Predicting groundwater nitrate concentrations in a region of mixed agricultural land use: a comparison of three approaches

摘要

We investigated whether nitrate-N(NO~-_3-N)concentrations of shallow groundwater(<30 m from the land surface)in a region of intensive agriculture could be predicted on the basis of land use information, topsoil properties that affect the ability of topsoil to generate nitrate at a site, or the 'leaching risk' at different sites. groundwater NO~-_3-N concentrations were collected biannually for 3 years at 88 sites within the Waikato Region of New Zealand. The land use was classed as either the predominant land use of the farm were the well or bore was located, or the dominant land use within a 500 m radius of the well or bore.