In order to implement best environmental management practices in agricultural watershed, it is necessary to evaluate non point source pollution loads and identify critical watershed pollution sources, which are regional management priority missions. Nutrient related non point source pollutant inputs can increase primary production and intensify water eutrophication. Not all watershed areas are critical and responsible for high amount nutrient pollution losses. Implementation of watershed environmental prevention is required to assess pollution yields. Further more, identification of these critical areas is essential for the effective and efficient implementation of watershed best environmental management. In this study, a geographic information system based Soil and Water Assessment Tool was applied in Bahe River watershed, a part of the Yangtze River basin. Land use, soil series texture and daily rainfall data for a 10-year period (1996-2005) was used in this study. The calibrated model system was verified to estimate average annual Organic Nitrogen and Organic Phosphorus yields in these 10 years. The estimated results were also tested and optimized by statistical software. Based on 10-year average yearly Organic Nitrogen yield and Organic Phosphorus losses, critical sub-watersheds were identified. The five sub-watersheds in the north part of watershed were under more intensive pollution yield, west group sub-watersheds contributed to moderate losses, whereas other sub-watersheds fell under slight loading classes. The research outputs developed a basis for an effective watershed environmental management plan. The study revealed that the Soil and Water Assessment Tool could be applied successfully for identifying critical sub-watersheds for watershed best environmental management purposes.

Persistently high Nitrogen (N) deposition may have caused widespread N saturation in Central Europe's forests. Simple and inexpensive methods are required for estimating the N status. This study suggests that the current N status of forest ecosystems can be estimated by measuring CaCl₂-extractable nitrate concentrations in the soil below the main rooting zone. We tested this possibility using a large number of samples (135 in total) in a nested sampling design in two homogeneous Norway spruce forests in southern Bavaria. This approach was accompanied by a small scale survey with suction cups (N = 54) in one forest. Nitrate concentrations determined by soil extracts varied widely (coefficients of variance 95 and 125%) and were well comparable with those of the simultaneous investigation of seepage water. Site and stand conditions explained only a small portion (<10%) of the total variation. Mineral soil nitrate concentrations were not spatially dependent at the medium and large scales (about 10 m to several km) in both forests. Therefore the reliability of estimates at these scales depends mainly on the sample size. At the small scale (<about 10 m) large variation in nitrate concentrations and a considerable spatial dependency could be observed. Therefore intensive sampling is necessary at short distances in order to estimate the mean adequately. From our results, we deduct possibilities and limitations of nitrate inventories as a tool for regional assessment of the N status of forests.

Inorganic nitrogen deposition and leaching in stream water were monitored from January, 2001 to December, 2004 in a subtropical evergreen mixed forest in central-south China. The seasonal concentration and flux of inorganic nitrogen in bulk precipitation and stream water, seasonal mean net retention of nitrogen and net flux of H⁺ transformed by nitrogen were estimated and quantified in Shaoshan forest. The research results show that the correlation coefficient of fluxes between bulk precipitation and stream water is significant, with a coefficient 0.916 at the 0.01 level. Mean fluxes of inorganic nitrogen input are 2.62 g m⁻² a⁻¹ and 0.516 g m⁻² a⁻¹ in form of bulk precipitation and dry deposition respectively, and output in stream water is around 0.22 g m⁻² a⁻¹, which indicates that most of nitrogen input is reserved in the forest. Net retention of nitrogen reaches 2.916 g m⁻² a⁻¹, just higher than other study plots over the world. Along with the translating of nitrogen ( [graphic removed] and [graphic removed] ), H⁺ is imported to the forest ecosystem at the same time. At our study plots, net flux of H⁺ transformed by nitrogen is about 73.57 mmol m⁻² a⁻¹. The positive value suggests that Shaoshan forest is still a finer buffering system to nitrogen deposition and it is far from nitrogen saturation in spite of the high nitrogen deposition.

Meteorological factors affecting concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in rain were examined. Rain samples were collected on an event basis from a location 100 km east of the Los Angeles Basin. Analysis of the data demonstrated a double decay function where small increases in rain volume resulted in large decreases in nitrogen concentration. In separate time series collections of individual storms, storm wind direction also influenced nitrogen concentrations

Hyperaccumulating plants are increasingly investigated in combination with EDTA addition to soil for phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. A 60-day incubation experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of heavy metal release during the decomposition of Zn-rich (15.7 mg g-¹ dry weight) Arabidopsis halleri litter on C mineralization, microbial biomass C, biomass N, ATP, and adenylate energy charge (AEC). These effects were investigated in two soils with different Zn, Cu, and Pb levels, with and without EDTA addition to soil. The sole addition of Zn-rich A. halleri litter to the two soils did not increase the contents of NH₄NO₃ extractable Zn, only with the combined additions of EDTA and litter was there a considerable increase, being equivalent to three times the added amount in the low metal soil and to 50% in the high metal soil. Litter amendment increased the CO₂ evolved; being equivalent to 44% of the added C in the two soils, but EDTA addition had no significant effect on CO₂ evolution. Litter amendment resulted also in an 18% increase in microbial biomass C, 27% increase in ATP and 6% increase in AEC in the two soils, but EDTA had again no effect on these indices at both metal levels. In contrast, the sole addition of litter had no effect on microbial biomass N, but EDTA addition increased microbial biomass N on average by 49%. The application of EDTA for chelate-assisted phytoextraction should in the future consider the risk of groundwater pollution, which is intensified by resistance of EDTA to microbial decomposition.

We investigated the coupling of abundance of bacteria, phytoplankton and ciliates with hydrocarbons in the surface water and sediments of five interconnected ponds in the arid Sfax solar salterns. This study aimed at determining the potential sources of hydrocarbons and the effects of salinity gradients on microorganism metabolism. Hydrocarbon analysis was performed by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The GC-FID allowed the detection of aliphatic hydrocarbons and n-alkanes ranging from n-C₁₃ to n-C₃₀. Total aliphatic hydrocarbon concentrations varied from 92.5 mg. l-¹ in the first pond (having marine characteristics) to 661.1 mg. l-¹ in the last pond (crystallizer) (316.8 ± 120.1 mg. l-¹) for water samples and from 26.7 to 127.8 μg. g-¹ dry weight for sediment samples. The GC-MS enabled us to detect halogenated hydrocarbons (bromoalkanes and chloroalkanes) and n-alkenes. The distribution of n-alkanes indices coupled to several environmental factors suggests that a major fraction of hydrocarbons resulted from both prokaryotic (bacteria) and eukaryotic (protists) developments. A low hydrocarbon fraction might be petrogenic.

Different nitrogen (N) fractions from 14 sediments from the shallow lakes in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River area before and after N release experiments were investigated, and the content of different N fractions, and contribution of different N fractions to the N released from sediments were also studied. Ion-exchangeable form (IEF-N), carbonate form (CF-N), iron-manganese oxide form (IMOF-N) and organic matter-sulfide form (OSF-N) accounted for 2.72~17.67%, 0.47~4.43%, 1.18~3.49% and 31.05 to 71.61% to total N, respectively. The N released was higher than 50% from IEF-N, approximately 35% from OSF-N, 6 and 8% from CF-N and IMOF-N on the average. Approximately 27.32~70.02% of IEF-N, 10.37~32.11% of CF-N, 11.37~33.43% IMOF-N and 2.02~8.19% OSF-N were released. For the sediments that were slightly polluted, IEF-N was the main N fraction that may be released and its contribution to total N released was more than 63.07%, for the sediments that TN was higher than 3,540.27 mg·kg-¹, OSF-N would become the main N fraction that can be released and its contribution to total N released was more than 45%.