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Nutrients in Subsurface and Runoff Waters of the Holland Marsh, Ontario¹

ABSTRACT

Concurrent with a limnological investigation of the Holland River, Ontario, an attempt was made to determine relative contributions to the river of nutrients (NO₃^–-N, NO₂^–-N, total and soluble reactive phosphorus) and total electrolyte (specific conductance) in surface runoff water pumped from both cultivated and uncultivated plots of muck soil within the Holland Marsh. In addition, subsurface water from piezometers installed in both cultivated and uncultivated marsh soil was analyzed throughout the growing season to determine fundamental differences in water chemistry and the extent of leaching of N and P under both cultivated and uncultivated conditions.

The present study has shown that the time and amount of rainfall was important in determining nitrate-N and to a lesser extent, soluble reactive P concentrations in subsurface water beneath the cultivated plot but not beneath the uncultivated plot. The mean concentration (0.75 mg/liter) of inorganic N (NO₃^–-N + NO₂^–-N + NH₃-N) in subsurface water under the cultivated plot was about 10 times higher than under uncultivated marsh during the growing season.

The combined effects of fertilization, drainage and hence oxidizing and nitrifying conditions yielded 4 to 5 times more P (1.56 kg P/ha) and 40 to 50 times more nitrate-N (4.1 kg N/ha) runoff water from the cultivated over the uncultivated plot. The significance of the loading from the cultivated plot is that the nutrients are lost to the river during a 5 to 6 week pumping period during the spring and that more than 90% of the total P in runoff is in the soluble reactive form (as opposed to only 45% from the uncultivated marsh) and is, therefore, readily available for algae and aquatic plant growth in the lower Holland River and Cook Bay of Lake Simcoe.

Key Words: nitrates • phosphorus • eutrophication

¹ Contribution from the Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada. Research supported by Canada Department of Agriculture Grant No. 0023.

² Biologist, Water Quality Branch, Ministry of the Environment, Box 213, Rexdale, Ontario, Canada; and Professor, Dept. of Zoology, College of Biological Sciences, Univ. of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, respectively.

Received for publication December 15, 1972.

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