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Effects of sediment dredging on nitrogen cycling in Lake Taihu, China: Insight from mass balance based on a 2-year field study

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Abstract

Sediment dredging can permanently remove pollutants from an aquatic ecosystem, which is considered an effective approach to aquatic ecosystem restoration. In this work, a 2-year field simulation test was carried out to investigate the effect of dredging on nitrogen cycling across the sediment-water interface (SWI) in Lake Taihu, China. The results showed that simulated dredging applied to an area rich in total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) slightly reduced the NH4 +-N release from sediments while temporarily enhanced the NH4 +-N release in an area with lower TOC and/or TN (in the first 180 days), although the application had a limited effect on the fluxes of NO2 −-N and NO3 −-N in both areas. Further analysis indicated that dredging induced decreases in nitrification, denitrification, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in sediments, notably by 76.9, 49.0, and 89.9 %, respectively, in the TOC and/or TN-rich area. Therefore, dredging slowed down nitrogen cycling rates in sediments but did not increase N loading to overlying water. The main reason for the above phenomenon could be attributed to the removal of the surface sediments enriched with more TOC and/or TN (compared with the bottom sediments). Overall, to minimize internal N pollution, dredging may be more applicable to nutrient-rich sediments.

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Acknowledgments

This study was jointly sponsored by the research projects of the Major State Water Pollution Control and Treatment Technique Programs of China (Nos. 2012ZX07101010 and 2013ZX07113001) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41171367 and 41371457). We do appreciate Dr. Zhonghua Zhao for their assistance in improving our manuscript. Furthermore, we appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to this manuscript.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nan**g Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Number 73 Bei**g East Road, 210008, Nan**g, People’s Republic of China

    Juhua Yu, Chengxin Fan, Jicheng Zhong, Lu Zhang, Lei Zhang, Changhui Wang & **aolong Yao

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Juhua Yu

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  1. Juhua Yu
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  2. Chengxin Fan
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  3. Jicheng Zhong
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Correspondence to Jicheng Zhong.

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Fig. S1

Pore water profiles of NH4 +-N, NO3 --N and NO2 --N in undredged and dredged sediments after different dredging times in the inner bay (square) and the outer bay (circle). The hollow and filled lines represent the undredged and dredged cores, respectively, and values are expressed as the mean±SD of three replicates.. Pore water chemistry. The concentrations of NH4 +-N, NO3 --N and NO2 --N in pore water of the undredged and dredged sediments are shown in Fig. S1. With respect to the concentration of nutrients in pore water between undredged and dredged treatments during the entire experiment, there were no significant differences (Tukey’s HSD test, P>0.05). Concentration gradient depths of NH4 +-N in both the inner and outer bays were generally similar, and much higher values were observed from day 3 to day 180 after dredging in dredged than in control treatments. On day 360, the NH4 +-N concentrations in dredged samples were positively controlled (Tukey’s HSD test, P<0.01) but reversed on day 720 (Fig. 2). In terms of the pore water NO3 --N concentration changes after different dredging times, the concentration gradient depths of NO3 --N of dredged sediments could be better controlled over the course of the experiment, with the exception of day 180 and day 360 in the inner bay and the outer bay, respectively. Because the concentration of NO2 --N in pore water was fairly low, ranging from 0 to 0.0339 mg·L-1 and 0 to 0.0115 mg·L-1 in the inner bay and the outer bay, respectively, the contribution of dredging to controlling the concentration of NO2 --N was also insignificant in this study (Tukey’s HSD test, P>0.05) (DOCX 289 kb)

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Yu, J., Fan, C., Zhong, J. et al. Effects of sediment dredging on nitrogen cycling in Lake Taihu, China: Insight from mass balance based on a 2-year field study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 3871–3883 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5517-0

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