Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95

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Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment

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Rice agriculture increases base flow contribution to catchment nitrate

loading in subtropical central China
Yi Wanga , Xinliang Liua , Yong Lia,* , Feng Liua , Jianlin Shena , Yuyuan Lia , Qiumei Maa,b ,
Juan Yinc, Jinshui Wua
a
Changsha Research Station for Agricultural & Environmental Monitoring and Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Institute of
Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hunan 410125, China
b
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
c
The Meteorological Bureau of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan 416000, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Base flow is recognized as an important hydrological pathway for NO3
–N export, however, the base flow
Received 14 January 2015 contribution to NO3
–N loading in rice agriculture catchments remains unknown. In this study, stream
Received in revised form 12 August 2015 discharge and NO3
–N concentration were observed in two contrasting rice agriculture catchments
Accepted 17 August 2015
(named Tuojia and Jianshan) in subtropical central China between November 2010 and December 2013,
Available online 3 September 2015
to quantify the base flow contribution to NO3
–N loading and determine its relationship with rice
agriculture. The results suggested that Tuojia produced more base flow (727.0 vs. 426.5 mm) and had
Keywords:
higher base flow contribution to stream discharge (41.9% vs. 28.4%) than Jianshan did during the
Nitrogen
Water quality
observation period, due to the more groundwater recharge associated with the higher areal proportion of
Ecohydrological processes rice agriculture in Tuojia. The average flow-weighted NO3
–N concentration in the base flow was higher
Land use in Tuojia than in Jianshan (1.43 vs. 1.07 mg N L
1), because rice agriculture could result in obvious N
Non-source pollution leaching into groundwater system. The NO3
–N loading via the base flow reached 0.27 kg N ha
1
month
1 in Tuojia, which contributed 36.5% of the NO3
–N loading via the stream discharge. These
values were much greater than 0.12 kg N ha
1 month
1 and 27.3% in Jianshan. The more NO3
–N loading
and greater base flow contribution in Tuojia were attributed to the more base flow and higher NO3
–N
concentration in base flow associated with the intensive rice cropping. Specifically, the base flow
contribution to the NO3
–N loading was greater during the fallow seasons than during the rice-growing
seasons, likely due to the NO3
–N “landscape memory” effects from previous rice cropping seasons.
Therefore, NO3
–N reduction practices in the rice agriculture catchments should be applied to mitigate
the base flow contribution to NO3
–N loading in subtropical central China.
ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to water quality deterioration in agricultural catchments (Leon

Significant nitrate (NO3
–N) loading from agricultural catch-
ments is one of causes of excessive nutrient enrichment and
eutrophication in streams (Dodds and Welch, 2000; Dodds and
Welch, 2000a). Base flow is defined as the sum of deep subsurface
flow and delayed shallow subsurface flow and is recognized as one
of the dominant hydrological pathways for NO3
–N migration
toward streams in agricultural catchments (Leon et al., 1998;
Arnold et al., 2000; Schilling and Zhang, 2004). Although
numerous studies have reported significant base flow contribution
* Corresponding author at. No. 644, The Second Yuanda Road, Furong District,
Changsha, Hunan 410125, China.
E-mail address: yli@isa.ac.cn (Y. Li).
et al., 1998; Schilling and Zhang, 2004), few studies have quantified
base flow contribution in agricultural catchments or determined
its relationship with agricultural land use (Schilling and Libra,
2000). A more thorough understanding of base flow contribution
to NO3
–N loading in agricultural catchments would allow us to
reduce or prevent NO3
–N discharge into streams (Schilling and
Zhang, 2004).
Base flow is often considered as a gradual process in natural
ecosystems, relative to surface runoff (Arnold et al., 2000); thus,
the effect of base flow on NO3
–N loading is often neglected (Reay
et al., 1992; Leon et al., 1998). In fact, subsurface NO3
–N, which is
hardly adsorbed by soils and easily dissolved in water, can be
exported into stream systems through base flow process (Bohlke
and Denver, 1995; Leon et al., 1998; Schilling and Zhang, 2004).
Leon et al. (1998) reported that NO3
–N loading via base flow

