Subsurface lateral flow from hillslope and its contribution to nitrate loading in streams through an agricultural catchment during subtropical rainstorm events

Abstract. Subsurface lateral flow from agricultural hillslopes is often overlooked compared with overland flow and tile drain flow, partly due to the difficulties in monitoring and quantifying. The objectives of this study were to examine how subsurface lateral flow generated through soil pedons from cropped hillslopes and to quantify its contribution to nitrate loading in the streams through an agricultural catchment in the subtropical region of China. Profiles of soil water potential along hillslopes and stream hydro-chemographs in a trenched stream below a cropped hillslope and at the catchment outlet were simultaneously recorded during two rainstorm events. The dynamics of soil water potential showed positive matrix soil water potential over impermeable soil layer at 0.6 to 1.50 m depths during and after the storms, indicating soil water saturation and drainage processes along the hillslopes irrespective of land uses. The hydro-chemographs in the streams, one trenched below a cropped hillslope and one at the catchment outlet, showed that the concentrations of particulate nitrogen and phosphorus corresponded well to stream flow during the storm, while the nitrate concentration increased on the recession limbs of the hydrographs after the end of the storm. All the synchronous data revealed that nitrate was delivered from the cropped hillslope through subsurface lateral flow to the streams during and after the end of the rainstorms. A chemical mixing model based on electricity conductivity (EC) and H⁺ concentration was successfully established, particularly for the trenched stream. The results showed that the subsurface lateral flow accounted for 29% to 45% of total stream flow in the trenched stream, responsible for 86% of total NO₃⁻-N loss (or 26% of total N loss), and for 5.7% to 7.3% of total stream flow at the catchment outlet, responsible for about 69% of total NO₃⁻-N loss (or 28% of total N loss). The results suggest that subsurface lateral flow through hydraulically stratified soil pedons have to be paid more attention for controlling non-point source surface water pollution from intensive agricultural catchment particularly in the subtropical areas with great soil infiltration.