Divergent patterns of soil phosphorus discharge from water-level fluctuation zone after full impoundment of Three Gorges Reservoir, China

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2019-01, Vol.26 (3), p.2559-2568
• Main Authors: Zhou, Jun, Wu, Yanhong, Wang, Xiaoxiao, Bing, Haijian, Chen, Yang, Sun, Hongyang, Zhong, Zhilin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algae; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Canyons; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Hydrologic regime; Hydrology; Impoundments; Iron; Phosphorus; Quality control; Research Article; Reservoirs; Runoff; Sea level; Sediment samplers; Soil erosion; Soil investigations; Soil pollution; Soil types; Soil water; Waste Water Technology; Water discharge; Water level fluctuations; Water levels; Water Management; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water quality; Water quality control
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-3805-1

Phosphorus (P) discharged from soils in the water-level fluctuation (WLF) zone becomes increasingly important to the water quality control of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) as the decrease in P input from upstream reaches and point-source pollution. To investigate the amount of soil P discharge from the WLF zone since the full impoundment of the TGR in 2010, soil and sediment samples were collected along the altitudinal gradients (140, 150, 160, 170, and 180 m above sea level) in three transects in the middle reaches of the TGR. Soil P composition was determined by a sequential extraction procedure. Different amounts of P discharge from the WLF zone were found among three soil types because of their difference in the initial P content before impoundment, with an order of yellow earth (171.1 g m −2 ), fluvo-aquic soil (141.7 g m −2 ), and purple soil (73.8 g m −2 ). An altitudinal pattern of soil P discharge was observed with the maximum at the 170-m sites. The downward transport of exchangeable P and clay-bound P with runoff was the major path of the soil P discharge at the 170-m sites with a slope gradient > 15°. Considerable P discharge with erosion at the upper section of the WLF zone was facilitated by the longer exposure period compared with that at bottom section (150-m sites) because of the annual anti-seasonal impoundment-exposure cycles of the TGR. The transformation of Al/Fe-P and subsequent release to water was a main mechanism of the soil P discharge during the impoundment period. The altitudinal pattern of P discharge was a result of joint effects of slope gradient, soil P forms, and the anti-seasonal hydrological regime of the TGR. The results highlight the critical role of the upper section (165–175 m) in controlling the P output from the WLF zone into the water of the TGR.