Changes in nitrogen loads to estuaries following implementation of governmental action plans in Denmark: A paired catchment and estuary approach for analysing regional responses

Windolf, Jørgen; Blicher-Mathiesen, Gitte; Carstensen, Jacob; Kronvang, Brian

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2012.08.009

Cited by 64 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…At the agricultural field level, the nitrogen surplus was halved from levels >400,000 t N year −1 in the early 1990s (Windolf et al 2012;Blicher-Mathiesen et al 2014). This reduction was achieved through APAE requirements for manure storage capacity, rules for timing and application technique of manure, maximum limits to the amount of N which may be applied to different crops, and wetland restoration increasing the N retention in surface waters.…”

Section: Trends In Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gross outlets of TN and TP from diffuse sources were calculated by combining monthly modeled freshwater discharge and discharge weighted monthly concentrations of TN and TP from empirical models derived on measured data from 83 (N) and 24 (P) gauging stations with no significant sewage outlets (Windolf et al 2011;Andersen et al 2005). Adding the outlets of nutrients with sewage in the ungauged catchments and subtracting estimated nutrient retention in streams and lakes then provided the total monthly nutrient load from ungauged catchments (Windolf et al 2011(Windolf et al , 2012.…”

Section: Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Land use in the watersheds is dominated by agriculture (~65 %; Windolf et al 2012) with tiled soils in many areas, enhancing the loss of nutrients to estuaries and coastal regions. As a consequence, Danish estuaries and coastal waters are nutrient-rich ecosystems with a strong benthic-pelagic coupling due to their shallowness resulting in high biomass of benthic fauna in several of the estuaries Josefson and Rasmussen 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Recovery of Danish Coastal Ecosystems After Reductions in Nutrient Loading: A Holistic Ecosystem Approach

Riemann

Carstensen

Dahl

et al. 2015

Estuaries and Coasts

195

146

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the 1980s, Danish coastal waters suffered from eutrophication and several nutrient management plans have been implemented during the years to improve ecological status. This study aims at giving a holistic ecosystem perspective on 25 years of mitigation measures. We report trends of nutrient inputs and the responses to these in various chemical and biological components. Nutrient inputs from land were reduced by~50 % for nitrogen (N) and 56 % for phosphorus (P) since 1990. These reductions resulted in significant and parallel declines in nutrient concentrations, and initiated a shift in the dominance of primary producers towards reduced phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a concentration) and increased cover of macroalgae in deeper waters. In the last 5 years, eelgrass meadows have also expanded towards deeper waters, in response to improving water clarity. An expected improvement of bottom water oxygen conditions has not been observed, presumably because more frequent stratification and higher water temperatures have counteracted the expected positive effects of reduced nutrient inputs. The biomass of the benthic macrofauna decreased as expected, but it was composed of a drastic decline of filter feeders paralleled by a more moderate increase of deposit feeders. This shift was most likely induced by increasing stratification. The reduced benthic filtration along with the limited eelgrass cover probably kept relatively more particles in suspension, which can explain why improvements in the Secchi depths were modest. Overall, several ecosystem components demonstrated clear signs of improvement, suggesting that at least partial recovery is attainable. On this basis, we propose a conceptual scheme for recovery of shallow coastal ecosystems following marked reductions in nutrient inputs.

show abstract

Section: Trends In Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Recovery of Danish Coastal Ecosystems After Reductions in Nutrient Loading: A Holistic Ecosystem Approach

Riemann

Carstensen

Dahl

et al. 2015

Estuaries and Coasts

195

146

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…as follows from a number of publications (e.g. schilling, Wolter, 2007;Meals et al, 2010;Windolf et al, 2012), time for responding groundwater body/zone to the effects of measures at restoring the groundwater quality varies from a few years to decades and consists of the time needed to create the necessary effect in practice, the time required for expression of the effect on the level of the ground water level and the time required for water body/zone in response to the effect of measures. amongst these, the last one is usually the longest.…”

