Impacts of land use at multiple buffer scales on seasonal water quality in a reticular river network area

Abstract

The assessment and prediction of regional water quality are fundamental inputs to environmental planning and watershed ecological management. This paper explored spatiotemporal changes in the correlation of water quality parameters (WQPs) and land-use types (LUTs) in a reticular river network area. Water samples of 44 sampling sites were collected every quarter from 2016 to 2018 and evaluated for dissolved oxygen (DO), total phosphorus (TP), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), and permanganate index (CODMn). A redundancy analysis (RDA) and stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) were applied to analyze the land-use type impacts on seasonal WQPs at five buffer scales (100, 200, 500, 800, and 1000 m). The Kruskal–Wallis test results revealed significant seasonal differences in NH3-N, TP, CODMn, and DO. The area percentages of farmland, water area and built-up land in the study area were 38.96%, 22.75% and16.20%, respectively, for a combined total area percentage of nearly 80%. Our study showed that orchard land had an especially favorable influence on WQPs. Land-use type impacts on WQPs were more significant during the dry season than the wet season. The total variation explained by LUTs regarding WQPs at the 1 km buffer scale was slightly stronger than at smaller buffer scales. Built-up land had a negative effect on WQPs, but orchard and forest-grassland had a positive effect on WQPs. The effects of water area and farmland on WQPs were complex on different buffer scales. These findings are helpful for improving regional water resource management and environmental planning.

Metabarcoding metacommunities: time, space, and land use interact to structure aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in streams

“…Aquatic macroinvertebrate community structure can change seasonally due to variations in habitat condition, such as in a floodplain in China where environmental filtering effects became stronger over a season as habitats became more fragmented (Li et al, 2022). Land use can also have a seasonal effect on streams, and the influence of contaminants on water quality has been shown to be elevated during wetter periods (Shi et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2021).…”

A Bayesian Modelling Framework for Integration of Ecosystem Services into Freshwater Resources Management

“…Catchment conditions, e.g., weather, hydrology, topography, soils, geology, land-use etc. together with catchment management decisions, such as landuse change, (Zhang et al 2021 ), natural flood retention measures, (Collentine and Futter 2018 ), riparian buffers, (Young et al 2019 ) directly influence river flows and bio-physical water conditions. These, in turn, influence the ecological responses and the associated ES.…”

Surface Water Quality Assessment and Contamination Source Identification Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques: A Case Study of the Nanxi River in the Taihu Watershed, China

“…The main crops are rice, rape, tea and sericulture, etc. [31]. This area is relatively developed in the Taihu watershed, with a population of approximately 763,000.…”

“…The Nanxi River in the Taihu watershed, as a rapidly urbanized area in China, is experiencing high disturbance from human activities and serious water contamination problems [31]. The spatiotemporal variations in surface water quality and the identification of contamination source types are critical for sustainable watershed water quality management.…”