The phosphorus in water and sediment collected at different time from the Xiangxi River were analyzed. The results indicated that the phosphorus pollution have significant relations to human activities (especially the phosphorus industry). The concentrations of total-phosphorus (TP), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and dissolved phosphorus (DP) in Dec. 2004 were higher than those in Jul. 2005; the TP contents of sites 15 and 16 were much higher than others', the TP content of the largest site 16 was 1946.29 mg/kg in Dec. 2004 and 1756.11 mg/kg in Jul. 2005, respectively, which was much higher than the average (1497.51 mg/kg and 1369.38 mg/kg, respectively). The TP content in the sediment of the Xiangxi River was from 1179.53 mg/kg to 1851. 20 mg/kg. The TP contents of most sites except site 18, 19 and 20 were higher in Dec. 2004 than those in Jul. 2005. The aluminium-phosphorus (Al-P) content in the sediment was obviously higher in Jul. 2005 than that in Dec. 2004, which indicated that the stability of Al-P has a significant relation to the change of season

Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Hydrobiol, Wuhan 430072, Peoples R China

Deng Nan-Sheng

Fang Tao

Fang Tao (fangt@ihb.ac.cn)

Fu Chang-Ying

Yu Hai-Qiao

Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy Of Sciences

© 1994-2009 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved.    http://www.cnki.net
Received date :200421124 ;Accepted date :20062329
Foundation item :Key Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences( KSCX22SW2111) ;National Key Project for Basic Research(2002CB412304)
Corresponding author :Fang Tao ,Tel : + 86227268780710 ,Fax : + 86227268780712 ,E2mail :fangt @ihb. ac. cn
TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS IN
THE XIANGXI RIVER
FU Chang2Ying1 ,2 , FANG Tao1 , DENG Nan2Sheng2and YU Hai2Qiao1 ,3
(1. Institute of Hydrobiology , the Chinese Academy of Sciences , Wuhan 　430072 , China ; 2. School of Environmental Sciences and Resources , Wuhan
University , Wuhan 　430079 ; 3. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering , Wuhan University of Technology , Wuhan 　430070)
Abstract :The phosphorus in water and sediment collected at different time from the Xiangxi River were analyzed. The results indi2
cated that the phosphorus pollution have significant relations to human activities (especially the phosphorus industry) . The concen2
trations of total2phosphorus (TP) , total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and dissolved phosphorus (DP) in Dec. 2004 were higher than
those in Jul. 2005 ; the TP contents of sites 15 and 16 were much higher than others’, the TP content of the largest site 16 was
1946. 29mg/ kg in Dec. 2004 and 1756. 11mg/ kg in Jul. 2005 , respectively , which was much higher than the average (1497. 51
mg/ kg and 1369. 38mg/ kg , respectively) . The TP content in the sediment of the Xiangxi River was from 1179. 53mg/ kg to 1851.
20mg/ kg. The TP contents of most sites except site 18 , 19 and 20 were higher in Dec. 2004 than those in Jul. 2005. The alu2
minium2phosphorus (Al2P) content in the sediment was obviously higher in Jul. 2005 than that in Dec. 2004 , which indicated that
the stability of Al2P has a significant relation to the change of season.
Key words : Phosphorus ; Sediment ; Adsorption and release ; Xiangxi River ; Three Gorges
CLC number : X832 　　Document code :A 　　Article ID :100023207 (2006) 0620647205
　　Phosphorus is an essential and often limiting nutrient
in both marine and freshwater ecosystems , yet its oversup2
ply is of concern in many environments due to its role in
eutrophication[1 ] . Phosphorus enters rivers from diffuse
catchment sources ( particularly agriculture ) and point
(effluent) sources. However , river systems have an im2
portant internal capacity to remove or release phosphorus
from/ to the water column and to trans2form phosphorus
between organic , inorganic , particulate and dissolved
forms. River bed sediments can play an important role in
buffering concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus
(SRP) in surface waters[2 —4 ] . This buffering is strongest
under low2flow conditions , when there is a relatively long
contact time between the water column and the bed sedi2
ment and where the sediment surface area to water volume
is high. Under certain environmental conditions , phos2
phorus can be released from the sediments to the overlying