Section: The Need To Take Effective Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The starting point for solving this problem is to identify areas that significantly contribute to current water status. Environmental risk assessment, through which it is possible to identify these areas, is based on the concept of 'source of pollution → transport path → receptor (part of the environment and/or human health)' (Daly et al, 2002;Malík, Švasta, 2004;Windolf et al, 2012), which, given the particular type and origin of contamination, may be interpreted as nutrient load environment → transport nutrients in the environment → receptor. The specific vulnerability of groundwater in groundwater body (hydrogeological structure) represents a more 'environmentalist' thinking on groundwater protection, as it seeks to provide below-limit concentrations of specific substances across the aquifer.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the risk of diffuse pollution of groundwater by nitrogen substances from agricultural land use as background for allocation of effective measures

Bujnovský¹,

Malík

Švasta

2016

Ekológia (Bratislava)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bujnovský r., Malík p., Švasta J.: Evaluation of the risk of diffuse pollution of groundwater by nitrogen substances from agricultural land use as background for allocation of effective measures. Ekológia (Bratislava), vol. 35, no. 1, p. 66-77, 2015.The risk of diffuse pollution of groundwater by nitrogen substances from agricultural land is perceived as a result of the interaction of groundwater vulnerability (determined by the characteristics of the environment overlying groundwater in relation to water transport or soil solution) and loading of overlying environment by nitrogen. index of groundwater vulnerability was assessed on the basis of four parameters, namely, the amount of effective rainfall in the period from october to March, the capacity of soil to accumulate water, the average depth of the groundwater table and the permeability of the rock environment. assessment of the index of loading of overlying environment by nitrogen was based on two parameters, namely, nitrogen balance and crop cover on agricultural land in the winter half on districts level in 2012, which corresponds with current state of the load. The resulting risk of groundwater pollution by nitrogen was expressed by the formula counting with the transformed values of groundwater vulnerability index and the index of loading of overlying environment by nitrogen. From practical point of view, the above mentioned indexes, as well as the subsequent risk of diffuse groundwater pollution, were spatially expressed via three associated categories. Based on the evaluation of relevant parameters, 5.18% of agricultural land falls into the category of very high and high risk, 42.20% in the medium risk category and 52.62% in the category of low and very low risk of diffuse pollution of groundwater by nitrogen from agricultural land.

show abstract

Multiple components of environmental change drive populations of breeding waders in seminatural grasslands

Laursen

Balbontı́n

Thorup³

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Environments are rapidly changing due to climate change, land use, intensive agriculture, and the impact of hunting on predator populations. Here, we analyzed long‐term data recorded during 1928–2014 on the size of breeding populations of waders at two large nature reserves in Denmark, Vejlerne and Tipperne, to determine the effects of components of environmental change on breeding populations of waders. Environmental variables and counts of waders were temporally autocorrelated, and we used generalized least square (GLS) by incorporating the first‐order autoregressive correlation structure in the analyses. We attempted to predict the abundance of waders for short‐term trends for two nature reserves (35 years) and for long‐term trends for one nature reserve (86 years), using precipitation, temperature, nutrients, abundance of foxes Vulpes vulpes, area grazed, and number of cattle. There was evidence of impacts of nutrients, climate (long‐term changes in temperature and precipitation), grazing, mowing, and predation on bird populations. We used standard random effects meta‐analyses weighted by (N–3) to quantify these mean effects. There was no significant difference in effect size among species, while mean effect size differed consistently among environmental factors, and the interaction between effect size for species and environmental factors was also significant. Thus, environmental factors affected the different species differently. Mean effect size was the largest at +0.20 for rain, +0.11 for temperature, −0.09 for fox abundance, and −0.03 for number of cattle, while there was no significant mean effect for fertilizer, area grazed, and year. Effect sizes for two short‐term time series from Tipperne and Vejlerne were positively correlated as were effect sizes for short‐term and long‐term time series at Tipperne. This implies that environmental factors had consistent effects across large temporal and spatial scales.

show abstract

Changes in nitrogen loads to estuaries following implementation of governmental action plans in Denmark: A paired catchment and estuary approach for analysing regional responses

Cited by 64 publications

References 21 publications

Recovery of Danish Coastal Ecosystems After Reductions in Nutrient Loading: A Holistic Ecosystem Approach

Recovery of Danish Coastal Ecosystems After Reductions in Nutrient Loading: A Holistic Ecosystem Approach

Evaluation of the risk of diffuse pollution of groundwater by nitrogen substances from agricultural land use as background for allocation of effective measures

Multiple components of environmental change drive populations of breeding waders in seminatural grasslands

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About