Export of dissolved organic and inorganic nitrogen and total suspended sediments across an urbanization gradient in four tropical rivers of Venezuela
Abstract
We determined monthly concentrations of total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and total suspended sediment (TSS) from 4 Venezuelan watersheds from August 2008 to September 2009. Three of these watersheds are mountainous rivers (Tuy, Neverí and Manzanares) and one is flat (Unare River). The three mountainous rivers vary in the degree of urbanization, with the Tuy hosting Caracas, the largest city in Venezuela. We found an order of magnitude larger TDN concentrations in the Tuy, which is impacted mainly by untreated point sources derived from Caracas metropolitan area. The largest TSS values were observed in the three mountainous rivers (Tuy, Neveri and Manzanares). TDN and TSS concentrations varied seasonally with larger TDN and lower TSS values during the dry season for all rivers. Most of the annual discharge of TDN (92%) and TSS (97%) takes place during the rainy season. Our results suggest that urbanization is the largest contributor affecting the composition and magnitude of TDN, whereas orography and local hydrology control the discharge of both TSS and TDN. We calculated the Water Pollution Level (WPL) for DIN and DON to determine the degree of contamination of these species in the evaluated watersheds. WPL values less than 1 indicate that there is in average enough dilution capacity in the river to assimilate the pollutant, whereas WPL larger than 1 indicate that the pollution assimilation capacity has been surpassed. All our evaluated rivers but the Tuy River show WPL-DIN and WPL-DON values between 0.1 and 0.96. The Tuy River had a WPL-DIN=6.3 and WPL-DON= 7.5. We attribute the Tuy River's large DIN and DON contamination to untreated urban point sources due to the strong correlation between population density and DIN and DON concentration from the evaluated watersheds. Our results suggest that urgent water treatment is required for this watershed to diminish the impact in coastal ecosystems.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.H42F..08R
- Keywords:
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- 0469 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Nitrogen cycling;
- 0470 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Nutrients and nutrient cycling;
- 0496 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Water quality;
- 1836 HYDROLOGY / Hydrological cycles and budgets