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Trends in Nitrogen Transport in Swedish Rivers

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Abstract

Concern about nitrogen loads in marine environments has drawn attention to the existence and possible causes of long-term trends in nitrogen transport in rivers. The present study was based on data from the Swedish environmental monitoring programme for surface water quality; the continuity of these data is internationally unique. A recently developed semiparametric method was employed to study the development of relationships between runoff and river transport of nitrogen since 1971; the observed relationships were then used to produce time series of flow-normalised transports for 66 sites in 39 river basins. Subsequent statistical analyses of flow-normalised data revealed only few significant downward trends (p ≤0.05) during the time period 1971–1994, and the most pronounced of these downward trends were caused by reduced point emissions of nitrogen. The number of significant upward trends was substantially larger (15 for total-N and 18 for NO3-N). Closer examination of obtained results revealed the following: (i) the most pronounced upward trends were present downstream of lakes, and (ii) observed increases in nitrogen transport coincided in time and space with reduced point emissions of phosphorus or organic matter. This indicated that changes in the retention of nitrogen in lakes were responsible for the upward nitrogen trends. The hypothesis that nitrogen saturation of forest soils has caused a general increase in the riverine export of nitrogen from forested catchments in Sweden was not confirmed. Neither did the results indicate that improved agricultural practices have reduced the export of nitrogen from agricultural catchments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jordforsk – Centre for Soil and Environmental Research, N-1432, Ås, Norway

    Per Stålnacke

  2. Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, SE-581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Anders Grimvall

  3. Department of Physics and Measurement Technology, Linköping University, SE-581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Karin Sundblad

  4. Department of Environmental Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anders Wilander

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  1. Per Stålnacke
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  2. Anders Grimvall
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  4. Anders Wilander
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Correspondence to Per Stålnacke.

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Stålnacke, P., Grimvall, A., Sundblad, K. et al. Trends in Nitrogen Transport in Swedish Rivers. Environ Monit Assess 59, 47–72 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006007711735

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