Origins and quantification of nitrogen inputs into a coastal lagoon: Application to the Thau lagoon (France)

摘要

This study aims to identify and to quantify the main external sources of nitrogen for a coastal lagoon in Mediterranean context. The paper first reviews the existing methods for quantifying nitrogen loads, coming from the main sources: rainfall, sea exchanges, domestic and industrial effluents, urban area runoff, rivers and aquifer. When possible, the accuracy of the different methods is discussed for annual, event-based or daily estimates. Moreover, an original mathematical model is proposed here for estimating the river loads: POL model is an event-based model for nitrogen loads calculation on small intermittent rivers. Nitrogen loads are then quantified on the specific example of the Thau lagoon.