Evaluating Groundwater Nitrate Status across the River Ythan Catchment (Scotland) following Two Decades of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Designation

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Hamish
dc.contributor.authorSimpson, Emma May
dc.contributor.authorTroldborg, Mads
dc.contributor.authorOfterdinger, Ulrich
dc.contributor.authorCassidy, Rachel
dc.contributor.authorSoulsby, Chris
dc.contributor.authorComte , Jean-Christophe
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-10T15:47:43Z
dc.date.available2023-05-10T15:47:43Z
dc.date.issued2023-04-18
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 14 April 2023; Published - 18 April 2023.
dc.description.abstractDiffuse agricultural pollution is one of the greatest challenges to achieving good chemical and ecological status of Scotland’s water bodies. The River Ythan in Aberdeenshire was designated a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) in the year 2000, due to the eutrophication of the Ythan Estuary and rising nitrate trends in Private Water Supply (PWS) groundwater abstractions. The third River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) for Scotland reported the Ellon groundwater body of the River Ythan catchment to be of poor chemical status as of 2021 with respect to nitrate, and forecasted groundwater recovery beyond 2027. Following two decades of NVZ designation, we investigated the drivers of groundwater nitrate across the River Ythan catchment through an analysis of long-term (2009–2018) groundwater quality monitoring data collected by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and a recent synoptic groundwater nitrate sampling survey of PWSs. Groundwater nitrate was found to remain elevated across the catchment area, and appeared to be highly sensitive to agricultural practices and meteorological forcing, indicating a high sensitivity of groundwater quality to environmental change. Further hydrogeological characterisation is recommended to better understand the effects of agricultural practices on groundwater quality, and to facilitate achievement of future RBMP goals under a changing climate.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the QUADRAT Doctoral Training Partnership [NE/S007377/1].
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/546
dc.identifier.citationJohnson, H., Simpson, E.M., Troldborg, M., Ofterdinger, U., Cassidy, R., Soulsby, C. and Comte, J.-C. (2023) ‘Evaluating Groundwater Nitrate Status across the River Ythan Catchment (Scotland) following Two Decades of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Designation’, Environments. MDPI AG. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10040067.
dc.identifier.issn2076-3298 (electronic)
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/environments10040067
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.rights© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.subjectdiffuse nutrient pollution
dc.subjectnitrate
dc.subjecttrends
dc.subjectNVZ
dc.subjectgroundwater vulnerability
dc.subjectgroundwater quality
dc.subjectgroundwater monitoring
dc.titleEvaluating Groundwater Nitrate Status across the River Ythan Catchment (Scotland) following Two Decades of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Designation
dc.typeArticle
dcterms.dateAccepted2023-04-14
dcterms.dateSubmitted2023-03-21

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Evaluating Groundwater Nitrate Status across the River Ythan Catchment (Scotland) following Two Decades of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone Designation.pdf
Size:
2.36 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Final published version
Download

Collections

Journal Articles