Historical record of nutrients inputs into the Xin’an Reservoir and its potential environmental implication

Abstract

The Xin'an Reservoir is an important water supply source and water conservation area for the Qiantang River. However, after the occurrence of the two algae blooms in 1998 and 1999, the safety of water quality has been put into question. In order to study the historical deposition of nutrients, sediment cores were collected in different regions from the Xin'an Reservoir. The stable isotopes δ13C and δ15N, nutrients, total organic carbon (TOC), and inorganic carbon (IC) in the sediment cores were determined. Radiometric methods (210Pb and 137Cs) were used to obtain sediment chronologies. Spatially, it was found that the average total nitrogen (TN) content in the upper 5cm of sediments increased from 0.21% in the riverine zone, to 0.33%, and then to 0.57% in the lacustrine zone. The average TP content in the upper 5cm increased from 0.67gkg-1 in the riverine zone, to 1.03gkg-1 in the estuary region, and then to 1.65gkg-1 in the lacustrine zone. In addition, TOC levels showed a distinct increase from 1.42% in the bottom to 5.97% in the surface of the lacustrine zone. These results demonstrated that although primary productivity and the input of nutrients constantly increased in recent years, algae blooms rarely occurred in the Xin'an Reservoir, due to "depth effect" and an aquatic environment protection-oriented fishery policy. However, high TOC flux and high bio-available phosphorus and nitrogen in surface sediment demonstrated that the reservoir is still confronted with the potential risk of algae blooms.