Oxygen and hydrogen isotope characteristics of different water bodies in the Burqin River Basin of the Altay Mountains, China

doi:10.1007/s40333-024-0085-0

Journal of Arid Land

2024, Vol. 16

Issue (10): 1365-1379 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-024-0085-0 CSTR: 32276.14.s40333-024-0085-0

Research article

Oxygen and hydrogen isotope characteristics of different water bodies in the Burqin River Basin of the Altay Mountains, China

XIE Yida¹^,², WANG Feiteng¹^,^*(

), LIU Shuangshuang¹

¹Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
²University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

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Abstract

Characterization of the spatial and temporal variability of stable isotopes in surface water is essential for interpreting hydrological processes. In this study, we collected the water samples of river water, groundwater, and reservoir water in the Burqin River Basin of the Altay Mountains, China in 2021, and characterized the oxygen and hydrogen isotope variations in different water bodies via instrumental analytics and modeling. Results showed significant seasonal variations in stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen (δ¹⁸O and δ²H, respectively) and significant differences in δ¹⁸O and δ²H among different water bodies. Higher δ¹⁸O and δ²H values were mainly found in river water, while groundwater and reservoir water had lower isotope ratios. River water and groundwater showed different δ¹⁸O-δ²H relationships with the local meteoric water line, implying that river water and groundwater are controlled by evaporative enrichment and multi-source recharge processes. The evaporative enrichment experienced by reservoir water was less significant and largely influenced by topography, recharge sources, local moisture cycling, and anthropogenic factors. Higher deuterium excess (d-excess) value of 14.34‰ for river water probably represented the isotopic signature of combined contributions from direct precipitation, snow and glacial meltwater, and groundwater recharge. The average annual d-excess values of groundwater (10.60‰) and reservoir water (11.49‰) were similar to the value of global precipitation (10.00‰). The findings contribute to understanding the hydroclimatic information reflected in the month-by-month variations in stable isotopes in different water bodies and provide a reference for the study of hydrological processes and climate change in the Altay Mountains, China.

Key words： water bodies stable isotopes deuterium excess (d-excess) Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model Burqin River Basin Altay Mountains

Received: 31 May 2024 Published: 31 October 2024

Corresponding Authors: * WANG Feiteng (E-mail: wangfeiteng@lzb.ac.cn)

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XIE Yida, WANG Feiteng, LIU Shuangshuang. Oxygen and hydrogen isotope characteristics of different water bodies in the Burqin River Basin of the Altay Mountains, China. Journal of Arid Land, 2024, 16(10): 1365-1379.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-024-0085-0 OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2024/V16/I10/1365

Fig. 1 Overview of the study area and distribution of specific sampling sites for different water bodies in the Burqin River Basin. The thin blue lines are tributaries, and the thick blue line is the main stream of Burqin River.

Fig. 2 Box-whisker diagrams showing the variations in δ¹⁸O (a), δ²H (b), and d-excess (c) values of river water at R1-R5, groundwater at G6, and reservoir water at Re7 from January to December in 2021. δ¹⁸O and δ²H are the stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen, respectively; d-excess is the deuterium excess. The different letters at the top of each box indicate significant differences (P<0.05). The same letter signifies no significant difference (P>0.05). Box boundaries indicate the 25^th and 75^th percentiles, respectively. Bars are standard deviations. The black horizontal line and black solid square within each box indicate the median and mean values, respectively. The dots and trend lines represent the data points and the distributions, respectively.

Fig. 3 Monthly variations in δ¹⁸O and δ²H values of river water at R1-R5 (a-e), groundwater at G6 (f), and reservoir water at Re7 (g) from January to December in 2021. The purple strip covers the high-flow period (May-July), and the brown strip represents the low-flow period (September-November).

Table 1 Seasonal variations in δ¹⁸O, δ²H, and d-excess of river water, groundwater, and reservoir water

Fig. 4 Linear regression between δ¹⁸O and δ²H values for river water, groundwater, and reservoir water in the whole year (a), spring (b), summer (c), and autumn (d). RWL, river water line; GWL, groundwater line; RVWL, reservoir water line; GMWL, global meteoric water line; LMWL, local meteoric water line.

Fig. 5 Air mass trajectories of water vapor source 72 h before the precipitation events on 24 March (a), 11 June (b), 15 July (c), and 13 October (d) in 2021. The background image was obtained from the Natural Earth (https://www.naturalearthdata.com/).

Fig. 6 Variations in monthly average temperature and monthly precipitation (a) and monthly d-excess values of different water bodies (b) in 2021

Fig. 7 Conceptual model map of the recharge form of river water, groundwater, and reservoir water in the Burqin River Basin


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