Drinking water supply in Germany and many other countries is largely covered by groundwater resources. But groundwater is increasingly polluted with nitrate. One reason is the extensive practice of nitrogen fertilization in agriculture. In addition to mineral fertilizers, substrates such as liquid manure from livestock farms or biogas plants are used for the crops. Left-over nitrogen components, which aren’t degraded by plants at the soil layer usually percolate into groundwater as nitrate. Accordingly, more and more often the maximum permissible threshold of 50 mg/L nitrate concentration for drinking water in the EU is being exceeded. As there is a lack of high-resolution measurements of nitrate concentrations, there has been a lack of data about the precise dynamics and trends of nitrate and nutrient loads in groundwater and surface water.
