Nitrogen budget in the Changjiang River drainage area

Abstract

We established a budget model of nitrogen (N) inputs and outputs between watersheds and waterbodies to determine the sources of riverine N in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River drainage area. Nitrogen inputs in the budget included N from synthetic fertilizer, biological fixation by leguminous and other crops, wet/dry atmospheric deposition, excreta from humans and animals, and crop residues. The total N input was estimated to be 17.6 Tg, of which 20% or 3.5 Tg N was transported into waterbodies. Of the total N transported into waterbodies, the largest proportion was N from animal waste (26%), followed by N from atmospheric wet/dry deposition (25%), synthetic fertilizer N (17%), N in sewage wastes (17%), N in human waste from rural areas (6%) and industrial wastewater N (9%). We studied the spatial patterns of N inputs and outputs by dividing the Changjiang River drainage area into four sub-basins, from upstream to downstream: the Tongtian River drainage area (TTD, the headwater drainage area, 138 000 km2, less disturbed by human activities); the Jinsha River drainage area (JSD, 347 000 km2, less disturbed by human activities, approx. 3 500 km upstream of the Changjiang estuary); the Pingshan-Yichang drainage area (PYD, 520 500 km2, large-scale human disturbance, about 2 000 km upstream of the Changjiang estuary); and the Yichang-Datong drainage area (YDD, 699 900 km2, large-scale human disturbance, approx. 620 km upstream of the Changjiang estuary). The average N input into waterbodies was 2.3, 7.3, 24.1, and 28.2 kg N/ha in the TTD, JSD, PYD, and YDD sub-basins, respectively, suggesting an increase of N-components of more than 10 times from upstream to downstream areas.