Determination of soil-groundwater systems recharge mechanism in the middle Inner Mongolia Plateau by isotopic tracers

The steppe located in the middle Inner Mongolia Plateau (IMP) has scarce water resources and fragile ecosystems and has an arid-semiarid monsoon characterized by low and uneven seasonal precipitation and high evaporation. Until now, problems relating to the hydrologic processes in the area remain poorly understood, and thus strategies for the exploitation and utilization of the area’s local water resource remain limited. This study aimed to investigate the recharge and discharge processes of soil water and the source and circulation of groundwater through geochemical methods. The local meteoric water line (LMWI) of our study area in the middle IMP was first proposed and compared with the local meteoric water line of Baotou in Inner Mongolia and Ulan Bator. The δ¹⁸O and δD values of precipitation showed an increasing trend from June to August and decreasing trend from August to late October. The H and O isotopes of soil water varied with time, location, and soil profile depth. Besides the geographical and climatic factors, the Cl concentrations of soil water can be affected remarkably by land use type and land cover change. In our monitoring period, variations in the Cl concentrations and δ¹⁸O and δD values of shallow soil water indicated that the evaporation of soil water was in the sequence August > June > October. Furthermore, the detailed evaporation proportions of soil water were estimated. The isotope compositions of groundwater plotted on the LMWI and there could be a rapid recharge mechanism of the groundwater.