Seasonal release potential of sediments in reservoirs and its impact on water quality assessment

Abstract

Reservoir sediments act as important receivers and sources for nutrients in the overlaying water. To determine the sediments adsorption and release characteristics and their impacts on water quality, surface sediments samples collected from Biliuhe reservoir in August 2015 were studied through simulation experiments in a laboratory. The results demonstrated that the equilibrium concentrations (EC0) of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) and total phosphorus (TP) were 8.29 mg/L and 0.025 mg/L, respectively, which were both higher than the average concentrations in the overlying water. Therefore, the sediments of Biliuhe reservoir mainly acted as the pollution sources for NH4+-N and TP, and the release to water showed a seasonal variation. When potential release amounts were considered, the average concentrations of NH4+-N and TP in the overlaying water could reach 6.4 mg/L and 0.21 mg/L, respectively, which significantly exceeded the current contents. Further, water quality exhibited a decreased tendency after taking the release potential of nutrients into account of water quality assessment. Among the samples, 42% and 33% of them in summer and autumn exceeded the third level of the National Surface Water Quality Standards of China (GB3838-2002). The results indicated that sediments release potential had an unignored influence on water quality during various seasons.