Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences in 2025
2026-02-06
Migration and Transformation Mechanism and Source Analysis of "Three Nitrogen" Pollutants in Groundwater
Authors
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Ji Long Shang
Harbin Center for Integrated Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey (CGS), Harbin 150086, China; Observation and Research S tation of Earth Critical Zone in Black Soil, Harbin, Ministry of Natural Resources, Harbin 150086, China
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Tao Liu
Harbin Center for Integrated Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey (CGS), Harbin 150086, China; Observation and Research S tation of Earth Critical Zone in Black Soil, Harbin, Ministry of Natural Resources, Harbin 150086, China
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Lin Guo
Harbin Center for Integrated Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey (CGS), Harbin 150086, China; Observation and Research S tation of Earth Critical Zone in Black Soil, Harbin, Ministry of Natural Resources, Harbin 150086, China
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Xu Wang
Harbin Center for Integrated Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey (CGS), Harbin 150086, China; Observation and Research S tation of Earth Critical Zone in Black Soil, Harbin, Ministry of Natural Resources, Harbin 150086, China
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Qi Fa Sun
Harbin Center for Integrated Natural Resources Survey, China Geological Survey (CGS), Harbin 150086, China; Observation and Research S tation of Earth Critical Zone in Black Soil, Harbin, Ministry of Natural Resources, Harbin 150086, China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13750Abstract
Contamination of groundwater with the three forms of nitrogen (nitrate N, nitrite N, ammonium N) is a common environmental issue in agricultural, urban, industrial and animal production areas. The nitrogen species are highly mobile, stable, toxic, and redox-sensitive, but are also strongly coupled by biogeochemical reactions. This review systematically summarises the occurrence characteristics, migration behaviour, transformation mechanisms, and source analysis methods for three nitrogen pollutants in groundwater. Nitrate is highly soluble, poorly adsorbed, and the most mobile of the different forms in toxic aquifers. Although nitrite is normally transient, its presence may indicate incomplete nitrification, incomplete denitrification, or a lack of redox stability. Across the levels of ammonium, adsorption, ion exchange, organic nitrogen mineralization, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), and reducing environments are more strongly affected. The largest nitrogen sources are fertilizer application, manure, sewage leakage, septic systems, livestock wastewater, landfill leachate, industrial discharges, atmospheric deposition, soil organic nitrogen, and geological release of N. But the identification of sources is complicated by the transformation processes as groundwater moves. Thus, a combination of hydrochemical, stable isotopes, microbial functional genes, groundwater flow analysis, laboratory experiments and reactive transport modeling is crucial for the use of integrated approaches. This review emphasizes the importance of moving away from the traditional single-species approach towards a coupled source–migration–transformation approach and offers scientific guidance to support groundwater nitrogen pollution tracing, risk assessment, and remediation.
Keywords:
Groundwater Contamination; Three Nitrogen Pollutants; Nitrate; Ammonium; Source ApportionmentReferences
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Shang, J. L., Liu, T., Guo, L., Wang, X., & Sun, Q. F. (2026). Migration and Transformation Mechanism and Source Analysis of "Three Nitrogen" Pollutants in Groundwater. Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(8), 696–720. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13750
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Copyright © 2026 Ji Long Shang, Tao Liu, Lin Guo, Xu Wang, Qi Fa Sun
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
