Nitrate Leakage from Deciduous Forest Soils into Streams on Kureha Hill, Japan

Abstract

Nitrate leakage from deciduous forest soils into streams was investigated for two adjacent hills. Many of the streams on Kureha Hill, located in Toyama City, Japan, have extremely high nitrate concentrations. The nitrate concentration of Hyakumakidani, one of the streams on Kureha Hill, averaged 158 μeq l-1 and reached 470 μeq l-1 during an episodic event. In contrast, the streams on Imizu Hill, adjacent to Kureha Hill, had low concentrations, below 15 μeq l-1. Even during an episode, the nitrate concentrations increased to no more than 75 μeq l-1.Both areas have similar blown forest soils, C/N ratios in O horizons, and vegetation consisting primarily of deciduous trees. However, soil incubation experiments, which lasted for 4 weeks, revealed that the nitrification rates in the surface soils of Kureha Hill were much higher than in the soils of Imizu Hill.