Nitrogen enrichment in runoff sediments as affected by soil texture in Beijing mountain area

Yang Yang^a,b, Zhihan Ye^c, Baoyuan Liu^a, Xianqin Zeng^a, Suhua Fu^a, Bingjun Lu^d

^a State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;

^b Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA;

^c Beijing Hydraulic Research Institute, Beijing 100044, China;

^d Beijing Water and Soil Conservation Center, Beijing 100038, China.

Abstract: Enrichment ratio (ER) is widely used in nonpoint source pollution models to estimate the nutrient loss associated with soil erosion. The objective of this study was to determine the ER of total nitrogen (ER_N) in the sediments eroded from the typical soils with varying soil textures in Beijing mountain area. Each of the four soils was packed into a 40 by 30 by 15 cm soil pan and received 40-min simulated rainfalls at the intensity of 90 mm h⁻¹ on five slopes. ER_N for most sediments were above unity, indicating the common occurrence of nitrogen enrichment accompanied with soil erosion in Beijing mountain area. Soil texture was not the only factor that influenced N enrichment in this experiment since the ER_N for the two fine-textured soils were not always lower. Soil properties such as soil structure might exert a more important influence in some circumstances. The selective erosion of clay particles was the main reason for N enrichment, as implied by the significant positive correlation between the ER of total nitrogen and clay fraction in eroded sediments. Significant regression equations between ER_N and sediment yield were obtained for two pairs of soils, which were artificially categorized by soil texture. The one for fine-textured soils had greater intercept and more negative slope. Thus, the initially higher ER_N would be lower than that for the other two soils with coarser texture once the sediment yield exceeded 629 kg ha⁻¹.

Keywords: Enrichment ratio; Total nitrogen; Soil texture; Beijing mountain area.