Climate controls on nitrate concentration variability in the Abbotsford-Sumas aquifer,British Columbia,Canada |
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| Authors: | G?Graham Email author" target="_blank">D?M?AllenEmail author B?Finkbeiner |
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| Institution: | 1.Environment Canada,Vancouver,Canada;2.Department of Earth Sciences,Simon Fraser University,Burnaby,Canada |
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| Abstract: | Understanding the linkage between temporal climate variability and groundwater nitrate concentration variability in monitoring well records is key to interpreting the impacts of changes in land-use practices and assessing groundwater quality trends. This study explores the coupling of climate variability and groundwater nitrate concentration variability in the Abbotsford-Sumas aquifer. Over the period of 1992–2009, the average groundwater nitrate concentration in the aquifer remained fairly steady at approximately 15 mg/L nitrate-N. Normalized nitrate data for 19 individual monitoring wells were assessed for a range of intrinsic factors including precipitation, depth to water table, depth below water table, and apparent groundwater age. At a broad scale, there is a negative correlation between nitrate concentration and apparent groundwater age. Each dedicated monitoring well shows unique, non-uniform cyclical variability in nitrate concentrations that appears to correspond with seasonal (1 year) cycles in precipitation as well as longer-period cycles (~5 years), possibly due to ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) or the Pacific North American (PNA) pattern. These precipitation cycles appear to influence nitrate concentrations by approximately ±30 % of the critical concentration (10 mg/L NO3–N). Not all wells show direct correlation due to many complex local-scale factors that influence nitrate leaching including spatially and temporally variable nutrient management practices and soil/crop nitrogen dynamics (anthropogenic and agronomic factors). |
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