water[5 —7 ] . The characteristics of sediment affected the
equilibrium concentrations of phosphorus between the sed2
iment and the overlying water[8 ] . Algal growth in nearly
all eutrophic lakes is limited by the concentration of phos2
phorus rather than nitrogen[9 —11 ] . There are about 3000
pollution sources along the banks of the Three Gorges
Reservoir. The total industrial and urban wastewater dis2
charge into the reservoir area amounts to about 108 tons/
year in which contains much N and P pollutants[12 ] .
The Xiangxi River is the first middling tributary of
the Changjiang River nearby the Three Gorges Dam. The
River is subject to phosphorus pollution from industrial
wastewater. After the sluice of the Three Gorges Dam
Locks become fully functional , the water2flow profile of
the Xiangxi River would change ( mainly decelerate ) ,
which may have adverse environmental effects on the en2
tire system. As the water quality of the River could di2
rectly influence the water quality of the Three Gorges
Reservoir , the research on phosphorus distributions and
第 30 卷 第 6 期 水 生 生 物 学 报 Vol . 30 ,No . 6
2 0 0 6 年 1 1 月 ACTA HYDROBIOLOGICA SINICA Nov. , 2 0 0 6　
© 1994-2009 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved.    http://www.cnki.net
its change in the sediment profile of the Xiangxi River
could provide useful information in the dynamic changes
in the system , thereby offering options for mitigative mea2
sures.
1 　Materials and methods
1. 1 　Area descriptions 　 The Xiangxi River has two
easterly and westerly derivations , is the largest tributary
draining into the Three Gorges Reservoir of the Changjiang
River in Hubei Province. The Xiangxi River is 469. 7 km
long , with a watershed area of 3099. 4km2 . The reserves
of phosphate of this area are among the top three in Chi2
na. Some sites of the River are under mesotrophic or eu2
trophic conditions due to agro2chemical and chemical fer2 tilizer overusage , discharge of the municipal sewage ,large2scale cultivation , and high2density population in thewatershed. The distance between the Xiangxi River andthe Three Gorges Dam is about 20km. The distribution of22 sampling sites is illustrated in Fig. 1. The altitude ofthe water level of the Three Gorges Dam is 135m at first ,then 156m , finial it will reach 175m after the Dam iscompleted. When the water level is 135m , the submergedrange (from the river mouth) would be near sampling site12 , when water level is 156m , the submerged rangewould reach site 10. After the Dam is completed ,the wa2ter level (175m) of the reservoir will be much higher andthe water surface will be much wider. The reach of theXiangxi River below sampling site 8 will be submerged.
Fig. 1 　Sampling stations in the Xiangxi River and the Changjiang River
1. 2 　Sampling and analysis 　The water samples were
collected from the Xiangxi River in Dec. 2004 and Jul .
2005 using Go2Flo bottles. The water samples were kept
at 0 —4 ℃until analysis which took place within 24
hours. Some water samples of some sites (9 , 10 , 11 ,
15 , 16 and a) were also collected and analyzed from
Oct . 1996 to Jul . 1997. Sediment samples were collect2
ed using an Ekman Dredge sampler in the Xiangxi River
in Dec. 2004 and Jul . 2005 ; samples were placed into
plastic containers , sealed and kept at 0 —4 ℃until analy2
sis. Fig. 1 shows the locations of sampling stations in the
Xiangxi River .
Water samples from the river were analyzed by the
following procedures. Filtered samples ( < 0. 45mm) were
analyzed for the concentration of dissolved P (DP) . Un2
filtered samples and filtered samples ( < 0. 45mm) were
used to determine the TP concentration and the total dis2
solved P , by digestion with K2S2O8 . The P concentration
of all samples was analyzed spectrophotometrically by the
ammonium molybdate method of Murphy and Riley[13 ]with
ascorbic acid as a reducing agent .
An aliquot of each sediment sample was freeze2dried
then ground to a fine powder. Extraction of the various
phosphorus species from the sediment was based on the
fractionation scheme[14 ,15 ] . Organic phosphorus (Org2P)
was calculated as the difference between the various min2
648　 ACTA HYDROBIOLOGICA SINICA 30 卷
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eral phosphorus phases and total sedimentary phosphorus.
Phosphorus in the labile or“available”aluminum (Al2
P) and iron (Fe2P) oxide phases were extracted using se2
