Time trends of Nitrate in Groundwaters under Intensive Agriculture in the Bundaberg Region

摘要

Protecting groundwaters from contamination with nitrates leached blow agricultural fields is an important element of sustainable farming practice. In the Bundaberg area, a groundwater system blow sugarcane and horticultural land is a valubale source of urban water supply, and has links to surface waters and the coastal environment. A network of 49 domestic and production bores were monitored from 1994 to 1999 to determine temporal trends in nitrate concentratiosn of groundwater in the Bundaberg area. The network included all bores found to have high (> 50 mg/L) nitrate concentrations in a wider survey undertaken in 1993, and a selection of bores around three experimental sites where nitrate movement in the soil profile was studied. Monitoring revealed nitrate concentrations in 72