemicals sampled from monitoring sites distributed all over Europe. From the Waterbase, we extracted all the records for total organic carbon (TON) and total organic nitrogen (TON) between 1990 and 2012. These datasets were first used to study global trends for each compounds over the specified time range. The two compounds were also studied jointly to highlight a possible correlation between them, which would tell us about the origin and quality of the organic matter. Finally and with the help of dedicated geographical data softwares, each monitoring sites were classified into categories depending on the dominant usage of land within a radius of 1 kilometer around them. Each chemical compound could then be studied in relation to the surrounding land usage.
We showed that TON and TOC concentrations observed in European surface waters are qualified high compared to ranges of values observed for rivers and estuaries in the Northern hemisphere. The highest TOC concentrations are observed for “Reference” sites (>95% natural land cover), which highlight the role of dense forest and vegetation parcels for the input of organic carbon in surface waters. On the other hand, the highest TON concentrations were observed for “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites, highlighting the role of human-made parcels in nutrient inputs. The TOC concentrations showed an increasing trend between 1990 and 2012, with the “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites showing slightly decreasing trends and “Natural” and “Reference” sites showing steeply increasing trends. TON concentrations showed the opposite behavior with decreasing trends for all land cover categories, with particularly steep decrease for “Urban” and “Agricultural” sites. TON decreasing trends follow the observations previously made of decreasing nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in European freshwaters. They can be explained as the results of improved monitoring methodologies and policies applied by the EU and save the day for our governors. They also suggest optimistic outcomes for the water quality in Europe, with a partial or even total recovery of some water ecosystems.

• author: Cazorla, Alexis
• supervisor: Martin Berggren
• organization: Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
• course: GISM01 20202
• year: 2020
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• keywords: geography, GIS, physical geography, organic nitrogen, organic carbon, land cover, eutrophication, Europe
• publication/series: Master Thesis in Geographical Information Science
• report number: 124
• language: English
• id: 9032836
• date added to LUP: 2020-12-14 14:11:35
• date last changed: 2020-12-14 14:11:35