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.08.017
0167-8809/ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
accounted for approximately 26–100% of the catchment NO3
–N
loading (median: 56%) within the Chesapeake Bay catchment of
the Middle Atlantic Coast, USA. Schilling and Zhang (2004)
reported that NO3
–N loading largely occurred through base flow
into the Mississippi River in two central Iowa catchments in the
USA. However, because base flow and the resulting NO3
–N
loading processes are largely affected by natural factors such as
climate, soil, topography and land use (Arnold et al., 2000; Schilling
and Zhang, 2004) and anthropogenic activities such as socioeco-
nomic conditions, fertilization, irrigation and tillage in catchments
(Krupa et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2014a,b), the contribution of base
flow to NO3
–N loading may vary significantly across agricultural
catchments. Hence, it should be systematically quantified.
NO3
–N loading via base flow varies significantly depending on
agricultural land use types within catchments (Leon et al., 1998;
Schilling and Zhang, 2004), because different agricultural land use
types affect N leaching into groundwater system (Jalali, 2005;
Wang et al., 2011), water supply and base flow capacity (Arnold
et al., 2000). Rice (Oryza sativa, L.) agriculture is a periodically
flooded agricultural land use type, covering 161 million ha of land
worldwide (Krupa et al., 2011; Deng et al., 2012; Wang et al.,
2014a). Rice agriculture usually requires large quantities of N
fertilizer to maintain high yields, which has resulted in severe
nutrient pollution in the water bodies of agricultural catchments
internationally (Kim et al., 2006; Bouman et al., 2007; Wang et al.,
2014a). While previous studies have attributed severe nutrient
pollution in water bodies to large amounts of surface irrigation/
drainage and annual N fertilizer application in rice agriculture
catchments (Wang et al., 2014a), few studies have examined the
potential disruptions caused by base flow and the resulting NO3
–
N loading in rice agriculture catchments. Chen and Liu (2002)
found that periodically flooded paddy fields can serve as a major
Fig. 1. Land use types and observation locations in the two catchments.
87
source of groundwater recharge in rice agriculture catchments.
Tang (2005) reported that average NO3
–N concentration in
groundwater reached 8.88 mg N L
1 in a rice agriculture catchment
in Jiangxi province, China. Our records showed groundwater
NO3
–N concentrations as high as 49.50 mg N L
1 in the rice
agriculture catchment of Hunan province, China (Wang et al.,
2015), which is considerably higher than the recommended
drinking water standard set by the World Health Organization
(NO3
–N <10 mg N L
1) (WHO, 2011). These results show that rice
agriculture may increase NO3
–N leaching into groundwater and
result in NO3
–N loading via base flow process. However, until
now, the base flow contribution to NO3
–N loading in rice
agriculture catchments has remained unclear.
Thus, it was hypothesized that base flow is a dominant
hydrological pathway of NO3
–N loading in rice agriculture
catchments. Stream discharge and NO3
–N concentration in
stream water were monitored in two rice agriculture catchments
in subtropical central China for November 2010–April 2013. The
objectives of this study were to (i) quantify the amount of base flow
in rice agriculture catchments and (ii) evaluate the base flow
contribution to catchment NO3
–N loading.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Geographic location and climate
The Jinjing catchment is located at the Changsha Research
Station for Agricultural & Environmental Monitoring (27 550 –
28 400 N, 112 560 –113 300 E, elevation of 46–452 m) of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hunan Province, China (Fig. 1). The
area has a typical subtropical monsoon climate with an annual
mean air temperature of 17.5  C and a mean annual rainfall of
88 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
1340 mm. Most of the annual rainfall occurs between April and July
due to moist summer monsoons. In addition, evaporation usually
exceeds rainfall between July and October, producing severe
drought in the region.
2.2. Geological and hydrological characteristics
Two adjacent catchments, named Tuojia and Jianshan, were
selected to evaluate the contribution of base flow to NO3
–N
loading. The boundary of the two catchments was delineated
using ARCGIS 10.0 (ESRI, California, USA) based on a digital
elevation model (DEM) of the two catchments. The Tuojia
catchment covers an area of 52.1 km2, and the Jianshan catchment
covers an area of 50.2 km2 (Table 1). Both catchments are
topographically characterized by low hills and flood plains. The
streams in the two catchments originate in forest areas in their
northern regions and flow through paddy fields and ditches
before reaching the catchment outlets. The hydrological con-
ditions in the two catchments are strongly affected by anthropo-
genic activities (Fig. 1). Because rice agriculture requires heavy
irrigation and surface drainage, numerous artificial irrigation-
drainage channels, pools, and reservoirs are found in the two
catchments, especially on the flood plains where rice is cultivated
intensively (Wang et al., 2014b). This pattern is common in rice
production regions.
A soil survey was carried out in the two catchments for 2010–
2011, and 21 undisturbed soil columns (l.00 m in length and 0.09 m
in diameter) were collected under the different land use types (i.e.
rice agriculture, forest, tea field, and upland) for determining the
basic soil hydraulic, chemical, and physical properties (Table 2),
using soil column cylinder auger machine (Stiboka. Standard set,
05.07, Eijkelkamp, Netherland). The soil survey suggested that the
soils in the catchments developed from Quaternary red earth and
heavily weathered granite and were loamy clay Ultisols or
Anthrosols (Soil Survey Staff, 2010). The depths of the soils
overlying the impermeable granite and Quaternary red earth
varied from 1.8 to 2.0 m. The saturated soil hydraulic conductivity
(Ks) of surface soils at a depth of 0–0.2 m under different land use
types ranged from 1.33–5.31 m d
1. Because the soils were
permeable and the soil depths were thin in the two catchments,
the groundwater was generally shallow at depths of 0.6–1.8 m.
Particularly, in some paddy fields adjacent to the surface water
bodies, the water table could be as shallow as 0.2 m beneath the
land surface.
2.3. Land use
The two catchments exhibited different land use patterns
(Table 1). The forest area in Jianshan was larger than that in Tuojia
(58.0% vs. 77.1%). The forest areas are mainly composed of
secondary Masson pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb) woodlands that
are largely positioned on hillslopes. The forest soil was character-
ized by the highest Ks (Table 2), However, because there was no
fertilizers applied in the forest areas of the studied catchments, the
contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil nitrogen (TSN)
Table 1
Selected topographical characteristics and land use types in the two contrasting catchments.
Catchment Area Mean elevation Mean slope
(ha) (m) (%)
Tuojia 5212 121.0 14.5
Jianshan 5020 146.6 20.7
were shown the lowest on the forest soils, compared with soils of
other land use types.
In the two catchments, there were several types of agriculture
(i.e. rice agriculture, tea field, and upland), and the rice agriculture
was the dominant one. By comparing the two catchments, Tuojia
included a larger rice agriculture area than that of Jianshan (32.2%
vs. 18.8%). Rice agriculture primarily occurs in valleys and flooded
plains along streams, and rice is planted twice each year in paddy
fields. Early rice crops are transplanted in mid-April and harvested
at the end of June, and late rice crops are transplanted in mid-July
and harvested in mid-October. During the fallow season from mid-
October to next mid-April, no crop grows in the paddy fields. Paddy
fields are irrigated using nearby stream water and are intermit-
tently flooded during the growing season, and no irrigation occurs
during the fallow season. However, due to the pothole feature of
paddy fields, the fields usually retain a certain amount of rainfall
(up to 0.1 m) and form a surface water ponding during the fallow
season. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of paddy soils was low,
approximate 10 cmol kg
1 soil or less (Table 2). Furthermore, rice
agriculture requires insensitive fertilizer applications, and conse-
quently the paddy soils by long-term cultivation generally had high
SOC and TSN contents, indicating a high potential of N transports
toward groundwater system.
2.4. Precipitation and stream discharge monitoring
A small weather station positioned in an open area of the Tuojia
catchment (Inteli Ment Advantage, Dynamax, Inc., USA) was used
to automatically record precipitation data at one-hour intervals
(Fig. 1).
Stream discharge was monitored at the outlet of each
catchment beginning in November 2010 (Fig. 1). Stream
discharge was estimated using the observed flow velocity and
flow cross-section area method due to the large stream cross-
section area in the two catchments. The water height at each
catchment outlet was measured at 10-min intervals using water
pressure transducers connected to dataloggers (LMZ water
height recorder, Wuxing Huigong device company, China). In
the two catchments, the stream flow velocity at a given water
height was determined according to Simpson's Parabolic Rule
(Water Resources Research Laboratory, 2001). Briefly, several
points were identified at intervals of two meters along the
stream cross-section at the catchment outlet. The flow velocity at
each point was determined at three different depths below the
water surface using current meters (LS25-3C2 Spiral cup type
current meter, Chongqing Huanzheng hydrological device
company, China). Then, the stream flow velocity at a given
water height was determined by integrating the flow velocities
from various points and their corresponding flow areas along the
stream cross-section. After determining the stream flow veloci-
ties at different depths and during flood and base flow periods, a
separate relationship between the stream flow and associated
water heights was established. At last, the monitored water
heights were translated into stream discharge on the basis of this
separate relationship.
Relief ratio Land use
Rice Forest Water body Tea field Other
(
) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
377 32.2 58.0 4.3 3.0 2.5
382 18.8 77.1 2.0 0.8 1.3
 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95 89

