Hydraulic conditions affect pollutant removal efficiency in distributed ditches and ponds in agricultural landscapes
Abstract
Distributed ditches and ponds in agricultural landscapes can retain agricultural pollutants (such as nutrients and pesticides) like wetlands while facilitating crop field drainage. Their complex hydraulic conditions affect pollutant transport and degradation processes, but the existing lump-sum method for estimating pollutant removal treats the total area simply as one unit without considering their specific hydraulic conditions (HCs). In this paper we proposed an analytical method for evaluating pollutant removal efficiencies of distributed ditches and ponds by considering their different HCs explicitly. A realization factor (RF) was used to compare pollutant removal rates with and without considering specific HCs. Application of the method was demonstrated with a case study based on field investigations in an intensively farmed area in southeastern China. The total area of ditches and ponds accounts for 15% of drained crop fields; and the calculated RFs were 0.70-0.84% for various removal rate constants. The difference was mainly caused by the uneven distribution of ditches and ponds along different drainage paths. For pollutants with small values of removal rate constants, the calculated concentration reductions along different flow paths were proportional to their wetland sizes, making the pollutant removal as area limited. For pollutants with larger values of removal rate constant, however, the calculated pollutant removal became concentration limited when the wetland to farmland area ratio was high. Large ponds and ditches were major contributors (85-94%) of pollutant removal in the whole system, while the field ditches contributed to less than 10% of the total removal due to their small dimension and shallow water depth. The distributed nature of ditches and ponds poses some inherent limitations to their water quality functions due to variable hydraulic conditions; understanding such underlying constraints may help guide proper evaluation and conservation of the existing ditches and ponds in agricultural landscapes.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Ditches are recipients of terrestrial fluxes, often from intensively managed environments.
“As such, ditches are recipients of terrestrial fluxes, often from intensively managed environments 104,105 .”
From Lines in the landscape (2025) · cites this paper as [105]
Cites
Regional and global concerns over wetlands and water quality
Verhoeven, J. T. A., Arheimer, B., Yin, C., & Hefting, M. M. (2005) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.11.015 · Cited by 803 · see citing works
Mitsch, W. J., Day, J. W., Gilliam, J. W., Groffman, P. M., Hey, D. L., Randall, G. W., & Wang, N. (2001) · BioScience · doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0373:rnlttg]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 790 · see citing works
Vymazal, J., & Březinová, T. (2014) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.10.026 · Cited by 504 · see citing works
Hydraulics Efficiency of Constructed Wetlands and Ponds
Persson, J., Somes, N. L. G., & Wong, T. H. F. (1999) · Water Science & Technology · doi:10.1016/s0273-1223(99)00448-5 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
Agricultural drainage ditches, their biological importance and functioning
Herzon, I., & Helenius, J. (2008) · Biological Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.03.005 · Cited by 391 · see citing works
Heathwaite, A. L., Quinn, P. F., & Hewett, C. (2004) · Journal of Hydrology · doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.07.043 · Cited by 311 · see citing works
Hydraulics Efficiency of Constructed Wetlands and Ponds
Persson, J., Somes, N. L. G., & Wong, T. H. F. (1999) · Water Science & Technology · doi:10.2166/wst.1999.0174 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Controlled versus Conventional Drainage Effects on Water Quality
Evans, R. O., Skaggs, R. W., & Gilliam, J. W. (1995) · Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering · doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9437(1995)121:4(271 · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Drainage Control to Diminish Nitrate Loss from Agricultural Fields
Gilliam, J. W., Skaggs, R. W., & Weed, S. B. (1979) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq1979.00472425000800010030x · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Tournebize, J., Chaumont, C., & Mander, Ü. (2016) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.02.014 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Managing ditches for agroecological engineering of landscape. A review
Dollinger, J., Dagès, C., Bailly, J.-S., Lagacherie, P., & Voltz, M. (2015) · Agronomy for Sustainable Development · doi:10.1007/s13593-015-0301-6 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
Seasonal and storm event nutrient removal by a created wetland in an agricultural watershed
Fink, D. F., & Mitsch, W. J. (2004) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2004.11.004 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Vegetated agricultural drainage ditches for the mitigation of pyrethroid-associated runoff
Bennett, E. R., Moore, M. T., Cooper, C. M., Smith, S. J., Shields, F. D., Drouillard, K. G., & Schulz, R. (2005) · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry · doi:10.1897/04-357r.1 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Nutrient mitigation capacity in Mississippi Delta, USA drainage ditches
Moore, M. T., Kröger, R., Locke, M. A., et al. (2009) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2009.07.024 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