quential leaches of 0. 5mol/ L NH4 F and 0. 1mol/ L NaOH ,
respectively. Apatite P ( Ca2P) was extracted with a
0. 5mol/ L H2SO4 solution after extraction of Al2P and Fe2P.
Phosphate from all solutions was measured as soluble reactive
phosphate by the molybdenum blue method.
2 　Results
2. 1 　The comparison of TP concentration of the Xi2
angxi River before and after the impoundment
of the Three Gorges Dam ( Fig. 2)
Before sluiced , the TP concentration of the Xiangxi
River changed largely , the upstream of the location 10 ,
the TP concentrations of sites were very low ( less than
0. 05mg/ L) , the largest concentration (0. 34mg/ L) was
located the site of 16. All of those had a significant rela2
tion with people behaviors (especially the phosphorus in2
dustry) .
Fig. 2 　The comparison of TP concentrations of the Xiangxi River
before and after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam
2. 2 　The difference of phosphorus concentration of
the Xiangxi River between perish period and
freshet period ( Fig. 3) :
The concentrations of TP , TDP and DP in Dec. 2004
were higher than those in Jul. 2005. The P concentrations of
the site (from 4 to16) changed a larger degree than other sites.
Fig. 3 　The comparison of different P concentrations of the Xiangxi River between different periods
2. 3 　The difference of phosphate content in sediment
of the Xiangxi River between perish period and
freshet period( Tab. 1)
The content of inorganic phosphorus ( In2P) was the
main part of TP in sediment of the Xiangxi River. The
main content of different phosphate in In2P was Ca2P.
The T2P contents of sites 15 , 16 were much higher than
others’. The TP content of the largest site 16 was
1946. 29mg/ kg in Dec. 2004 and 1756. 11mg/ kg in Jul .
2005 , respectively ; which was much higher than the av2
erage (1497. 51mg/ kg and 1369. 38mg/ kg , respective2
ly) ; The TP content in sediment of the Xiangxi River was
from 1179. 53mg/ kg to 1851. 20mg/ kg. The TP contents
of most sites except site 18 , 19 and 20 were higher in
Dec. 2004 than those in Jul . 2005. The content of In2P
didn’t have much change between two seasons. The Org2
6 期 FU Chang2Ying et al. :TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS IN THE XIANGXI RIVER 649　
© 1994-2009 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House. All rights reserved.    http://www.cnki.net
P contents in most sites except sites 18 and 19 were high2
er in Dec. 2004 than those in Jul . 2005. The Al2P con2
tents were much lower in Dec. 2004 than those in Jul .
2005. The Fe2P and Ca2P in sediment of the Xiangxi
River were not obviously disciplinary between two sea2
sons.
Tab. 1 　The distribution of different phosphorus in sediment of the Xiangxi River
Time
Site
Samples in perish period
TP In2P Org2P Al2P Fe2P Ca2P Samples in perish periodTP In2P Org2P Al2P Fe2P Ca2P
13 1454. 24 953. 13 501. 11 1. 23 19. 83 787. 55 1164. 44 696. 53 467. 91 41. 88 20. 57 541. 26
14 1650. 46 886. 71 763. 74 0. 91 24. 80 862. 87 1267. 08 817. 28 449. 79 37. 74 10. 38 682. 34
15 1940. 26 1173. 49 766. 76 5. 06 14. 11 952. 53 1517. 63 1393. 86 123. 77 30. 24 13. 86 964. 49
16 1946. 30 1339. 53 606. 77 3. 15 7. 39 991. 99 1756. 11 1345. 56 410. 55 7. 13 6. 40 1037. 42
17 1288. 21 883. 69 404. 51 0. 44 4. 16 786. 35 1070. 86 841. 43 229. 42 40. 13 34. 50 884. 39
18 1454. 24 1146. 33 307. 91 12. 71 21. 82 889. 17 1641. 40 1200. 67 440. 74 47. 46 10. 63 884. 39
19 1203. 68 705. 59 498. 09 0 9. 88 700. 27 1236. 89 735. 78 501. 11 30. 88 18. 83 354. 76
20 1091. 99 506. 35 585. 64 3. 46 39. 22 463. 55 1309. 34 892. 75 416. 59 26. 10 8. 39 736. 14
21 1448. 2 1007. 46 440. 74 0. 91 8. 64 944. 16 1360. 66 986. 33 374. 33 28. 17 16. 35 516. 16
3 　Discussion
The concentration of phosphorus in the Xiangxi River
has changed notably. In the lower reaches it was once
higher than that of upper reach in 1996 to1997 and now it
has reversed in 2004 to 2005. The turning point was the
site 15 , the TP concentrations of the lower stream from it
of the Xiangxi River were lower than those in 1996 to
1997 , but the water quality of river didn’t change well .
After the construction of the Three Gorges Dam , the water2
flow of river obviously decreased and so the purge ability
diminished.
The concentrations of TDP and DP were the main part
of the TP , which would be a risk of algae bloom. The TP
concentrations of river were higher in Dec. 2004 than
