Nitrate trends in Danish groundwater Lærke Thorling, Senior Advisor, geochemist Birgitte Hansen, Senior Scientist, geologist GEUS; DK WCG March 21th 2012
Groundwater nitrate trends analyses ES&T paper: 45, 228-234: Hansen et al. 2011 Assessment of the general national nitrate trend in groundwater Aggregation of individual nitrate trends from groundwater monitoring wells
3 types of data 20-year-timeseries from the Danish national groundwater monitoring programme: app. 37.000 nitrate analyses from app. 1200 monitoring points Yearly N surpluses in agriculture from Denmarks Statistics CFC dating of groundwater once in the period 1997-2006
The groundwater monitoring points
The national general nitrate trend - 194 oxic groundwater monitoring points ES&T, 45, 228-234: Hansen et al. 2011
3 age groups of nitrate trends - 152 oxic monitoring points Upward nitrate trend Down-ward nitrate trend
3 age groups of nitrate trends 152 oxic monitoring points 94 with significant trends
Nitrattrends in oxic groundwater
Nitrate in young groundwater state 2009-11
Conclusions and themes for further work Trends showing increasing nitrate may be due to « sins » of the past; we have startet to cure Should we recommand dating and modelling More guidence on interpretqtion of trends nessesary
Regulating agriculture makes a difference to groundwater quality Photo: Bente Fyrstenberg Nedergaard