Quantifying the fate of wastewater nitrogen discharged to a Canadian river

Addition of nutrients, such as nitrogen, can degrade water quality in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. To predict the fate of nutrient inputs, an understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients is needed. We develop and employ a novel, parsimonious, process-based model of nitrogen concentratio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jason J. Venkiteswaran (Author), Sherry L. Schiff (Author), Brian P. Ingalls (Author)
Format: Book
Published: Canadian Science Publishing, 2019-07-01T00:00:00Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this object online.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Addition of nutrients, such as nitrogen, can degrade water quality in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. To predict the fate of nutrient inputs, an understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients is needed. We develop and employ a novel, parsimonious, process-based model of nitrogen concentrations and stable isotopes that quantifies the competing processes of volatilization, biological assimilation, nitrification, and denitrification in nutrient-impacted rivers. Calibration of the model to nitrogen discharges from two wastewater treatment plants in the Grand River, Ontario, Canada, show that ammonia volatilization was negligible relative to biological assimilation, nitrification, and denitrification within 5 km of the discharge points.
Item Description:10.1139/facets-2018-0028
2371-1671
2371-1671