those in Jul . 2005. It indicated that the pollution source
of P in the Xiangxi River is the industrial pollution and
much attention should be paid on controlling industrial
pollutions in perish period of river. The phosphorus for the
chemical plant and iron alloy production is from the local
support industry , which induced heavy phosphorus pollu2
tion release into the Xiangxi River. There are two phos2
phorus plants located in this area between Pingyikou and
Xiakou which produce about 14 ,000 t of phosphorus each
year. They discharge 1. 868 t of phosphorus per day into
the Xiangxi River. Owing to the output of phosphorus from
the chemical plant and subsistence sewage , the concentra2
tions of phosphorus are superfluous at six of eight sections
of the Xiangxi River.
It can be seen in Tab. 1 that the Ca2P ratio was the
highest form among P species. The accumulated acid mat2
ter which produced at anaerobic environment in the sedi2
ment may induce the dissolution and release of Ca2P as the
water level increases. Because the DO would decrease ,
Ca2P could be a contributing factor enlarging the concen2
tration of phosphorus. The Ca2P is a very stabile phospho2
rus form. The average contents of Fe2P in sediment of river
were similar between different seasons , the content of sites
14 , 17 , 18 and 20 had changed notably , where should re2
ceive attention by the environmental agency as Fe2P could
be absorbed adequately by algae. The Al2P contents in
sediment were obviously higher in Jul . 2005 than those in
Dec. 2004 , which indicated that the stability of Al2P have
a significant relation with the change of season. We noted
that peach blossom around the site of 16 appeared as an
obvious band of algae in May 2004 , which suggested that
the nutrient availability at this site was very high. Algal
bloom occurred at the sites of 19 and 18 in July 2004 , al2
though these have not continued for a long time. Tab. 2
shows the concentrations of different forms of phosphorus
in sediment of some rivers in China. It can be seen from
this table that the concentrations of total phosphorus in the
sediments of the lower reaches of the Xiangxi River was
higher than that of other rivers , which indicated that the P
650　 ACTA HYDROBIOLOGICA SINICA 30 卷
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pollution is serious in this area. The ratio of inorganic
phosphorus to total phosphorus of the lower reaches of the
Xiangxi River was much higher than that of others , while
the ratio of organic to total phosphorus was lower. As the
drainage area of the Xiangxi River covers ninety percent of
the area of Xingshan County , all the industries and most of
the agriculture are also located in this area , contributing
greatly to the inorganic phosphorus input into the river. On
the other side , Xingshan is a small city with a small popu2
lation , so the concentration of organic phosphorus in the
lower reaches of Xiangxi River is not so high , compared
with those of other rivers near the big cities in China.
Tab. 2 　The concentrations of different forms of phosphorus in the sediments of some rivers in China (mg/ kg)
River TP Org2P Org2P/ TP ( %) In2P In2P/ TP ( %)
Xiangxi River 1433 460. 55 32. 1 972. 9 67. 9
Qiantangjiang River 413. 7 32. 8 7. 9 380. 9 92. 1
Huangpujiang River 971. 2 486. 5 50. 1 484. 6 49. 9
Haihe River 772. 7 397. 8 51. 5 374. 9 48. 5
Luanhe River 358. 9 102. 3 28. 5 256. 6 71. 5
Yalvjiang River 328. 2 74. 8 22. 8 253. 4 77. 2
Sanchahe River 481. 8 168. 5 35. 0 313. 3 65. 0
4 　Conclusion
After the sluices of the Three Gorges Reservoir have
become operational , the water quality of the Xiangxi River
maintains a temporary equilibrium with regard to phospho2
rus. The initial concentrations of phosphorus in the over2
lying water and in the sediments have an obvious effect on
the phosphorus mobilization potential . There is a potential
hazard of phosphorus pollution in this area and proper
measures are needed to prevent this adverse effect .
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6 期 FU Chang2Ying et al. :TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS IN THE XIANGXI RIVER 651　


Temporal and spatial distribution of phosphorus in the Xiangxi River

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Temporal and spatial distribution of phosphorus in the Xiangxi River

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Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy Of Sciences