RESUMO
The research selected the Tuojia catchment and Jianshan catchment in Changsha County, Hunan Province, to comparatively study the effects of rice agriculture on the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and exports in streams in the typical agricultural catchments of the hilly red soil earth region. The monitoring of 16 months suggested that, there was a moderate stream nutrient pollution in both Tuojia and Jianshan catchments, especially for nitrogen pollution. Comparing the two catchments, the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were higher and the water quality was worse in the Tuojia catchment than that in the Jianshan catchment. From the nutrient composition of view, ammonia nitrogen was the main species of total nitrogen in the Tuojia catchment (accounting for 58.5% of total nitrogen), while it was nitrate nitrogen in the Jianshan catchment (accounting for 76. 1% of total nitrogen). The proportion of dissolved phosphorus in total phosphorus was 47. 1% in the Tuojia catchment, higher than the proportion of 37.5% in the Jianshan catchment. From temporal variations of nutrient dynamics of view, concentrations of all forms of nitrogen were higher during January to February and in July, respectively, and total phosphorus and dissolved phosphorus were higher during May to June and during October to December. Since the stream discharge in the catchments concentrated during the rice growing period from April to October, the higher nutrient concentrations during the period suggested potential risks of nitrogen and phosphorus losses. The total nitrogen mass flux was 1.67 kg x (hm2 x month)(-1) and TP was 0.06 kg x (hm2 x month)(-1) in the Tuojia catchment, which were greater than the 0.44 kg x (hm2 x month)(-1) and 0.02 kg x (hm2 x month)(-1) in the Jianshan catchment. Given the similar climate, geomorphology, soil type and cultivation patterns but the different area proportion of rice agriculture between two catchments, results suggested that, under the traditional crop management in hilly red soil earth region of central subtropics, the higher area proportion of rice agriculture has the potential to degrade stream aquatic environment.