Simulating the long term impact of nitrate mitigation scenarios in apilot study basin

The agro-hydrological model TNT2 was used to explore for a period of 14 years (1987–2001) the likelyconsequences of mitigation scenarios on nitrate contamination of the stream water in a small agriculturalcatchment. The Best Management Practices (BMPs) historically designed and implemented in 1992 andtwo devised agricultural scenarios (catch crop (CC) implementation and a global reduction of N fertilizer)are evaluated in term of nitrate contamination in the environment. Two of the BMPs consist in imple-menting natural strips of Poplar and rye-grass strips (5 meters large) along stream and ditches and thethird is a delay in the burial of wheat straws (from August to October). Simulations indicated that naturalstrips implementation would lead to a slight decrease of Nitrate Fluxes (NF) in river by respectively 3.3%and 6.6% for rye-grass and poplar strips: a benefit associated to the non fertilization of strips area. Denitri-fication has not been particularly disrupted in such areas. The delay in the burial of wheat straw in autumndecreases annual mineralization rate and annual plant uptake (by respectively 9 and 13 kg N ha−1y−1)but increases denitrification fluxes by 6 kg N ha−1y−1. This would lead to a slight decrease by 6% of NFin stream (equivalent to 3.3 mg NO3−l−1) and an average decrease of the following sunflower yield by27%. The global reduction of fertilization by 10% would decreased NF in stream by 13.8% (equivalent to8 mg NO3−l−1), with a global decrease by 8 kg N ha−1y−1of plant uptake. The cumulative effect of BMPsand CC would have together lead to a decrease of nitrate concentration from 57.5 to 46.6 mg NO3−l−1reaching the UE environmental quality objectives (below 50 mg NO3−l−1). Spring crops yield followingCC would have been penalized and the decrease of NF is balanced by an increase of denitrification fluxesin the environment contributing to release of N2O, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere

Dynamics of Nitrogen loads in surface water of an agricultural watershed by modelling approach, the Save, Southwest France.

Agriculture is known to have a great impact of nutrients enrichment on continental water resources. In south-West of France (Gascogne region), water resource are essentially surface water and shallow aquifer. Nitrogen dynamic in river is complex and highly variable throughout season and year, depending on hydrology, landuse, removal in stream. In this context, agricultural impacts on nitrogen concentration are a matter of concern for agricultural decision-maker. In order to introduce sustainable land use concepts in this hilly, clayey and agricultural shallow soil context, the hydrological simulation model SWAT2005 has been tested as a valuable tool to evaluate the consequences of such land use changes on water and nutrient balance components. This semi-distributed hydrological model coupled with agronomical model EPIC is able to simulate the impact of each agricultural landuse at the outlet of the Save catchment (1100 km2). Hydrological parameters model are calibrated based on 14-year historical record (1994–2008). Nitrogen losses have been measured during 2 years (2006-2008) at the outlet and are used to validate the model calibration. Agricultural data at communal scale coupled with Spot image analyses have been used to evaluate agricultural distribution and pressure in SWAT. The aim of this modelling exercise is to simulate nitrogen cycle in whole agricultural Hydrological Response Units (HRU), depending on plant growth and culture rotation, to simulate accurately nitrate load in river. The ability of SWAT to reproduce nitrogen transfert and transformation at this scale and in this agricultural context will be evaluated by a discussion of importance of each nitrogen cycle process in nitrogen losses. SWAT could be a useful tool to test agricultural scenario to improve the nitrogen management in river

Long term nitrogen budget modelling in a small agricultural watershed: hydrological control assessment of nitrogen losses with semi-distributed (SWAT) and distributed (TNT2) models

