Rainfall-Driven Nitrogen Dynamics in Catchment Ponds: Comparing Forest, Paddy Field, and Orchard Systems

Mengdie Jiang, Yue Luo, Hengbin Xiao (), Peng Xu, Ronggui Hu () and Ronglin Su
Additional contact information
Mengdie Jiang: Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China
Yue Luo: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Hengbin Xiao: School of Ecology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China
Peng Xu: Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China
Ronggui Hu: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Ronglin Su: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: The event scale method, employed for assessing changes in nitrogen (N) dynamics pre- and post-rain, provides insights into its transport to surface water systems. However, the relationships between N discharge in catchments dominated by different land uses and water quality remain unclear. This study quantified variations in key N components in ponds across forest, paddy field, and orchard catchments before and after six rainfall events. The results showed that nitrate (NO 3 − -N) was the main N component in the ponds. Post-rainfall, N concentrations increased, with ammonium (NH 4 + -N) and particulate nitrogen (PN) exhibiting significant elevations in agricultural ponds. Orchard catchments contributed the highest N load to the ponds, while forest catchments contributed the lowest. Following a heavy rainstorm event, total nitrogen (TN) loads in the ponds within forest, paddy field, and orchard catchments reached 6.68, 20.93, and 34.62 kg/ha, respectively. These loads were approximately three times higher than those observed after heavy rain events. The partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) identified that rainfall amount and changes in water volume were the dominant factors influencing N dynamics. Furthermore, the greater slopes of forest and orchard catchments promoted more N loss to the ponds post-rain. In paddy field catchments, larger catchment areas were associated with decreased N flux into the ponds, while larger pond surface areas minimized the variability in N concentration after rainfall events. In orchard catchment ponds, pond area was positively correlated with N concentrations and loads. This study elucidates the effects of rainfall characteristics and catchment heterogeneity on N dynamics in surface waters, offering valuable insights for developing pollution management strategies to mitigate rainfall-induced alterations.

Keywords: rainfall events; catchment characteristics; nitrogen dynamics; ponds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1459/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1459/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:14:p:1459-:d:1696872

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().