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Applications of a UV optical nitrate sensor in a surface water/groundwater quality field study

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Abstract

Examples of the utility of UV optical nitrate sensors are provided for two field applications, investigating nitrate pollution in a lowland, peri-urban catchment. In one application, rapid, in-stream longitudinal nitrate surveys were made in summer and winter, by fixing an optical nitrate sensor operating in continuous measurement mode to a kayak that was paddled along 10 km of the mainstem of the low-order stream in under 4 h. Nitrate concentrations ranged between 3.45 and 6.39 mg NO3-N/L. Nitrate hot-spots and cool-spots were mapped and found to relate to point discharges from spring-fed tributaries and land drains. Effective nitrate removal (dN/dx = − 0.08 mg N/L/km), inferred to be from assimilation reactions, was evident in the summer dataset, but not the winter nitrate dataset. In a second application, the optical sensor was configured with appropriate technology to establish an autonomous and fully automated nitrate monitoring station. The station makes daily nitrate measurements of surface water, and groundwater, sampled from a cluster of four multi-level wells. Quarterly maintenance of the nitrate sensor has proven sufficient to keep measurement errors under 5%. Most nitrate variation has been recorded at or near the water table where concentrations have ranged between 3.47 and 5.88 mg NO3-N/L, and annual maxima have occurred in late winter/spring, which coincides with when most nitrate leaching occurs from agricultural land. Seasonal nitrate patterns are not evident in groundwater sampled from 8-m depth, or deeper. High-frequency monitoring has revealed that some infra-season, short-term variability also occurs in shallow groundwater nitrate, driven by storm events, and which on occasion results in a temporary inversion of the groundwater nitrate-depth profile.

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Acknowledgements

The Transfer Pathways Programme was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment contract LVLX1502. Environment Canterbury kindly sponsored installation of the monitoring well cluster, using funds from their Environmental Monitoring budget 2016/17 and provided flow data. We are grateful to Nigel Bryce for permitting land access and accommodating the nitrate monitoring station, also to Kurt McBeth, Elisa Saager, and Louise Weaver (all ESR), for providing ground support during the in-stream surveys, and finally to two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improve this manuscript.

Funding

The Transfer Pathways Programme was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment contract LVLX1502. Environment Canterbury kindly sponsored installation of the monitoring well cluster, using funds from their Environmental Monitoring budget 2016/17.

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LFB—conception, design, funding procurement, data analysis and scientific interpretation, writing of the manuscript.

PA—conception, design, technical set-up and data collection both for the in-stream survey and groundwater monitoring station, review of the manuscript.

DW—error analysis of time-series data, production of Figs. 8 and 9, review of the manuscript.

SL—technical set-up and data collection for the groundwater nitrate monitoring station.

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Correspondence to Lee Burbery.

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Burbery, L., Abraham, P., Wood, D. et al. Applications of a UV optical nitrate sensor in a surface water/groundwater quality field study. Environ Monit Assess 193, 303 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09084-0

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