Table 2
Selected soil hydraulic, chemical, and physical properties at different depths under the four land use types in the studied catchments.

Land use Depth Ksa Soil physical propertyb Soil chemical propertyc

BD Soil texture pH CEC TSN SOC

Sand Silt Clay

(m) (m d
1) (Mg m
3) (%) (%) (%) (
) (cmol kg
1) (g kg
1) (g kg
1)
Paddy field 0–0.2 1.33 1.27 31.2 46 22.8 5.42 9.8 0.25 1.6
0.2–0.6 0.03 1.57 32.1 45.3 22.6 6.45 9.5 0.14 0.63
0.6–1.0 0.02 1.59 29.5 48.3 22.2 6.68 9.2 0.12 0.37

Forest 0–0.2 5.31 1.3 48.9 27 24.1 4.43 9.6 0.08 0.96
0.2–0.6 1.77 1.38 46.7 28.5 24.8 4.72 9.5 0.06 0.37
0.6–1.0 1.68 1.44 46.6 30.3 23.2 4.9 9.5 0.05 0.22

Tea field 0–0.2 2.96 1.28 47.6 26.2 26.1 4.24 9.6 0.1 0.97
0.2–0.6 1.95 1.31 47.7 24.8 27.5 4.47 9.5 0.08 0.46
0.6–1.0 0.49 1.45 46.9 25.7 27.4 4.54 9.3 0.06 0.25

Upland field 0–0.2 2.05 1.41 33.3 44.6 22.2 5.78 9.7 0.11 0.84
0.2–0.6 1.04 1.48 29.5 43.5 27 5.9 9.6 0.1 0.61
0.6–1.0 0.52 1.46 31.9 41.2 26.9 5.77 9.4 0.1 0.64
a
Ks, saturated soil conductivity, determined using the constant head method (Zou, 2012).
b
BD, bulk soil density; soil texture was classified according to the US texture classification system, i.e. sand content (2.0–0.05 mm), silt content (0.05–0.005 mm), and clay
content (less than 0.002 mm).
c
pH, soil: water ratio = 1:2.5; CEC, cation exchange capacity; SOC, soil organic carbon content; TSN, total soil nitrogen content; and TSP, total soil phosphorous content.

2.5. Stream water sampling and chemical analysis
The NO3
–N concentrations in the stream discharge were
determined beginning in November 2010 following a regular
sampling approach of three times per month (at approximately 10-
day intervals). Stream water samples were collected at a depth of
approximately 0.2 m below the water surface at the catchment
outlets. The collected water samples were immediately trans-
ported to the laboratory and stored at less than 4  C before analysis.
Briefly, the water samples were filtered through a 0.45-mm
membrane and the filtrate was used to directly determine the
NO3
–N concentrations using a fully automated injection system
(Tecator FIA Star 5000 analyzer, FossTecator, Sweden). The
instrumental detection limits for NO3
–N was 0.1–10.0 mg L
1.
2.6. N fertilizer applications and N balance in rice agriculture
ecosystem
Data gathered from present study and other literatures were
used to estimate the various components of N budget in the rice
agriculture ecosystem. To quantify rice grain yield and N fertilizer
application rates and sources for rice agriculture, detailed field
survey regarding rice agricultural practices was carried out in the
two studied catchments in 2012–2013. Assuming that the yearly-
variation of N storage in soils in the rice agriculture ecosystem was
negligible, the balance of N budget in the rice agriculture
ecosystem was calculated as follows (Eq. (1))
Nfertilized þ Nfixed þ Ndeposited ¼ Nuptaken þ Ngas þ Nrun off
þ Nleached þ euncounted

1
where Nfertilized is the applied N fertilizer (kg N ha yr ),
determined from the field survey; Nfixed is the biological N fixation
in the rice agriculture ecosystem (kg N ha
1 yr
1), referring to the
results of Carreres et al. (1996); Ndeposited is the atmospheric N
deposition (kg N ha
1 yr
1), determined from Tuojia (Shen et al.,
2013); Nuptaken is the N used by rice crops (kg N ha
1 yr
1), base on
the in-situ measured weight and N concentrations of rice plant
biomass and grains in the studied catchments. Ngas is the gaseous N
loss (kg N ha
1 yr
1), determined from an adjacent catchment in
the studied region (Zhu, 2013); Nrunoff is the N loss via surface
runoff (kg N ha
1 yr
1), determined from an adjacent catchment in
the studied region (Shi et al., 2010); Nleached is the N leaching into
groundwater system (kg N ha
1 yr
1), determined from Tuojia (Jiao
et al., 2010). euncounted is the uncounted N in the N budget equation
(kg N ha
1 yr
1).
2.7. Data processing and analysis
Various methods of base flow separation and chemical loading
estimation have been developed in recent decades (Arnold et al.,
1995; Arnold et al., 2000; Schilling and Zhang, 2004). In this study,
a base flow filter was used to quantify the base flow component of
stream discharge (Arnold et al., 1995; Arnold and Allen, 1999). The
program separated base flow from daily stream discharge records
using an automated digital filter technique in which the discharge
algorithm is an automated derivation of the Rorabaugh hydrograph
recession curve displacement method that uses daily stream flow.
Overall, these techniques were fast and resulted in reproducible
results when estimating base flow.
Another program, the USGS program ESTIMATOR (Cohn et al.,
1989, 1992a; Gilroy et al., 1990), was used to estimate daily NO3
–N
loading in the two studied catchments. The ESTIMATOR program
uses a minimum variance unbiased estimator to implement a
seven-parameter regression model based on the relationship
between log-flow and log-concentrations. In addition, the NO3
–N
loadings from stream discharge and base flow in the two
catchments were estimated following the standard procedures
described by Schilling and Zhang (2004). Briefly, two sets of
discharge and concentration data were evaluated using ESTIMA-
TOR. One data set included the time and serial date of the daily
ð1Þ
stream discharge and NO3
–N concentrations for the entire

1 observation period. The constituent loading estimates from this
data set represented the NO3
–N loading that resulted from stream
discharge from the catchments. The other data set used the daily
base flow discharge values as discharge input values in the
ESTIMATOR program and a subset of the NO3
–N concentration
data that included the concentration data collected on days when
daily stream discharge had base flows of 90–100% (Schilling and
Zhang, 2004). The constituent loading from this model run was
used to estimate NO3
–N loading based on the base flow.
When estimating the NO3
–N loading using ESTIMATOR, the
adjusted maximum likelihood estimation (AMLE) statistical
90 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95

estimation method was used (Runkel et al., 2004) because the April and October (accounting for 53.5% and 60.6% of the stream
calibration model errors (residuals) were normally distributed and discharge during the observation period in Tuojia and Jianshan,
the time serial date of the NO3
–N concentrations contained respectively).
censored data (Eq. (2)). The base flow hydrograph fluctuated seasonally and with
8 9 precipitation in Tuojia but was relatively stable and stagnant all
< X
M =  
^ year in Jianshan. The coefficient of variation of the base flow
LALME ¼ EXP a0 þ aj X j H a; b; s2 ; a; k ð2Þ
: ; hydrograph curve was 59% for Tuojia and only 40% for Jianshan.
j¼1
During the observation period, 727.0 mm and 426.5 mm of base flow
where ^ LALME is the AMLE estimate of instantaneous NO3
–N was received, which accounted for 41.9% and 28.4% of the stream
loading via stream discharge and base flow (kg N d
1), a and b are discharge in Tuojia and Jianshan, respectively. The statistical analysis
functions of the explanatory variables (Cohn et al., 1992b), a and k suggested that the base flow was significantly correlated with stream
are parameters of the gamma distribution, and s2 is the residual discharge in both catchments (r = 0.59–0.70, p < 0.01).
variance. The modal coefficients of a0 and aj are maximum
likelihood estimates corrected for first-order bias; and the bias 3.2. Components of N budget in the rice agriculture ecosystem
correction factor of H(a,b,s2,a,k) is an approximation of the infinite
series given in Cohn et al. (1992b). The field survey shows that the N fertilizer was usually
The annual NO3
–N loading (F, kg N ha
1 yr
1) from catchment applied twice in a rice-growing season, once during transplanting
was calculated by dividing the sum of the daily NO3
–N loading as basal fertilization (112 kg N ha
1) and once one month after
during a single hydrological year by the covering area of transplanting for top dressing (75 kg N ha
1) (Table 3). As a result,
catchments (Eq. (3)): the N fertilizer application rate for one season of rice production
was approximately 187 kg N ha
1. Urea and compound chemical
X
n
^
LALME fertilizers were the dominant sources of N fertilizer, while organic
i¼1 fertilizers (i.e. organic waste from septic tanks and animal yards)
F¼ ð3Þ
A were rarely applied in the rice agriculture ecosystem.
The total amount of input N for the rice agriculture ecosystem
where n is days during a single hydrological year (365 days), i is the
was estimated to be 422.5 kg N ha
1 yr
1 in the studied catchments
ith day in a hydrological year (i = 1,2,3 . . . 365), ^ LALME is the (Table 4). Most input N came from fertilization, comprising of
estimated daily NO3
–N loading using the AMLE method (kg N 88.5% of total input N. The amounts of atmospheric N deposition
d
1), A is the covering area of catchment (ha). and biological N fixation were 22.3 and 26.2 kg N ha
1 yr
1,
The flow-weighted concentrations (Cf, mg N L
1) were calculat- respectively, only accounting a small part of total input N. As
ed by dividing the daily NO3
–N loading by the daily discharge as the two largest N output components in the rice agriculture
follows (Eq. (4)): ecosystem, the N used by rice crops made up to 58.0% of total
^
LALME output N, and 39.6% for the gaseous N loss. The quantities of the N
Cf ¼ ð4Þ loss via surface runoff and the N leaching into groundwater were
Q  106
close, approximately 7.0 kg N ha
1 yr
1, and they accounted for
where ^
LALME is the daily NO3
–N loading via stream discharge and about 1.7% of total output N. As a result, there was an N gain of
base flow (kg N ha
1 d
1), and Q is the volume of stream discharge +1.9 kg N ha
1 yr
1 as the uncounted N component in the N budget
and base flow (L d
1). of the rice agriculture ecosystem.

3. Results 3.3. NO3
–N concentrations in the stream water and base flow

3.1. Stream discharge and base flow
Throughout the observation period (three years), 4,228.5 mm of
precipitation were observed (Fig. 3). Of the total precipitation,
56.2% fell between April and June. Heavy precipitation resulted in
substantial stream discharge in the two catchments. Thus, a
significant correlation occurred between the precipitation and
stream discharge in both catchments (r = 0.87–0.89, p < 0.01). The
stream discharge was 1,735.9 mm in Tuojia during the observation
period, and only 1,503.4 mm in Jianshan. This substantial stream
discharge accounted for 41.1% and 35.6% of the total precipitation
in Tuojia and Jianshan, respectively. In addition, the stream
discharge hydrograph curve showed clear seasonal trends in the
two catchments, with most stream discharge occurring between
The observation shows that rice agriculture could increase
NO3
–N concentrations in stream water (Fig. 2). The average
NO3
–N concentration was 1.39 mg N L
1 in Tuojia and greater
than 1.13 mg N L
1 in Jianshan. The highest NO3
–N concentration
of 4.34 mg N L
1 was observed in Tuojia, greater than 2.82 mg N L
1
found in Jianshan. Both the average and maximum NO3
–N
concentrations were much lower than the recommended drinking
water standard of the World Health Organization. The observed
NO3
–N concentrations in the stream water varied strongly with
seasons in both catchments. And, the NO3
–N concentrations
exhibited a wide range of values in Tuojia, with the coefficient of
variation of 52%, greater than 50% in Jianshan.
The flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the stream
discharge and base flow are presented in Fig. 4. The average

Table 3
Nitrogen fertilizer application rates and sources for one season of rice cropping in the studied catchments.

Fertilization Timing Rate Source

(kg N ha
1)
Basal Transplanting 112 Mostly urea, partly compound chemical fertilizers, rarely organic
waste from septic tanks and animal yards
Topdressing One moth after transplanting 75 Urea

Total 187
 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
Table 4
Estimates of components of N budget in the rice agriculture ecosystem using data from present study and those in the literatures.
Component Quantities
(kg N ha
1 yr
1)
Input
Applied N fertilizer 374.0
Atmospheric N deposition 22.3
Biological N fixation 26.2
Total 422.5
Output
N used by rice crop 244.1
Gaseous N loss 162.1
N loss via surface runoff 7.0
N Leaching into groundwater 7.4
Total 420.6
Uncounted +1.9
Fig. 2. Observed NO3
–N concentrations in stream water at the outlets of the two catchments for November 2010–December 2013.
flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the stream discharge
were 1.43 and 1.07 mg N L
1 for Tuojia and Jianshan, respectively.
The flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the stream dis-
charge were relatively stable and stagnant all year in Tuojia and
varied seasonally in Jianshan. In Jianshan, the dynamics of the
flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the stream discharge
showed one peak each hydrological year. This peak occurred
between March and April, with the peak values from 1.60 to
1.68 mg N L
1, then the flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in
the stream discharge rapidly decreased to a minimum between
September and October. After a minimum was reached, the flow-
weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the stream discharge in-
creased again until the following peak between March and April.
The flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow
reached up to 1.48 mg N L
1 in Tuojia and only 0.93 mg N L
1 in
Jianshan. Similarly, the flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in
the base flow were consistent with those of the stream discharge in
Jianshan, which both showed seasonal and periodic variations. The
peak flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow
occurred between April and May, which was approximately one
month before the peak flow-weighted NO3
–N concentration
occurred in the stream discharge. Surprisingly, in Tuojia, the
dynamics of the flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base
flow was different from those in Jianshan, remainning satble and
show no periodical variation.
3.4. NO3
–N loadings via the stream discharge and base flow
The estimated NO3
–N loading reflected the trait of main
chemical loading in the two catchments (Fig. 5). The dynamics of
NO3
–N loadings via the both stream discharge and base flow were
91
Description
Estimated from the questionnaire survey in the two catchments (Present study).
Determined from the Tuojia catchment (Shen et al., 2013).
Refer to the finding of Carreres et al. (1996).
Estimated from the questionnaire survey in the two catchments (Present study).
Determined from an adjacent catchment in the studied region (Zhu, 2013).
Determined from an adjacent catchment in the studied region (Shi et al., 2010).
Determined from the Tuojia catchment (Jiao et al., 2010).
consistent in the two catchments. The NO3
–N loading via the
stream discharge was 0.73 kg N ha
1 month
1 in Tuojia and more
than 0.44 kg N ha
1 month
1 in Jianshan. The greater NO3
–N
loading via the stream discharge partly resulted from the heavy
NO3
–N loading via the base flow in Tuojia. The average NO3
–N
loading via the base flow was 0.26 kg N ha
1 month
1 in Tuojia and
more than 0.12 kg N ha
1 month
1 in Jianshan. Therefore, the
NO3
–N loading via the base flow accounted for 36.5% of via the
stream discharge in Tuojia, this value was smaller than 27.3% in
Jianshan. However, the dynamics of NO3
–N loading via the base
flow were regular, with periodic variations in the both catchments.
Interestingly, the peak NO3
–N loading via the base flow occurred
between May and June in Tuojia and between March and April in
Jianshan.
All of the measured and estimated results were classified based
on the rice-growing season (May –October) and fallow season
(November–April) to demonstrate the effects of rice agriculture on
the base flow contributions to NO3
–N loading in the catchments
(Table 5). Overall, more precipitation was received and more
stream discharge was produced during the rice-growing season
than during the fallow season. Stream discharge during the rice-
growing season accounted for 59.8% of the stream discharge in
Tuojia and only 53.7% in Jianshan. The majority of base flow
occurred during the fallow season. The base flows during fallow
seasons were averaged to be 20. 5 and 13.1 mm month
1 in Tuojia
and Jianshan, respectively, more than those during rice-growing
seasons. Thus, the base flow contributions to stream discharge
during the fallow season were generally greater than those during
the rice-growing season in both catchments. The NO3
–N loading
via the stream discharge showed different patterns during the rice-
growing and fallow seasons and was typically higher during the
92 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
Fig. 3. Monthly precipitation, stream discharge, and base flow in the two
catchments for November 2010–December 2013. The base flow volume was
separated from the observed daily stream discharge value using the Base Flow
Program (Arnold et al., 1995; Arnold and Allen, 1999).
Fig. 4. Estimated flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in stream discharge and
base flow at the outlets of the two catchments for November 2010–December 2013.
rice-growing season. By contrast, the NO3
–N loading via the base
flow was higher during the fallow season, and the average NO3
-N
loadings via the base flow during fallow season were 0.27 and
0.17 kg N ha
1 month
1 in Tuojia and Jianshan, respectively.
Therefore, the contributions of base flow to NO3
–N loading
during the fallow season reached up to 40.3% and 38.4% in Tuojia
and Jianshan, respectively.
4. Discussion
4.1. Rice agriculture increase base flow in catchments
Base flow is an important hydrological pathway that is
responsible for nutrient and pollutant loading from agricultural
catchments (Leon et al., 1998; Schilling and Zhang, 2004). Because
base flow within catchments cannot be measured in-situ, it is
typically estimated from stream hydrographs or by using numeri-
cal models (Arnold et al., 2000). The base flow program used in this
study is a sophisticated base flow separation program that has
been extensively applied in the literatures (Arnold et al., 1995;
Arnold and Allen, 1999). However, in our catchments, some dams
were built crossing streams for irrigating paddy fields, which may
delay the flow peaks and decrease flow fluxes responding to
rainstorm events, relative to rainstorm-runoff processes in natural
catchments (i.e. forest catchment). Thus, the base flow levels
identified by this program for the studied catchments were
potentially underestimated. However, this estimation of base flow
still allows us to compare the base flow process in the two
catchments.
More base flow (727.0 vs. 426.5 mm) and higher base flow
contributions to stream discharge (41.9% vs. 28.4%) were observed
in Tuojia than in Jianshan (Fig. 3), indicating that a higher areal
proportion of rice agriculture increases the base flow and base flow
contributions to stream discharge. Rice agriculture is found to
stimulate groundwater recharge because they are intermittently or
continuously flooded by intensive irrigation (Chen and Liu, 2002;
Feng et al., 2004). Higher groundwater recharge can result in
greater discharge of the components in the water into catchment
streams through base flow process (Arnold et al., 2000),
particularly in catchments with shallow groundwater tables, such
as the catchments considered in this study. The increase in base
flow due to rice agriculture can also be confirmed by comparing the
base flow hydrograph curves of the two catchments. In this case,
the hydrograph curve for Tuojia was greater and more variable
than that of Jianshan during the observation period (Fig. 3). This
suggests that, due to the percolation of ponding surface water in
paddy fields, shallow groundwater system can be rapidly
recharged in Tuojia, resulting in more base flow at the catchment
scale. In addition, more stream flow occurred during the rice-
growing seasons and more base flow occurred during the fallow
seasons in the both catchments (Table 5), likely due to the delay in
base flow process associated with the slower base flow velocity
relative to surface runoff (Arnold et al., 2000).
4.2. Rice agriculture increases N leaching into groundwater system
As the largest N input component, the average rate of N
fertilizer application for rice agriculture reached up to 187 kg N
ha
1 for one rice season in the studied catchments (Table 3), lower
than the average rate of 209 kg N ha
1 throughout China (Chen
et al., 2014). Generally, in China, it is common for many farmers to
apply excessive N fertilizer because of an idea that the greener the
plant the higher the grain yield. However, due to high labor force
costing and time-consuming, the farmers in our catchments
almost could not make any economic gain from rice agriculture, so
that they had no intention to apply more N fertilizer (i.e. the
average rate of 209 kg N ha
1). As the second largest N input
component, the biological N fixation rates varied with soil types
and decreases with the N fertilizer application rates in the rice
agriculture ecosystem (Carreres et al., 1996; Quesada et al., 1997).
Carreres et al. (1996) estimated that, when the N fertilizer
 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95 93

only accounted small factions of total N input, they had directly

connections with stream water quality deterioration and catch-
ment N export (Wang et al., 2014a). Meanwhile, because the paddy
soil profile had the low CEC value (Table 2) and the amount of base
flow was large in the catchments (Fig. 1), the leached N in the
groundwater system may have a potential to be exported from the
catchments via the base flow process.

4.3. Rice agriculture increases base flow NO3
–N concentrations

The flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations can remove inter-

Fig. 5. Estimated monthly NO3
–N loading via stream discharge and base flow from
the two catchments for November 2010–December 2013.
application rate increased to 140 kg N ha
1, the biological N fixation
of rice ecosystem decreased to 13.1 kg N ha
1 per rice season cycle.
Since we could not found the biological N fixation rates at the N
fertilizer application rate of 187 kg N ha
1 per rice season cycle, the
results of Carreres et al. (1996) was used in the present study.
Atmospheric N deposition was the smallest N input component in
the rice agriculture ecosystem (22.3 kg N ha
1 yr
1), however, this
small atmospheric N deposition had been found to contribute a lot
to water quality deterioration and N loading in the studied
catchments (Shen et al., 2013).
The total amount of input N in the rice agriculture ecosystem
was estimated to be 422.5 kg N ha
1 yr
1, exceeding the N
requirement for the rice growth (Table 4). Thus, the uncounted
N was calculated to be +1.9 kg N ha
1 yr
1, and this uncounted N
might contribute to the enrichment of soil N storage. As the largest
output N component, the N used by rice crops accounted for 65.26%
of the applied N. This percentage was lower than the average N use
efficient of 75.69% in China (Chen et al., 2014), probably attributed
to excessive gaseous N loss (43.34% of applied N). Although the N
loss via surface runoff and the N leaching into groundwater system
ference from hydrological processes and show intrinsic variations
in NO3
–N concentrations (Schilling and Zhang, 2004). Both the
flow-weighted and observed NO3
–N concentrations in stream
discharge were higher in Tuojia than in Jianshan (Figs. 2 and 4). The
literatures have reported that rice agriculture ecosystem is one of
the most important N sources of catchment stream water, when
there is high areal proportion of rice agriculture within the
catchment, a large quantity of N migrating toward streams will
occur and higher N concentrations in stream water will observed
(Wang et al., 2014a, 2015). Differently, the flow-weighted NO3
–N
concentrations in the base flow were higher than those in the
stream discharge in Tuojia (1.48 vs. 1.43 mg L
1) and lower than
those in the stream discharge in Jianshan (0.93 vs. 1.07 mg L
1)
(Fig. 4). Because more base flow was generated and more N was
leached into groundwater system due to the higher areal
proportion of rice agriculture, we have no reason to doubt the
presence of higher flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the
base flow in Tuojia. This explanation is supported by the presence
of high flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow
during the rice-growing season (Fig. 4).
The flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow
were seasonally stable and remained unchanged in Tuojia and
dramatically varied with the seasons in Jianshan (Fig. 4). This
phenomenon is difficult to explain. It is possible that the
accumulated NO3
–N in the groundwater exceeded the retention
capacity of the groundwater system in Tuojia, which would
produce seasonal variations in the flow-weighted NO3
–N
concentrations in the base flow. The retention capacity reflects
the self-purification functions of natural ecosystems (De Klein,
2008; Liu et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014a). Previous studies reported
relatively high denitrification potentials and rich denitrification
reactions in groundwater system of riparian zone, with N2O as the
denitrification product (Obenhuber and Lowrance, 1991; Wey-
mann et al., 2008). This mechanism suggests that groundwater
system is capable of removing the groundwater NO3
–N before
migrating into stream system, such as through denitrification.
However, if too much N is added to the groundwater, the self-

Table 5
Summary of precipitation, stream discharge, base flow, and NO3
–N loading in the two catchments.

Seasona Precipitation Stream Base flow Base flow to NO3
–N loading via NO3
–N loading via Base flow
discharge stream discharge stream discharge base flow contributions to
NO3
–N loading

(mm month
1) (mm month
1) (mm month
1) (%) (kg N ha
1 month
1) (kg N ha
1 month
1) (%)

Tuojia Jianshan Tuojia Jianshan Tuojia Jianshan Tuojia Jianshan Tuojia Jianshan Tuojia Jianshan
Fallow season, 2011 66.8 41.9 34.1 21.5 14.2 51.4 41.7 0.65 0.41 0.29 0.18 44.2 43.0
Rice-growing season, 2012 126.0 39.1 53.0 5.6 13.4 14.4 25.3 0.58 0.46 0.09 0.10 16.1 22.4
Fallow season, 2012 111.6 44.9 30.0 19.1 11.9 42.5 39.6 0.70 0.46 0.26 0.17 37.2 37.3
Rice-growing season, 2013 155.4 63.4 52.4 17.1 9.3 27.0 17.7 0.92 0.48 0.23 0.06 25.1 12.7
Fallow season, 2013 115.4 45.1 36.5 20.8 13.3 46.2 36.3 0.70 0.49 0.28 0.17 39.6 35.0
Rice-growing season, 2014 117.9 52.4 46.5 34.6 9.5 66.0 20.4 0.81 0.34 0.42 0.05 51.8 15.0

Fallow season 97.9 44.0 33.5 20.5 13.1 46.7 39.2 0.68 0.45 0.27 0.17 40.3 38.4
Rice-growing season 133.1 51.6 50.6 19.1 10.7 35.8 21.1 0.77 0.43 0.25 0.07 31.0 16.7
a
the rice-growing season occurs from May–October, and the fallow season occurs from November–April.
94 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
purification function of the groundwater system can be over-
whelmed. Thus, the flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the
base flow remained seasonally stable and stagnant.
In Jianshan, the peak flow-weighted NO3
–N concentration in
the base flow occurred approximately one month before the peak
concentration in the stream discharge within the same hydrologi-
cal year (Fig. 4). Base flow process is typically slower than stream
discharge process in natural ecosystems (Arnold et al., 2000), and
the flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow were
expected to peak latter than the concentrations in stream
discharge. Thus, from the lag between the NO3
–N concentration
peaks in the base flow and stream discharge, it can be estimated
that the NO3
–N transport via the base flow was slower than that
via the stream discharge by M
1/12 years (M = 1,2,3 . . . , in years).
Ecohydrologists have been noting in recent years that the NO3
–N
in streams and rivers do not match their expectations based on
reduced regional application of N fertilizer, likely due to the long
travel times of base flow (Tesoriero et al., 2013). Tesoriero et al.
(2013) have found that the movement of NO3
–N through base
flow to streams may take decades to occur. This long lag time
means that the applied N fertilizer in agricultural catchment may
take decades to be fully observed their effects on streams. Possibly,
our study during about three years may be not able to elucidate the
mechanisms that how the applied N in paddy fields migrate into
catchment streams through base flow. However, it enables us to
quantify the current base flow contributions to catchment NO3
–N
loading, based on the long term rice agriculture and heavy N
application during the last decades in the studied region.
4.4. Rice agriculture increases base flow contributions to NO3
–N
loading
The long term monitoring shows that there were huge NO3
–N
loadings via the stream discharge and base flow in Tuojia and
Jianshan (0.73 and 0.27 vs. 0.43 and 0.12 kg N ha
1 month
1)
(Table 5). The literatures have largely attributed the huge N
loadings from rice agriculture catchments to heavy N fertilizer
application and high surface drainage (Krupa et al., 2011; Krupa
et al., 2011a). The first explanation is acceptable for the results of
this study. Higher fertilizer application rates in catchments can
elevate catchment nutrient input levels and eventually increase
catchment N loading (Hönisch et al., 2002; Kim et al., 2006).
However, the second explanation may not fully explain our results.
We cannot deny the key role of surface drainage in catchment
NO3
–N loading, but the hydrological pathways for NO3
–N losses
from paddy fields should be various, such as base flow process.
Schilling and Zhang (2004) estimated an average NO3
–N loading
of 26.1 kg ha
1 yr
1 for a 28-year period in a highly agricultural
catchment located in Iowa (USA), with base flow contributing
approximately two-thirds of the NO3
–N loadings (17.0 kg ha
1
yr
1). Leon et al. (1998) reported that NO3
–N loading via base
flow accounted for approximately 26–100% of NO3
–N loading via
stream discharge from the Chesapeake Bay catchment. These
findings confirm the great base flow contributions to NO3
–N
loading in agricultural catchments. Compared with the two
catchments, the Tuojia catchment, which includes a higher areal
proportion of rice agriculture, has greater base flow contributions
to NO3
–N loading than Jianshan (36.5% vs. 27.3%). Considering
that rice agriculture reinforces base flow process and increases
flow-weighted NO3
–N concentrations in the base flow, we should
not suspect that a higher areal proportion of rice agriculture can
increase base flow contributions to NO3
–N loading.
Interestingly, the base flow contributions to NO3
–N loading
reached up to 40.3% and 38.4% during the fallow season in Tuojia
and Jianshan, respectively (Table 5). This reminds us that
neglecting base flow contributions to NO3
–N loading during
the fallow season could result in misinterpretations of data and
water quality management errors in rice agriculture catchments
(Reay et al., 1992). The higher base flow contributions to NO3
–N
loading during the fallow season potentially resulted from nutrient
storage in the agricultural landscape during the previous rice-
growing seasons, which is known as “landscape memory”
according to Chambers et al. (2006). During the fallow seasons,
the stored N in “landscape memory” may be washed out from soils
or groundwater system into catchment streams by the rich base
flow. This explanation can be confirmed by the great amount of N
leaching into groundwater and uncounted N (Table 4) and great
base flow contributions to stream discharge during fallow seasons
(Table 5). The existing literatures frequently highlight the
importance of controlling surface runoff to prevent nutrient loads
from catchments during rice cultivation (Krupa et al., 2011; Wang
et al., 2014a). However, the strategies for limiting NO3
–N loadings
from agricultural catchments by intercepting surface flow may be
not adequate, because the majority of NO3
–N is transported into
streams via the base flow process, especially during the fallow
season.
This study shows that base flow significantly contribute to
NO3
–N loading in the rice agriculture catchments in subtropical
central China. This finding agrees with the findings of Leon et al.
(1998) and Schilling and Zhang (2004), who reported that NO3
–N
loading primarily occurred with base flow in other catchments.
Differently, our results indicated that catchment NO3
–N loading
increases with the areal proportion of rice agriculture within
catchments and that the majority occurs during the rice fallow
season due to rich base flow and great NO3
–N leaching into
groundwater. Mitigating the effect of NO3
–N loading from rice
agriculture catchments such as Tuojia and Jianshan requires
further understanding of the primary path of NO3
–N delivery into
streams and its interactions with agriculture land uses. Now, base
flow is known as an important delivery pathway for NO3
–N
loading in rice agriculture catchments. Additional studies should
be conducted to isolate the effects of base flow velocity, magnitude,
and variability on NO3
–N loading before implementing best
management practices to reduce or prevent NO3
–N migration
into streams.
5. Conclusions
By continuously monitoring stream discharge and NO3
–N
concentration, we estimated the contribution of base flow to
NO3
–N loading in two different rice agriculture catchments in
subtropical central China. The results clearly showed that rice
agriculture significantly affected the base flow contribution to
NO3
–N loading in the studied catchments. Due to a higher areal
proportion of rice agriculture, the Tuojia catchment produced
more stream discharge (1,735.9 mm) and base flow (727.0 mm)
than the Jianshan catchment did (1503.4 and 426.5 mm, respec-
tively) during the observation period. The flow-weighted NO3
–N
concentrations in the stream discharge and base flow averaged
1.48 and 0.93 mg N L
1 in the Tuojia catchment and were aslo
higher than the 1.43 and 1.07 mg N L
1 in the Jianshan catchment,
respectively. Meanwhile, the base flow contributed greatly to
NO3
–N loading, with 36.5% and 27.3% of the total NO3
–N
loadings occurring through base flow in the Tuojia and Jianshan
catchments, respectively. Greater base flow contribution to NO3
–
N loading was observed during the fallow seasons than during the
rice-growing seasons, potentially due to N storage in the
agricultural landscape during previous crop growing seasons,
otherwise known as “landscape memory” (Chambers et al., 2006).
The high base flow contribution to NO3
–N loading from rice
agriculture catchments should be examined at larger scale and in
more cases. Nevertheless, given the significant contribution of base
 Y. Wang et al. / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 214 (2015) 86–95
flow to NO3
–N loading observed in the rice agriculture catch-
ments of subtropical central China, NO3
–N reduction efforts
should be focused on differentiating base flow contributions to
NO3
–N loading during the rice-growing and fallow seasons to
identify best management practices for reducing base flow
delivery of NO3
–N from N fertilizer application in rice ecosystems
and improve landscape planning (e.g., Lee et al., 2009; Wang et al.,
2014b). Alternatively, constructed nutrient-removal wetlands
attached to paddy fields may be introduced (Liu et al., 2013).
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Basic Research Program of China
(2012CB417105), the National Key Technology Research and
Development Program of China (2014BAD14B01), the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (41201220), and the Key
Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-11 and
KZZD-EW-10-05) for providing financial support for this study.
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