Nitrate pollution in intensively farmed regions: What are the prospects for sustaining high‐quality groundwater?

Abstract

Widespread pollution of groundwater by nutrients due to 20th century agricultural intensification has been of major concern in the developed world for several decades. This paper considers the River Thames catchment (UK), where water‐quality monitoring at Hampton (just upstream of London) has produced continuous records for nitrate for the last 140 years, the longest continuous record of water chemistry anywhere in the world. For the same period, data are available to characterize changes in both land use and land management at an annual scale. A modeling approach is used that combines two elements: an estimate of nitrate available for leaching due to land use and land management; and, an algorithm to route this leachable nitrate through to surface or groundwaters. Prior to agricultural intensification at the start of World War II, annual average inputs were around 50 kg ha−1, and river concentrations were stable at 1 to 2 mg l−1, suggesting in‐stream denitrification capable of removing 35 (±15) kt N yr−1. Postintensification data suggest an accumulation of 100 (±40) kt N yr−1 in the catchment, most of which is stored in the aquifer. This build up of reactive N species within the catchments means that restoration of surface nitrate concentrations typical of the preintensification period would require massive basin‐wide changes in land use and management that would compromise food security and take decades to be effective. Policy solutions need to embrace long‐term management strategies as an urgent priority.