Characteristics of organic nitrogen fractions in sediments of the water level fluctuation zone in the tributary of the Yangtze River

Junjie Lin; Yujiao Tang; Dan Liu; Shuai Zhang; Bo Lan; Liping He; Zhiguo Yu; Shuang Zhou; Xi Chen; Yanhua Qu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.394

Characteristics of organic nitrogen fractions in sediments of the water level fluctuation zone in the tributary of the Yangtze River

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Feb 25:653:327-333. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.394. Epub 2018 Oct 30.

Authors

Junjie Lin¹, Yujiao Tang², Dan Liu³, Shuai Zhang⁴, Bo Lan⁵, Liping He⁵, Zhiguo Yu⁶, Shuang Zhou⁵, Xi Chen⁵, Yanhua Qu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Water Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Three Gorges Reservoir, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing 404100, China. Electronic address: ybu_lin@126.com.
² College of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China.
³ Department of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology, Chongqing Three Gorges Vocation College, Chongqing 404000, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Water Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Three Gorges Reservoir, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing 404100, China; Department of Environmental Geochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Universitaetsstrasse 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Water Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Three Gorges Reservoir, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing 404100, China.
⁶ School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.

PMID: 30412877
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.394

Abstract

The contents of different organic nitrogen (N) fractions, their contributions to total N (TN) and the relationship between their mineralizable N (MN) and different organic N fractions in sediments of the water level fluctuation (WLF) zone were investigated. The contents of TN, acid hydrolyzable N (AHN), and nonhydrolyzable N (NHN) decreased in sediments from the lower altitudes of the WLF zone. The AHN and NHN accounted for 70.56 to 82.89% and 17.11 to 29.44% of TN, respectively. The AHN was the main organic N fraction, indicating that these sediments might promote greater water eutrophication in the Three Gorges tributaries. The distribution of amino-acid N (AAN), ammonium N (AN), amino-sugar N (ASN) and hydrolyzable unidentified N (HUN) in the WLF zone was found to be 170 m > 160 m > 150 m. AAN, AN, ASN, and HUN accounted for 34.70, 20.25, 15.52 and 29.24% of AHN, respectively. HUN and ASN were the main contributors of MN to N release.

Keywords: Eutrophication; Mineralizable nitrogen; Organic nitrogen fraction; Sediment; Yangtze River tributaries.