%0 Research Notes
%T Leaching of organic carbon and nitrogen from peatland-dominated catchments
%A Kortelainen, Pirkko
%A Saukkonen, Sari
%D 1992
%J Suo - Mires and peat
%V 43
%N 4-5
%U http://suo.fi/article/9709
%X The area of 13 study catchments is 2.5-56.3 km2 and 37-87% of the catchments is covered by peatlands. Ditching intensities varied from 0 to 100%. Median total organic carbon (TOC) in runoff waters from the catchments was 10-30 mg l-1 and median total nitrogen (Ntot) 380-1 000 µg l-1. The annual leaching of TOC and N tot was calculated for five catchments for which daily runoff data was available. The range for mean annual leaching of TOC and Ntot from the catchments was 4 700 to 7 300 kg km-2 a-1 and 190-250 kg km-2 a-1, respectively. The variation between different years was high and annual leaching was closely related to annual runoff. The regional variation in the leaching of TOC and N tot was small compared to the annual variation.

Keywords: Hydrology, leaching, organic carbon, peatlands, runoff