[Influence of Landscape Heterogeneity on Total Nitrogen Concentration in Zhongtian River Watershed]

Nutrient loading into rivers is generally changed by human-induced land use changes and can lead to surface water quality changes. Understanding the extent to which landscape heterogeneity influences nutrient loading is critical to the development of best management practices aimed at water-quality improvement. In this study, the year-round concentrations of total nitrogen were monitored from January 2013 to December 2013 in the 20 hydrological stations of Zhongtian River. Considering the nested relationship of watershed unit, seven land use structures and 13 landscape pattern indexes were chosen, and Pearson correlation analysis, principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to explore the effects of land use pattern on total nitrogen concentrations in Zhongtian River. The results showed that: (1) Construction land and grasslands had a significant impact on total nitrogen concentration, construction land would worsen the water quality, while grasslands could improve water quality; (2) Landscape patch- shape index, landscape patch-area index and construction land were the main factors affecting the total nitrogen concentration in landscape scale; (3) Regression analysis showed that the construction land and landscape patch-area index contributions to total nitrogen concentrations were 67.31% and 32.69%, respectively.