Monitoring Water Quality and Assessment of Land-Based Nutrient Loadings and Cycling in Kavala Gulf

• Published in: Water resources management Vol. 19; no. 6; pp. 713 - 735
• Main Authors: Sylaios, G, Stamatis, N, Kallianiotis, A, Vidoris, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.12.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: agricultural land; agricultural runoff; Aquatic environment; Budgets; coastal water; Cycles; Denitrification; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; environmental models; eutrophication; Exact sciences and technology; fertilizer industry; Fertilizers; Human influences; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; industrial effluents; Limiting factors; losses from soil; Marine; Monitoring; Municipal wastewater; Nitrogen; Nitrogen fixation; Nitrogenation; nonpoint source pollution; Nutrient cycles; Nutrient loading; Nutrients; Palio; Phosphorus; Quality assessment; seasonal variation; sewage effluent; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water monitoring; water pollution; Water quality; Water resources; Water treatment; Greece; Mediterranean Sea; Southern Europe; MED, Greece, Anatoliki Makedonia Kai Thraki, Kavala, Kavala Gulf; Greece, Anatoliki Makedonia Kai Thraki, Kavala; MED, Greece; dissolved inorganic nutrients. Kavala Gulf; models; fertilizers; aquatic environment; coastal zone management; Europe; nitrogen; concentration; loading; monitoring; human activity; denitrification; nutrients; point sources; nutrient budget model; water quality; fixation; water resource management; land-based sources; programs; phosphorus
• ISSN: 0920-4741; 1573-1650
• DOI: 10.1007/s11269-005-3020-y

The results of a systematic and intensive nutrient monitoring program are reported, which took place during the period 1997-1999 in Kavala Gulf, Northern Greece, having as a general task to study the impact of the various human activities on the nutrient loadings and cycling of the aquatic environment. A nutrient budget box model was used to estimate the annual capacity of Kavala Gulf to store and transform dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus, aiming at understanding the biogeochemical processes taking place in the area of interest. Point sources of nutrients from two municipal wastewater treatment plants (Kavala and Palio Seawage Treatment Works) and a phosphoric fertilizer producing industrial facility (PFP), as well as non-point sources from agricultural activities, seem responsible for the increased concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Seasonal N:P-ratios suggest that nitrogen is the limiting nutrient during the summer, autumn and winter and phosphorus during the spring. The annual nutrient budget model revealed that Kavala Gulf is presently slightly autotrophic with nitrogen fixation exceeding denitrification.