*Article* **Experimental and Simulation Research on the Process of Nitrogen Migration and Transformation in the Fluctuation Zone of Groundwater Level**

**Yuepeng Li 1,2,\*, Liuyue Wang 1,2, Xun Zou 1,2, Jihong Qu 1,2 and Gang Bai 1,2**


**Abstract:** The fluctuation of groundwater causes a change in the groundwater environment and then affects the migration and transformation of pollutants. To study the influence of water level fluctuations on nitrogen migration and transformation, physical experiments on the nitrogen migration and transformation process in the groundwater level fluctuation zone were carried out. A numerical model of nitrogen migration in the Vadose zone and the saturated zone was constructed by using the software HydrUS-1D. The correlation coefficient and the root mean square error of the model show that the model fits well. The numerical model is used to predict nitrogen migration and transformation in different water level fluctuation scenarios. The results show that, compared with the fluctuating physical experiment scenario, when the fluctuation range of the water level increases by 5 cm, the fluctuation range of the nitrogen concentration in the coarse sand, medium sand and fine sand media increases by 37.52%, 31.40% and 21.14%, respectively. Additionally, when the fluctuation range of the water level decreases by 5 cm, the fluctuation range of the nitrogen concentration in the coarse sand, medium sand and fine sand media decreases by 36.74%, 14.70% and 9.39%, respectively. The fluctuation of nitrogen concentration varies most significantly with the amplitude of water level fluctuations in coarse sand; the change in water level has the most significant impact on the flux of nitrate nitrogen and has little effect on the change in nitrite nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen, and the difference in fine sand is the most obvious, followed by medium sand, and the difference in coarse sand is not great.

**Keywords:** groundwater level fluctuation zone; nitrogen; migration and transformation; HYDRUS-1D model
