[Effects of land use and landscape pattern on nitrogen and phosphorus exports in Lanlingxi Watershed of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China].

The temporal and spatial characteristics of N, P exports and effects of land use and landscape pattern on N, P exports were analyzed in the Lanlingxi Watershed of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. The results showed that the TN, TP and NO3(-) -N were mainly generated by non-wood forest, the N, P exports in flood period (June to September) were significantly higher than the non-flood period (January to May). The NH4(+) -N export was derived from the residential area in the non-flood period, while from non-wood forest in the flood period. In addition, the performance of samples N, P exports with forest distributed were lower in both two periods. Also, the proportion of forest significantly negatively correlated with NO3(-) -N, TP in the non-flood period and TN, TP in the flood period. The residential area proportion notably positively correlated with NO3(-) -N, TN in non-flood period and NO3(-) -N, TN, TP in the flood period. The non-wood forest proportion also significantly positively correlated with NH4(+) -N, TN in the flood period. Moreover, PD closely positively correlated with N exports in non-flood period, with NO3(-) -N, NH4(+) -N in flood period. The CONT index strongly negatively correlated with N exports in flood period and TP in non-flood period. However, the proportions of farmland, unused land and the indices of ED were relatively weakened with N, P exports in both periods, while SHMN and water proportion did not show any positive or negative correlation. Moreover, the regression fitting degree of NH4(+)-N was superior to NO3(-) -N, TN and TP with the adjust R2 of 0.885 and 0.969 in two periods, while the regression relation was better than that of non-flood period. The result of redundancy analysis further demonstrated that the landscape fragmentation caused by patches types of different land uses could better explain impacts on the exports of nitrogen and phosphorus. The two canonical axes accumulated explained the 90% proportion of the variables and the highest contribution was PD, which was an important indicator for watershed water quality assessment and prediction.

[Nitrogen and phosphorus loss in different land use types and its response to environmental factors in the Three Gorges Reservoir area].

The control of agricultural non-point source pollution (AGNPS) is an urgent problem to be solved for the ecological environment construction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. We analyzed the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loss and its response to environmental factors through monitoring the nutrient loss in different land use types after returning farmland to forest. The results showed that: 1) The variability of nutrient concentration loss was strong in different land use types under different rainfall conditions, and the variability in the concentration of available nutrient was much higher than that of total nutrient; 2) Compared to farmland, the annual phosphorus loss of different land use types was reduced by 84.53% - 91.61% after returning farmland to forest; the reduction of annual nitrogen loss was not significant except Chinese chestnut forest (Castanea mollissima) and arbor forest, and the nitrogen loss was much higher than the phosphorus loss in all land use types; 3) The particle phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen (NO3(-)-N) were the main forms of the phosphorus and nitrogen loss, respectively; 4) The nutrient loss of tea garden (Camellia sinensis) and bamboo forest (Phyllostachys pubescens) showed a good correlation with precipitation, and the correlation of phosphorus was better than that of nitrogen, but there was no significant relation with the rainfall intensity; 5) The coverage of vegetation, tree layer and litter had a great influence on the loss of total nitrogen (TN). NO3(-)-N loss was highly influenced by the ammonium nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) content in the surface soil, and P loss mainly by the total phosphorus (TP) and sand content in the soil.

[Dynamic change of non-point source pollution exported from Heigou watershed in Three Gorges Reservoir area].

Sediment and its associated pollutants entering a water body can be very destructive to the ecological health of that system. Based on GIS and AnnAGNPS model, A total of 60 combinations of various management treatments including five fertilizer levels (FL1-existing, FL2-70% of existing, FL3-recommended, FLA-70% of recommended, FL5-30% of recommended), four tillage practices (CT-conventional tillage, NT-no tillage, CS-contour strip cropping, RC-residue cover) and three kinds of annual rainfall (deficit, normal, abundant) have been evaluated. Results from model simulations indicate that runoff and sediment yield were not affected due to change in fertilizer doses, but there was a significant positive correlation between nutrient losses and fertilizer application rates; Conservation tillage practices such as NT, CS and RC would reduce sediment and sediment-bound nutrient losses significantly, they have very little benefit on soluble nitrogen and phosphorus losses. This is primarily because the increased infiltration rates resulting from those practices leads to greater losses of subsurface and return flow in the watershed. In view of feasibility and efficiency, the combination of FL3 + NT was found to be the best scenario as the reductions of nutrient losses and sediment yield were about 40% and 45%, respectively.

[Reduction effects of agricultural management practices on non-point source pollution in a watershed in Three Gorges Reservoir Area].

Taking a typical watershed in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) as test object, the AnnAGNPS model was used to evaluate the reduction effects of different cropping, different fertilization level, conservation tillage practice (CTP), conservation reserve program (CRP), and conversion of cropland into forestland program (CCFP) on the output of agricultural non-point source pollution (NPS) in the watershed. The simulation results showed that different cropping had no significant difference in the effect of reducing sediment yield, but had significant difference in the effect of reducing phosphorus output. Fertilization level had significant effects on the outputs of total nitrogen and total phosphorus. CTP decreased the sediment yield significantly but increased the nutrient output. CRP reduced sediment yield, but had less effect in reducing nutrient output. CCFP reduced both sediment yield and nutrient output significantly. After the implementation of CCFP, the sediment yield output on the croplands with a slope greater than 10 degrees was less than 5 t x hm(-2) and the nutrient output was within the permissible limit.

[Nonpoint source pollution model, AnnAGNPS, assessment for a mixed forested watershed in Three Gorges Reservoir area].

Watershed models provide a cost-effective and efficient means of estimating the pollutant loadings entering surface waters, especially when combined with traditional water quality sampling and analyses. But there have often been questions about the accuracy or certainty of models and their predictions. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of AnnAGNPS (Annualized AGricultural NonPoint Source)Pollution Model, in simulating runoff, sediment loading and nutrient loadings under Three Gorges Reservoir area. Most of model input parameters were sourced from Zigui Forest Ecology Station in Three Gorges Reservoir area, State Forestry Administration. Data year 2003 was used for calibration while data year 2004 was used for validation of the model. The whole evaluation consisted of determining the coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (E), and the percentage volume error (VE). Results showed that the model predicted the daily runoff volume within the range of acceptable accuracy. The runoff on a daily basis was underpredicted by 5.0% with R2 of 0.93 (p < 0.05) during calibration and underpredicted by 6.7% with R2 of 0.90 (p < 0.05) during validation. But sediment loading was able to produce a moderate result. The model underpredicted the event-based sediment loading by 15.1% with R2 of 0.63 (p < 0.05) during calibration and 26.7% with R2 of 0.59 (p < 0.05) during validation. For the events of small magnitude, the model generally overpredicted sediment loading, while the opposite was true for larger events. Nitrogen loading prediction was slightly better with R2 = 0.68 (p < 0.05), and phosphorus loading performance was slightly poor with R2 = 0.65 (p < 0.05). In general, the model performs well in simulating runoff compare to sediment loading and nutrient loadings, and as a watershed management tools it can be used for Three Gorges Reservoir area conditions that with mixed types of land uses and steep slopes.