Impacts of Anthropogenic Changes on the Mun River Water: Insight from Spatio-Distributions and Relationship of C and N Species in Northeast Thailand

Jinke Liu, Guilin Han, Xiaolong Liu, Man Liu, Chao Song, Qian Zhang, Kunhua Yang and Xiaoqiang Li
Additional contact information
Jinke Liu: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Guilin Han: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Xiaolong Liu: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
Man Liu: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Chao Song: The Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050061, China
Qian Zhang: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Kunhua Yang: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Xiaoqiang Li: School of Scientific Research, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: C and N species, including dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), NO 3 − and NH 4 + contents in 57 river water samples collected from the Mun River of Thailand were measured to determine the relationships between these dissolved load species and their impacts on the environment. DOC values varied between 1.71 and 40.08 mg/L, averaging 11.14 mg/L; DON values ranged from 0.20 to 1.37 mg/L, with an average value of 0.48 mg/L; NO 3 − -N values averaged 0.18 mg/L; and NH 4 + -N values averaged 0.15 mg/L. DOC contents increased while DON and NO 3 − values decreased along the flow direction. The concentrations of NH 4 + maintained the same level in the whole watershed. DOC and DON values exhibited clearly higher concentrations in comparison with other rivers worldwide and were inextricably linked with anthropogenic inputs. The relationships of DOC, DON, and anthropogenic ions imply that there are two different anthropogenic sources (industrial activities and agricultural activities) of the dissolved load in the Mun River watershed. The limited correlations between the DON, NO 3 − , and NH 4 + indicate that the N species are not dominated by a single factor, and reciprocal transformations of riverine N pool are complex. Based on the environmental water quality standard reported by the EC (European Communities) and the World Health Organization, assessments of the water quality using the parameters of pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), NO 3 − , NH 4 + , and TN (total nitrogen) in the Mun River were conducted. The results demonstrate that the river water faces potential environmental pollution, and anthropogenic inputs endanger local water quality and the aquatic community. Therefore, the local government should restrict and reduce the anthropogenic inputs discharged in to rivers, and launch long-term monitoring of water quality.

Keywords: dissolved organic carbon; total dissolved nitrogen; agricultural land-use; water quality; Mun River; northeast Thailand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/4/659/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/4/659/ (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:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:4:p:659-:d:208500

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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