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Hydrochemical characteristics and ion sources of river water in the upstream of the Shiyang River, China

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Abstract

As the largest tributary of the Shiyang River, with the average annual inflow of total runoff accounting for 23%, the Xiying River has representative of mountain runoff of inland rivers in the Northwest of China. Using samples collected in this basin from September 2016 to October 2017, the water chemical composition and ion source characteristics of river were studied. The results show that the river is weakly alkaline, the average pH is 8.0 and the TDS is 179.29 mg·L−1. With the elevation decreasing along the river, the TDS of main stream tend to increase first and then decrease, but those of TDS of each tributary decrease, and the latter is lower than the former. Affected significantly by the flow, the lowest value of ion concentration in river occurs in summer, and the highest occurs in autumn and winter. The hydrochemical type of river is CaMg–HCO3. In the river, the order of cation mass concentration is NH4+ < K+ < Na+ < Mg2+ < Ca2+, and that of anion is F− < NO3− < Cl− < SO42− < HCO3−. The sources of ions in river are mainly from the weathering of silicates and carbonates. With the elevation decreasing along the river, the influence of silicates on the inflowing tributaries is gradually strengthened.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41661005, 41867030, 41971036). The authors much thank the colleagues in the Northwest Normal University and Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number 41661084) (CAREERI, CAS) for their help in fieldwork, laboratory analysis, data processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China

    Zhiyuan Zhang, Wenxiong Jia, Guofeng Zhu, Yang Shi, Le Yang, Hui Xiong, Miaomiao Zhang & Fuhua Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Guofeng Zhu

  3. Gansu Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Gansu Engineering Research Center of Land Utilization and Comprehension Consolidation, Lanzhou, China

    Guofeng Zhu

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  1. Zhiyuan Zhang
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Zhang, Z., Jia, W., Zhu, G. et al. Hydrochemical characteristics and ion sources of river water in the upstream of the Shiyang River, China. Environ Earth Sci 80, 614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09793-2

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