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Water-level alterations modified nitrogen cycling across sediment-water interface in the Three Gorges Reservoir

  • Sediment Environment, Pollution and Remediation
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Abstract

Water-level regime alteration-associated redox fluctuation plays a primary role in governing exchange and transformation of nitrogen (N) in water-level fluctuation zones (WLFZs), while few understanding of how hydrological regimes under reservoir operation affected N cycling across the sediment-water interface (SWI), giving rise to uncertainties in reservoir N nutrient management. Batch microcosm simulation experiments with intact sediment cores from WLFZs of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) were conducted for 24 days to identify holistic flooding-drying process mechanism on N-cycling patterns. Our results showed a distinct transition of N-cycling mode across the SWI, shifting from biological denitrogen loss dominated in initial period of flooding to enhance endogenous N retention. A dramatic source-sink switch of nitrous oxide (N2O) occurred in the first 1.5 days during the flooding period. However, combined accelerating migration of NH4+-N from sediment to overlying water, and subsequently enhanced transformation of NH4+-N to NO3−-N formed from flooding to drying rotation, thereby increasing N loading to overlying water. The reason for this investigation could be attributed to intensive N loss through coupled nitrification and denitrification in oxic-anoxic microenvironments after flooding. With oxygen replenishment from atmosphere during drying phase, persistent ammonification of organic N in sediments provided sufficient source of NH4+-N for the formation of NO3−-N fraction in a more oxic overlying water. Therefore, water-level regime alteration by reservoir operation was capable of weakening N removal from water body and lengthening internal N turnover time across redox-variable SWI. These findings elucidate new understanding of holistic hydrological regime mechanisms on N cycling across SWI and provide insight to biogenic N nutrient management for improving the green credentials of hydroelectric reservoir.

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Acknowledgments

This research was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51709183, 51609144), the 61st China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M611862), and research project of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YC2019007, ZYTS2019016, STIT2017-1-9). The authors are grateful to Dr. Carla Roberts for improving and proofreading the manuscript. We earnestly do appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and valuable comments to this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, 350013, China

    Juhua Yu, Yushu Zhang, Hong Ding & Xiangzhou Zheng

  2. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Jicheng Zhong

  3. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Zhiyuan Wang

  4. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Yinlong Zhang

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  1. Juhua Yu
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  2. Yushu Zhang
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  3. Jicheng Zhong
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  4. Hong Ding
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  5. Xiangzhou Zheng
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  6. Zhiyuan Wang
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  7. Yinlong Zhang
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Correspondence to Juhua Yu or Yushu Zhang.

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Yu, J., Zhang, Y., Zhong, J. et al. Water-level alterations modified nitrogen cycling across sediment-water interface in the Three Gorges Reservoir. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 25886–25898 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06656-z

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