Mapping denitrification potential in groundwater
This project has produced a literature review of the factors affecting removal of nitrate in groundwater by denitrification.
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Denitrification is the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas (N2) by a diverse range of microbes. Maps showing the potential for denitrification in the most important groundwater aquifers in England have been created.
The maps show that there is widespread potential for denitrification in groundwater across England; however individual borehole data from the Environment Agency’s strategic monitoring network indicate that it is quite patchy within individual aquifers. By setting out an approach for assessing the evidence, the maps can be further refined in future as additional information from monitoring data attributed to aquifers become available.
The maps and the procedure used to create them can be widely applied, and indicate areas where the collection and analysis of more-detailed datasets may be beneficial to confirm that denitrification is occurring at the site scale and to calculate rates of attenuation.