Nitrogen exports in catchments are known to be greatly variable because nitrogen cycle in watershed is controlled by different factors such as landuse, farm management practices, climate, soil type and hydrological setting. Our aim is to study the relative importance of the processes controlling nitrogen losses at catchment scale in the long term using a modelling approach constrained by a long term record of observations. The study area is a catchment of 330 ha with 95 % of intensive agriculture in a hilly shallow soil context, in the south west of France. Historical field rotation and nitrogen river load data have been collected for a 20 year period. Two process-based and spatially distributed models have been chosen to simulate nitrogen transfer and transformation in the whole catchment. The first one is the fully distributed TNT2 model, developed and validated in a different context (farming systems in north-western France). The second one is the widely used, semi-distributed SWAT model, used and recognizedto be realistic in many studies on nitrogen transfer in river. This comparative modelling approach was used to evaluate the effect of different modelling approaches on the identification of controlling factors, and the ability of both models to simulate alternative scenarios. The discharge, especially during storm flow, is well simulated by the curve number approach and the semi-distributed hydrological parameter description used SWAT, while the Topmodel-derived approach used in TNT2 tends to underestimate some peak discharges. Nitrogen dynamic simulations are considered to be acceptable for both models for a long time period but the use of both models allows to exhibit their respective capacity and limits. TNT2 has higher potentiality to test the impact of complex agricultural scenarios because the description of management practices and the simulation of crops to management options is more detailed. It permits the assessment of spatial interactions and focussed spatial management, like the set up of grass or tree strips. SWAT can then be used to scale up change scenarios from TNT2 small catchment results to large catchments

Occurrence of metolachlor and trifluralin losses in the Save river agricultural catchment during floods

Rising pesticide levels in streams draining intensively managed agricultural land have a detrimental effect on aquatic ecosystems and render water unfit for human consumption. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to simulate daily pesticide transfer at the outlet from an agriculturally intensive catchment of 1110 km2 (Save river, south-western France). SWAT reliably simulated both dissolved and sorbed metolachlor and trifluralin loads and concentrations at the catchment outlet from 1998 to 2009. On average, 17 kg of metolachlor and 1 kg of trifluralin were exported at outlet each year, with annual rainfall variations considered. Surface runoff was identified as the preferred pathway for pesticide transfer, related to the good correlation between suspended sediment exportation and pesticide, in both soluble and sorbed phases. Pesticide exportation rates at catchment outlet were less than 0.1% of the applied amount. At outlet, SWAT hindcasted that (i) 61% of metolachlor and 52% of trifluralin were exported during high flows and (ii) metolachlor and trifluralin concentrations exceeded European drinking water standards of 0.1 µg L−1 for individual pesticides during 149 (3.6%) and 17 (0.4%) days of the 1998–2009 period respectively. SWAT was shown to be a promising tool for assessing large catchment river network pesticide contamination in the event of floods but further useful developments of pesticide transfers and partition coefficient processes would need to be investigated

Continuous measurement of nitrate concentration in a highly event-responsive agricultural catchment in south-west of France: is the gain of information useful?

A nitrate sensor has been set up to measure every 10 min the nitrate signal in a stream draining a small agricultural catchment dominated by fertilized crops during a 2-year study period (2006–2008) in the south-west of France. An in situ sampling protocol using automatic sampler to monitor flood events have been used to assume a point-to-point calibration of the sensor values. The nitrate concentration exhibits nonsystematic concentration and dilution effects during flood events. We demonstrate that the calibrated nitrate sensor signal gathered from the outlet is considered to be a continuous signal using the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem. The objectives of this study are to quantify the errors generated by a typical infrequent sampling protocol and to design appropriate sampling strategy according to the sampling objectives. Nitrate concentration signal and flow data are numerically sampled to simulate common sampling frequencies. The total fluxes calculated from the simulated samples are compared with the reference value computed on the continuous signal. Uncertainties are increasing as sampling intervals increase; the method that is not using continuous discharge to compute nitrate fluxes bring larger uncertainty. The dispersion and bias computed for each sampling interval are used to evaluate the uncertainty during each hydrological period. High underestimation is made during flood periods when high-concentration period is overlooked. On the contrary, high sampling frequencies (from 3 h to 1 day) lead to a systematic overestimation (bias around 3%): highest concentrations are overweighted by the interpolation of the concentration in such case. The in situ sampling protocol generates less than 1% of load estimation error and sample highest concentration peaks. We consider useful such newly emerging field technologies to assess short-term variations of water quality parameters, to minimize the number of samples to be analysed and to assess the quality state of the stream at any time

