Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Evaluation of groundwater recharge sources based on environmental tracers in an arid alluvial fan, NW China

  • Published:
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Environmental tracers include stable isotopes and chloride in natural water were used to recognize the recharge sources of groundwater in Nalenggele alluvial fan, NW China. There is little effective recharge from local precipitation, the original resources of groundwater are glacier melting water and precipitation in high Kunlun mountain, groundwater is directly recharged by river infiltration along the river stretch and lateral groundwater flow from the high mountain area. In this study the effects of the depth infiltrated of river water on the mixing ratio was investigated. Results show that the mixing ratio decreases with the infiltrated river water depth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wang G, Cheng G (1999) Water resource development and its influence on the environment in arid areas of China—the case of the Hei River basin. J Arid Environ 43:121–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wang P, Yu J, Zhang Y et al (2013) Groundwater recharge and hydrogeochemical evolution in the Ejina basin, northwest China. J Hydrol 476(2):72–86

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Feng Q, Wei L, Su YH et al (2005) Distribution and evolution of water chemistry in Heihe River basin. Environ Geol 45:947–956

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhu G, Li Z, Su Y et al (2007) Hydrogeochemical and isotope evidence of groundwater evolution and recharge in Minqin basin, northwest china. J Hydrol 333(s 2–4):239–251

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Macdonald DMJ, Edmunds WM (2014) Estimation of groundwater recharge in weathered basement aquifers, southern zimbabwe; a geochemical approach. Appl Geochem 42(4):86–100

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang G, Yang L, Chen L et al (2005) Impacts of land use changes on groundwater resources in the Heihe River basin. J Geogr Sci 15(4):405–414

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Guo Q, Feng Q, Li J (2009) Environmental changes after ecological water conveyance in the lower reaches of Heihe River, northwest China. Environ Geol 58(7):1387–1396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ma JZ, Wang XS, Edmunds WM (2005) The characteristics of ground-water resources and their changes under the impacts of human activity in the arid northwest China—a case study of the Shiyang River basin. J Arid Environ 61:277–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Su YH, Feng Q, Zhu GF et al (2007) Identification and evolution of groundwater chemistry in the Ejina Sub-basin of the Heihe River, northwest China. Pedosphere 17:331–342

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Liu W, Cao SK, Xi HY, Feng Q (2010) Land use history and status of land desertification in the Heihe River basin. Nat Hazards 53:273–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. He J, Ma J, Zhang P et al (2012) Groundwater recharge environments and hydrogeochemical evolution in the Jiuquan basin, northwest China. Appl Geochem 27:866–878

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Tsujimura M, Abe Y, Tanaka T et al (2007) Stable isotopic and geochemical characteristics of groundwater in Kherlen River basin, a semi-arid region in eastern Mongolia. J Hydrol 333(1):47–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Gat JR (2010) Isotope hydrology: a study of the water cycle. Imperial College Press, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Clark ID, Fritz P (1997) Environmental isotopes in hydrogeology. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  15. Paternoster M, Liotta M, Favara R (2008) Stable isotope ratios in meteoric recharge and groundwater at Mt. Vulture volcano, southern Italy. J Hydrol 348:87–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Mandal AK, Zhang J, Asai K (2011) Stable isotopic and geochemical data for inferring sources of recharge and groundwater flow on the volcanic island of Rishiri, Japan. Appl Geochem 26(s 9–10):1741–1751

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Deshpande RD, Gupta SK (2012) Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in hydrological cycle: new data from IWIN national programme. Proc Ind Natl Sci Acad 78(3):321–331

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Hameed AS, Resmi TR, Suraj S et al (2015) Isotopic characterization and mass balance reveals groundwater recharge pattern in Chaliyar River basin, Kerala, India. J Hydrol Reg Stud 4:48–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Su X, Lin X (2004) Cycle pattern and renewability evaluation of groundwater in Yinchuan basin: isotopic evidences. Resour Sci 26(2):29–35 (Chinese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Lavastre V, Salle CLGL, Michelot JL et al (2010) Establishing constraints on groundwater ages with 36Cl, 14C, 3H, and noble gases: a case study in the eastern Paris basin, France. Appl Geochem 25(1):123–142

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Darling WG, Gooddy DC, MacDonald AM et al (2012) The practicalities of using CFCs and SF6 for groundwater dating and tracing. Appl Geochem 27:1688–1697

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Su X, Xu W, Yang F, Zhu P (2015) Using new mass balance methods to estimate gross surface water and groundwater exchange with naturally occurring tracer 222Rn in data poor regions: a case study in northwest China. Hydrol Process 29(6):979–990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kamtchueng BT, Fantong WY, Wirmvem MJ et al (2015) A multi-tracer approach for assessing the origin, apparent age and recharge mechanism of shallow groundwater in the Lake Nyos catchment, northwest, Cameroon. J Hydrol 523:790–803

