This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2018-0028. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
Quantifying the Fate of Wastewater Nitrogen Discharged to a Canadian River
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Authors
Jason J. Venkiteswaran 
,
Sherry Schiff,
Brian Ingalls
Abstract
Addition of nutrients, such as nitrogen, can degrade water quality in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. To predict the fate of nutrient inputs, an understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients is needed. We develop and employ a novel, parsimonious, process-based model of nitrogen concentrations and stable isotopes that quantifies the competing processes of volatilization, uptake, nitrification, and denitrification in nutrient-impacted rivers. Calibration of the model to nitrogen discharges from two wastewater treatment plants in the Grand River, Ontario, Canada show that ammonia volatilization was negligible relative to uptake, nitrification, and denitrification within 5 km of the discharge points.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/mq2gn
Subjects
Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Systems Biology, Water Resource Management
Keywords
Rivers, isotopes, ammonia, ammonium, nitrate
Dates
Published: 2018-06-21 23:44
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