A riparian conservation network for ecological resilience
Fremier, A. K., Kiparsky, M., Gmur, S. J., Aycrigg, J. L., Craig, R. K., Svancara, L. K., Goble, D. D., Cosens, B. A., Davis, F. W., & Scott, J. M. (2015) · Biological Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.06.029 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Kay, P., Edwards, A. C., & Foulger, M. (2008) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2008.10.006 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Agricultural Drainage Ditches Mitigate Phosphorus Loads as a Function of Hydrological Variability
Kröger, R., Holland, M. M., Moore, M. T., et al. (2008) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq2006.0505 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Kinetic modelling of nitrogen and organics removal in vertical and horizontal flow wetlands
Saeed, T., & Sun, G. (2011) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2011.03.031 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Buchanan, B. P., Archibald, J. A., Easton, Z. M., et al. (2013) · Journal of Hydrology · doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.01.018 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Moreno‐Mateos, D., Mander, Ü., Comín, F. A., et al. (2008) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq2007.0591 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Tournebize, J., Passeport, E., Chaumont, C., et al. (2012) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.06.001 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Kröger, R., Dunne, E. J., Novak, J. M., King, K. W., McLellan, E. L., Smith, D. R., Strock, J. S., Boomer, K., Tomer, M. D., & Noe, G. B. (2012) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.10.038 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Atrazine fate and transport in the Des Plaines Wetlands
Alvord, H. H., & Kadlec, R. H. (1996) · Ecological Modelling · doi:10.1016/0304-3800(95)00150-6 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Screening the retention of thirteen pesticides in a small constructed wetland
Braskerud, B. C., & Haarstad, K. (2003) · Water Science & Technology · doi:10.2166/wst.2003.0332 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Conserving freshwater biodiversity: The value, status and management of high quality ditch systems
Clarke, S. J. (2014) · Journal for Nature Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2014.10.003 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Sun, G., & Saeed, T. (2009) · Process Biochemistry · doi:10.1016/j.procbio.2009.03.003 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
An agricultural drainage channel classification system for phosphorus management
Shore, M., Jordan, P., Mellander, P., et al. (2014) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/j.agee.2014.09.003 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Littlejohn, K. A., Poganski, B. H., Kröger, R., et al. (2013) · Agricultural Water Management · doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2013.09.001 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Collins, S. D., Shukla, S., & Shrestha, N. K. (2016) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.04.003 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Kinetics of nitrate removal in wetlands receiving agricultural drainage
Karpuzcu, M. E., & Stringfellow, W. T. (2012) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.02.015 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Shore, M., Jordan, P., Mellander, P., Kelly‐Quinn, M., Daly, K., Sims, J. T., Wall, D. P., & Melland, A. R. (2015) · Journal of Soils and Sediments · doi:10.1007/s11368-015-1330-0 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Mitigating agrichemicals from an artificial runoff event using a managed riverine wetland
Lizotte, R. E., Shields, F. D., Murdock, J. N., et al. (2012) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.04.025 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Water residence time and pesticide removal in pilot-scale wetlands
Romain, V., Dousset, S., & Billet, D. (2015) · Ecological Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.09.040 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Che, Y. (2011) · Shijie dili yanjiu · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Agricultural ditches are hotspots of greenhouse gas emissions controlled by nutrient input
Wu, W., Niu, X., Yan, Z., Li, S., Comer-Warner, S. A., Tian, H., Li, S.-L., Zou, J., Yu, G., & Liu, C.-Q. (2023) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120271 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Self-citationClifford, C., Bieroza, M., Clarke, S. J., Pickard, A., Stratigos, M. J., Hill, M. J., Raheem, N., Tatariw, C., Wood, P. J., Arismendi, I., et al. (2025) · Communications Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02699-y · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Jia, Z., Chen, C., Luo, W., Zou, J., Wu, W., Xu, M., & Tang, Y.
- Affiliations
- Yangzhou University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Jia, Z.
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-02
- Volume
- 649
- Pages
- 712-721
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2888307555
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0403205)
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment
- Keywords
- hydraulic conditions, pollutant removal efficiency, nutrient removal, pesticide removal, agricultural drainage, removal rate constants, field ditches, drainage path
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, China, Environment, Environmental Monitoring, Waste Disposal, Fluid, Wetlands, Water Quality, Ponds
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
