Agriculture-induced increase in nitrate concentrations in stream waters of a large Mediterranean catchment over 25 years (1981–2005)

Anthropogenic activities influence past and present nitrate levels recorded in European stream waters, posing a threat to aquatic biota and human beings. Scarce information on temporal trends of nitrate concentration and its causes is available for Mediterranean catchments. This study presents the evolution of nitrate concentrations over 25 years in stream waters of the Ebro River Basin (Spain), a large Mediterranean catchment involving 85,566 km2. Nitrate concentration increased with time in 46% of the 65 sites involved in the study. Agricultural cover of 30 hydrologically independent sub-catchments was the main land use related to nitrate concentration (R2 = 0.69). Throughout the 25 year-period, the sites showing increased nitrate concentrations with time (trend sites) also presented an enhanced influence of agricultural cover on nitrate concentrations along the time frame of the study. As a result of these temporal changes, at the end of the studied period nitrate concentrations in stream waters responded similarly to agricultural cover in both trend and non-trend sites, showing non significant differences in the slope of the resultant regression models. At this time, agricultural cover explained 82% of the variability found in nitrate levels. If these trends remain unchanged, in 2015 many of the water bodies considered in this study would not comply with the requirements of the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). Therefore management decisions, mainly associated to agricultural practices, should be implemented as soon as possible at the catchment level to meet WFD objectives.