Agricultural chemical export dynamics in a watershed

Abstract

Understanding how agricultural chemicals filter through a catchment is important for managing water quality. Using a concept of the catchment as a physicochemical filter, Guan et al. examined nitrate, phosphate, and atrazine loads in the Little Vermillion River watershed, a tile‐drained watershed in Illinois. They analyzed a 10‐year data set using mathematical signal processing to investigate spatial and temporal patterns in chemical concentrations and discharge rate. They found that export of these chemicals had a linear relationship with streamflow at annual scales—the higher the streamflow, the more these chemicals were exported from the watershed. The researchers' approach helps identify the roles of different hydrological flow paths in controlling chemical export at different spatial and temporal scales and reveals that chemical inputs overwhelm normal biogeochemical processing in these agricultural systems, leading to high long‐term average rates of export. (Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2010WR009997, 2011)