Understanding nitrogen transfer dynamics in a small agricultural catchment: Comparison of a distributed (TNT2) and a semi distributed (SWAT) modeling approaches

The coupling of an hydrological and a crop model is an efficient approach to study the impact of the interactions between agricultural practices and catchment physical characteristics on stream water quality. We analyzed the consequences of using different modeling approaches of the processes controlling the nitrogen (N) dynamics in a small agricultural catchment monitored for 15 years. Two agro-hydrological models were applied: the fully distributed model TNT2 and the semi-distributed SWAT model. Using the same input dataset, the calibration process aimed at reproducing the same annual water and N balance in both models, to compare the spatial and temporal variability of the main N processes. The models simulated different seasonal cycles for soil N. The main processes involved were N mineralization and denitrification. TNT2 simulated marked seasonal variations with a net increase of mineralization in autumn, after a transient immobilization phase due to the burying of the straw with low C:N ratio. SWAT predicted a steady humus mineralization with an increase when straws are buried and a decrease afterwards. Denitrification was mainly occuring in autumn in TNT2 because of the dynamics of N availability in soil and of the climatic and hydrological conditions. SWAT predicts denitrification in winter, when mineral N is available in soil layers. The spatial distribution of these two processes was different as well: less denitrification in bottom land and close to ditches in TNT2, as a result of N transfer dynamics. Both models simulate correctly global trend and inter-annual variability of N losses in small agricultural catchment when a sufficient amount data is available for calibration. However, N processes and their spatial interactions are simulated very differently, in particular soil mineralization and denitrification. The use of such tools for prediction must be considered with care, unless a proper calibration and validation of the different N processes is carried out

Functional significance of genotoxicity in fish germ cells

The aquatic environment is becoming increasingly contaminated by pollutants having a genotoxic potential towards organisms and in particular in fish. Such genotoxins are prone to affect directly offspring or indirectly through the reproductive process. All this could influence recruitment rate and hence the population dynamics. However, assessment of the ecological risks associated with environmental genotoxic exposure is usually based on individual responses. Thus, there is a need for a better understanding of the long term and population level implications of genotoxic insults in fish. While low levels of DNA damage in somatic cells and oocytes can be efficiently repaired, mature sperm cells, i.e. spermatozoa, are susceptible to accumulate damage due to their lack of repair capacity. The present work aims to track the transfer of toxic effects across generations by studying the link between the level of DNA damage in fish sperm, and the rate of development abnormalities measured in the offspring after parental exposure to the model genotoxicant MMS. Three different fish species were chosen based either on their ecological importance or on their reproduction behavior, respectively brown trout (Salmo trutta), Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Results show a significant increase in sperm DNA damage measured with the comet assay in exposed organisms. This damage did not impact on fertilization success but led further to a significant increase in embryo abnormality rate at early embryonic and late larval stages, and further delayed growth in exposed group compared to the control

Nucleolar localization of influenza A NS1: striking differences between mammalian and avian cells

In mammalian cells, nucleolar localization of influenza A NS1 requires the presence of a C-terminal nucleolar localization signal. This nucleolar localization signal is present only in certain strains of influenza A viruses. Therefore, only certain NS1 accumulate in the nucleolus of mammalian cells. In contrast, we show that all NS1 tested in this study accumulated in the nucleolus of avian cells even in the absence of the above described C-terminal nucleolar localization signal. Thus, nucleolar localization of NS1 in avian cells appears to rely on a different nucleolar localization signal that is more conserved among influenza virus strains