Paper test‐strips for rapid determination of nitrate tracer

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Abstract
The leaching of nitrate from soil to ground and surface waters is now limited by European legislation to protect human drinking water. Much long term monitoring and short term experimentation has been undertaken using fertilisers and nitrate tracers to understand how transport occurs. A paper test‐strip technology, used in conjunction with a modern hand‐held reflectometer was tested and utilised to permit fine spatial and temporal resolution analysis of nitrate breakthrough in a large undisturbed soil block. It was found that characteristic types of breakthrough occurred in the soil block, and that a fine resolution picture of the breakthrough curve could easily be established without recourse to sample storage and laboratory analysis. The techniques proved cost effective and had the added benefit of stopping locally generated toxic waste. It is concluded that paper test‐strip technology is highly suited to monitoring research where strong concentration tracers are used.