title: Effects of land use types on surface water quality across an anthropogenic disturbance gradient in the upper reach of the Hun River, Northeast China.
abstract: Surface water quality is vulnerable to pollution due to human activities. The upper reach of the Hun River is an important water source that supplies 52 % of the storage capacity of the Dahuofang Reservoir, the largest reservoir for drinking water in Northeast China, which is suffering from various human-induced changes in land use, including deforestation, reclamation/farming, urbanization and mine exploitation. To investigate the impacts of land use types on surface water quality across an anthropogenic disturbance gradient at a local scale, 11 physicochemical parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen [DO], turbidity, oxygen redox potential, conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand [BOD5], chemical oxygen demand [COD], total nitrogen [TN], total phosphorus [TP], NO(3)(-)N, and NH(4)(+)-N) of water from 12 sampling sites along the upper reach of the Hun River were monitored monthly during 2009-2010. The sampling sites were classified into four groups (natural, near-natural, more disturbed, and seriously disturbed). The water quality exhibited distinct spatial and temporal characteristics; conductivity, TN, and NO(3)(-)-N were identified as key parameters indicating the water quality variance. The forest and farmland cover types played significant roles in determining the surface water quality during the low-flow, high-flow, and mean-flow periods based on the results of a stepwise linear regression. These results may provide incentive for the local government to consider sustainable land use practices for water conservation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Qingyuan Experimental Station of Forest Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Ruizhao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tianle
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Lizhong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jiaojun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008906:Mining; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014507:Urbanization; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis; D014881:Water Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen