<div>Estimating the distributions of inorganic nutrients and total suspended
solids induced by soil erosion in an agricultural mountainous area using
a revised SWAT+ model</div><div>Wiktor Halecki<sup>a</sup>, Dawid Bedla<sup>b*</sup></div><div><sup>a</sup>Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of
Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, Kraków, 31–120 Poland</div><div><sup>b</sup>University of Agriculture in Krakow, Department of
Ecology, Climatology and Air Protection al. Mickiewicza 21, 31-120
Krakow, Poland</div><div>*corresponding author:</div><div>E-mail address: dawid.bedla@urk.edu.pl</div><div>ABSTRACT</div><div>Processes involving surface water erosion are crucial to the functioning
of ecological systems and river-scale management. However, these
processes are not well understood at the regional and global levels, and
forested agricultural catchments have undergone major degradation
because soils in river valleys are continuously inundated with
rainwater. Most Carpathian catchments, particularly those at lower
elevations, are used for forest or agricultural purposes, which
experience the leaching of inorganic nutrients and fluxes of total
suspended sediments (TSS). The objective of the current study was to
investigate the distribution of inorganic nutrients and TSS in waterways
draining into flysch catchments by using a new SWAT+ tool. The highest
concentrations of inorganic nutrients were recorded in the main
watercourse and in the outflows from the catchments. Nevertheless, the
same trend was not observed for the TSS concentrations. Moreover,
statistically significant relationships were revealed between
agricultural use and N-NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> ion
concentrations and between permanent grasslands and P-
PO<sub>4</sub><sup>3-</sup> anions. The SWAT+ model can be a
valuable tool for studying TSS distributions and inorganic nutrient
leaching.</div><div><i>Keywords</i> : spatial autoregression, mountain landscape, inorganic
nutrient leaching, flysch catchments, hydraulic parameters</div>