Surface Water
Quality of Intensive Farming Areas Within the Santa Lucia River Basin of
Uruguay
The Santa Lucia River basin provides drinking water
to 60% of Uruguay population. The input of excessive amounts of nitrogen and
phosphorus both from point and nonpoint sources could impair surface water
quality and prevent its use for human consumption. The objective of this work
was to evaluate surface water quality in small catchments under agricultural
use located within this river basin. To this end, 5 streams and 4 small polders
were surveyed between September 2008 and December 2009. The median
concentrations of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in the streams across all
sites and periods were 770 and 1659µgL−1, respectively, exceeding in the case
of total phosphorus national and international thresholds. Furthermore, soluble
phosphorous, the most readily available form to algae, represented 88.3% of
total phosphorus. Concentrations of phosphorous and nitrogen in polders were
also high. The eutrophication process of this water bodies could be linked to
the intensive agricultural land use in the area because the nutrient input from
cities and industries was not relevant in these catchments.
Sumber : http://insights.sagepub.com/
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