Spatial and Temporal Assessment of Reactive Nitrogen in Urban Wetland Syste

Abstract

Wetlands serve as a source, sink, or transformer of reactive nitrogen. Reactive nitrogen newlineplays an important role in wetland ecosystems, where it serves as a nutrient as well as a newlinepollutant. In recent years, reactive nitrogen concentrations have increased exponentially in newlinemany areas as a result of human activities posing negative impacts on the health of urban newlinewetland systems. Therefore, it is important to understand the fluxes and transformations of newlinereactive nitrogen in wetlands. Moreover, wetlands are the only ecosystems that can newlineeffectively convert reactive nitrogen into a non-reactive form and safely emit it into the newlineenvironment. newlineFurthermore, the scanty knowledge about reactive nitrogen in the system makes it more newlinevulnerable to damage. This study offers pertinent details about the quantity of reactive newlinenitrogen in water, sediment, and plants, the partitioning of reactive nitrogen in the system, newlinethe nitrogen removal rate, and retention efficiency for understanding the capacity of these newlinewetlands to serve as sinks and sources of reactive nitrogen in the provided scenario. newlineTo fulfill the main objectives of my study, two study sites were selected in the same newlineclimatic zone with different flow systems, namely, Najafgarh Lake and adjoining canal newlinearea, and Sultanpur Lake. Najafgarh Lake is in the southwest part of Delhi. It is a linear newlinelotic water body as it is attached to a canal on both sides. The lake part straddles the Delhi newlineand Haryana border. It is the largest water body in the southwest Delhi region, Despite newlinebeing polluted it serves many ecological services such as groundwater recharge, irrigation newlinewater supply, source of food, and habitat for winter migratory birds. Sultanpur Lake on the newlineother hand is in the Gurugram district of Haryana and is an ellipsoidal lentic system. It is newlinerecently been designated as a Ramsar site; therefore, it comes under a protected area. Very newlinelimited limnological studies have been carried out on these waterbodies. Most of them are newlinelimited to ecological aspects and basic ...