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Bourke SA, Cook PG, Dogramaci S et al (2015) Partitioning sources of recharge in environments with groundwater recirculation using carbon-14 and cfc-12. J Hydrol 525:418–428

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Gaye CB, Edmunds WM (1996) Groundwater recharge estimation using chloride, stable isotopes and tritium profiles in the sands of northwestern Senegal. Environ Geol 27:246–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Ma JZ, Ding Z, Gates JB, Su Y (2008) Chloride and the environmental isotopes as the indicators of the groundwater recharge in the Gobi Desert, northwest China. Environ Geol 55(7):1407–1419

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Huang T, Pang Z (2011) Estimating groundwater recharge following land-use change using chloride mass balance of soil profiles: a case study at Guyuan and Xifeng in the Loess Plateau of China. Hydrogeol J 19(19):177–186

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang J, Wang Y, Li C et al (2014) Research on groundwater resources exploitation in Nalenggele River basin of Qaidam basin. Groundwater 36(6):166–167 (Chinese with English abstract)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Allison GB, Hughes MW (1978) The use of environmental chloride and tritium to estimate total recharge to an unconfined aquifer. Aust J Soil Res 16:181–195

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Edmunds WM, Walton NRG (1980) A geochemical and isotopic approach to recharge evaluation in semi-arid zones—past and present. In: Fontes JC (ed) Arid-zone hydrology: investigations with isotope techniques. Proceeding of Advisory Group Meeting, Vienna, pp 47–68

  31. Allison GB, Stone WJ, Hughes MW (1985) Recharge in karst and dune elements of a semi-arid landscape as indicated by natural isotopes and chloride. J Hydrol 76:1–26

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Cook PG, Edmunds WM, Gaye CB (1992) Estimating paleorecharge and paleoclimate from unsaturated zone profiles. Water Resour Res 28:2721–2731

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Doctor D, Alexander EC Jr, Petrič M et al (2006) Quantification of karst aquifer discharge components during storm events through end-member mixing analysis using natural chemistry and stable isotopes as tracers. Hydrogeol J 14:1171–1191

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Weltje GJ (1997) End-member modeling of compositional data: numerical-statistical algorithms for solving the explicit mixing problem. Math Geol 29:503–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Xu W, Su X, Dai Z et al (2017) Multi-tracer investigation of river and groundwater interactions: a case study in Nalenggele River basin. Hydrogeol J 25(7):2015–2029

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Wu J, Ding Y, Ye B et al (2011) Spatio-temporal variation of stable isotopes in precipitation in the Heihe River basin, northwestern China. Environ Earth Sci 61:1123–1134

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Zhao LJ, Lin L, Xiao HL et al (2011) Isotopic evidence for the moisture origin and composition of surface runoff in the headwaters of the Heihe River basin. Chin Sci Bull 56:406–416

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Gates JB, Edmunds WM, Ma J et al (2008) Estimating groundwater recharge in a cold desert environment in northern China using chloride. Hydrogeol J 16:893–910

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Ma J, Edmunds WM (2006) Groundwater and lake evolution in the Badain Jaran Desert ecosystem, Inner Mongolia. Hydrogeol J 14:1231–1243

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Edmunds WM, Ma J, Aeschbach HW et al (2006) Groundwater recharge history and hydrogeochemical evolution in the Minqin basin, North West China. Appl Geochem 21:2148–2170

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Ma J, Ding Z, Edmunds WM, Gates JB (2009) Limits to recharge of groundwater from Tibetan Plateau to the Gobi Desert, implications for management in the Mountain front. J Hydrol 364:128–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Huang T, Pang Z, Liu J et al (2017) Groundwater recharge in an arid grassland as indicated by soil chloride profile and multiple tracers. Hydrol Process 31:1047–1057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Walvoord MA, Stonestrom DA, Andraski BJ, Striegl RG (2004) Constraining the inferred paleohydrologic evolution of a deep unsaturated zone in the Amargosa Desert. Vadose Zone J 3:502–512

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Su X, Lin X et al (2004) The factors affecting the isotopes of Yellow River water, China. Water Int 4(6):475–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Li J, Wang H, Wei L (2007) Isotopic and hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater in the Golmud River basin. Northwest Geol 40(4):94–100 (in Chinese with English abstract)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Gu WZ, Pang ZH, Wang JG et al (2011) Isotope hydrogy. Science Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41602247). The authors are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments were very helpful in improving the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Water Conservancy, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Wei Xu

  2. Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Shijiazhuang, 050061, China

    Pucheng Zhu

  3. Institute of Water Resources and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China

    Fengtian Yang

Authors
  1. Wei Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pucheng Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fengtian Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Xu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xu, W., Zhu, P. & Yang, F. Evaluation of groundwater recharge sources based on environmental tracers in an arid alluvial fan, NW China. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 319, 123–133 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6272-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6272-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation