caa a22 4500 463209184 CHVBK 20180405153135.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170326e20070901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10705-007-9098-2 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10705-007-9098-2 Reduced nitrate concentrations in shallow ground water under a non-fertilised grass buffer strip [Elektronische Daten] [Christy van Beek, Marius Heinen, Olga Clevering] In this paper the suitability of a buffer strip to reduce nitrate concentrations in the upper groundwater was tested for a sandy arable soil in The Netherlands during two consecutive leaching seasons. The bufferstrip was a 3.5m wide unfertilised grass strip adjacent to a ditch on an arable field. In total 24 groundwater wells were installed in 4 transects perpendicular to the ditch to determine Cl, NO3 and δ15N concentrations. Piezometers were installed to assess the groundwater flow, which was in the direction of the ditch with small downward leakage across a peat layer at about 3m depth. Nitrogen was dominantly present as nitrate (NO3). The NO3-N concentrations under the bufferstrip were significantly lower than under the adjacent arable field. The lower concentrations were due to dilution, uptake by grass and denitrification. Nitrate was actively removed in the bufferstrip, since the Cl/NO3 ratios were higher in the bufferstrip than in the remainder of the field. Furthermore, δ15N data indicated that denitrification occurred in the groundwater and increased with decreasing distance to the ditch. NO3-N loads to the ditch were estimated at 8.5kgha−1yr−1, which is relatively low for this area. We can, however, not determine whether these relatively low NO3-N loads were causally related to the reduced NO3-N concentrations in the bufferstrip. Nevertheless, the results of the present study are promising and justify additional research on the efficiency of bufferstrips to reduce NO3 concentrations in shallow groundwater, and subsequently reduce NO3 loading of surface water, under Dutch conditions. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2007 Nitrate nationallicence Bufferstrip nationallicence 15N nationallicence Denitrification nationallicence Groundwater nationallicence van Beek Christy Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands aut Heinen Marius Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands aut Clevering Olga Applied Plant Research (PPO-AGV), Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 430, 8200 AK, Lelystad, The Netherlands aut Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Kluwer Academic Publishers 79/1(2007-09-01), 81-91 1385-1314 79:1<81 2007 79 10705 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-007-9098-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-007-9098-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- van Beek Christy Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Heinen Marius Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Clevering Olga Applied Plant Research (PPO-AGV), Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 430, 8200 AK, Lelystad, The Netherlands aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Kluwer Academic Publishers 79/1(2007-09-01), 81-91 1385-1314 79:1<81 2007 79 10705 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer