Wet and dry atmospheric depositions of inorganic nitrogen during plant growing season in the coastal zone of Yellow River Delta.

Junbao Yu,Yongjun Gao,Qinghui Xing,Yunzhao Li,Guangmei Wang,Huifeng Wu,Kai Ning,Guangxuan Han,Siyao Du

doi:10.1155/2014/949213

Abstract

The ecological problems caused by dry and wet deposition of atmospheric nitrogen have been widespread concern in the world. In this study, wet and dry atmospheric depositions were monitored in plant growing season in the coastal zone of the Yellow River Delta (YRD) using automatic sampling equipment. The results showed that SO4 2− and Na+ were the predominant anion and cation, respectively, in both wet and dry atmospheric depositions. The total atmospheric nitrogen deposition was ~2264.24 mg m−2, in which dry atmospheric nitrogen deposition was about 32.02%. The highest values of dry and wet atmospheric nitrogen deposition appeared in May and August, respectively. In the studied area, NO3 −–N was the main nitrogen form in dry deposition, while the predominant nitrogen in wet atmospheric deposition was NH4 +–N with ~56.51% of total wet atmospheric nitrogen deposition. The average monthly attribution rate of atmospheric deposition of NO3 −–N and NH4 +–N was ~31.38% and ~20.50% for the contents of NO3 −–N and NH4 +–N in 0–10 cm soil layer, respectively, suggested that the atmospheric nitrogen was one of main sources for soil nitrogen in coastal zone of the YRD.

Highlights

It is well known that nitrogen is an important nutrient in terrestrial and marine ecosystems
The major anions in dry atmospheric deposition were SO42− and NO3−, which were more than 93% of the number of the total anions (Figure 2(a))
Our results showed that the most ratios of anions to cations in atmospheric deposition were less than 1, probably due to some anions such as F−, Br− and short chain organic anions were not measured in this study [34, 35]

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that nitrogen is an important nutrient in terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The primary production, the nutrient cycling, and the biodiversity in natural ecosystems were great limited by the availability of reactive nitrogen [1,2,3,4,5]. The atmospheric nitrogen deposition can affect the soil nitrogen balance, which probably results in some negative effects on terrestrial and marine ecosystems [8,9,10] through eutrophication and acidification [11]. The atmospheric nitrogen deposition has become an increasingly important source for reactive nitrogen entering to the coastal ecosystems and contributed to the coastal nitrogen budget [5]

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Conclusion