Quantification of nitrate sources in groundwater using hydrochemical and dual isotopic data combined with a Bayesian mixing model

Kyoung Ho Kim, Seong Taek Yun, Bernhard Mayer, Jeong Ho Lee, Tae Seung Kim, Hyun Koo Kim

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83 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

To determine the contributions of various sources to nitrate loads in groundwater (n=103) from three farmed rural sites in South Korea, we assessed the dual isotopic composition of nitrate, coupled with hydrochemical parameters. The measured isotopic values of nitrate varied widely, with 10th and 90th percentiles of 2.8‰ and 14.2‰ for δ15N, and 0.7‰ and 8.9‰ for δ18O, respectively and suggested that nitrification of anthropogenic N compounds is a predominant process of nitrate pollution. To overcome the known uncertainties of quantitative source apportionment for groundwater nitrate, arising from isotope fractionation during N transformations and the significant overlap in isotopic values of different sources, the combined hydrochemical and isotopic datasets were interpreted with orthogonal regression of a principal component analysis (PCA) and a Bayesian mixing model. The PCA projected the observed δ15NNO3 values onto a mixing subspace in the multivariate variability of the dataset, and the regression fits of the sample data were presumed to be conservative mixtures. This procedure also allowed for an assessment of the sample uncertainty, as influenced by natural nitrate contributions and denitrification. The Bayesian mixing model was used to estimate the probability distributions of the proportional contributions of three anthropogenic sources: chemical fertilizers, composted manure, and manure slurries. Nitrate is largely derived from chemical fertilizers with fractional contributions of 0.35-0.71, and organic fertilizers including composted manure with mixing fractions of 0.39-0.49. The relative contribution of nitrate from composted manure compared to chemical fertilizers increased with increasing nitrate concentrations, suggesting that composted manure significantly increases nitrate pollution and therefore its use should be carefully controlled to manage rural groundwater quality. This study also suggests that PCA and Bayesian isotope mixing models are effective for quantitative assessment of the sources of pollutants, such as nitrate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)369-381
Number of pages13
JournalAgriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
Volume199
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Jan 1

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the 2013 project (Title: Survey of Groundwater Contamination and Backgrounds in Livestock Farming Areas, Korea) funded by the National Institute of Environmental Research and partially by Korea University Special Fund to K.H. Kim. The sampling in this study was supported by the Gyeonggi Branch of Korea Rural Corporation.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Bayesian mixing model (MixSIR)
  • Dual isotopes
  • Hydrochemical parameters
  • Nitrate
  • Orthogonal regression of PCA
  • Rural groundwater
  • South Korea

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology
  • Animal Science and Zoology
  • Agronomy and Crop Science

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