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Tracing infiltration and recharge using stable isotope in Taihang Mt., North China

  • Original Article
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Environmental Geology

An Erratum to this article was published on 08 May 2007

Abstract

The groundwater in headwater region is an important recharge source for the adjacent mountain-front plain. In order to reveal the relationship among precipitation, soil water and groundwater, from June to September in 2004, stable isotopes (deuterium and oxygen-18) in precipitation and soil waters at the depths of 10, 20, 30, 50, 70, 90, and 110 cm were analyzed at two sites covered by black locust (Robinia Pseudoacia L.) (Site A) and grass predominated by Themeda triandra (T. japonica (Willd.) Tanaka) and Bothriochloa ischaemum (B. ischaemum (L.) Keng) (Site B) in an experimental catchment at Taihang Mt., North China, respectively. The δ18O of precipitation in daily rain events shows large variations (−13.3 to −4.3‰) with a mean of 8.1‰. The δ18O and δ D of soil waters along profiles in two sites suggest that the influence of canopy cover was just up to 10 cm in top soil water. The soil water moved over the zero flux plane at 70 cm in-depth is expected to escape the evaporative effect at the end of September in both sites. The results show that the stable isotope, instead of tritium as tradition, can be used to trace the soil water behaviors based on the movement of isotopic peak along the vertical profiles in this semi-arid and semi-humid mountainous region. The infiltration depths of soil water in Taihang Mt. are 12 and 10 mm/day from June to September in 2004 in Site A and Site B, respectively. Tracing by stable isotope, recharge fluxes of soil water to local groundwater are of 3.8 and 3.2 mm/day in Site A and Site B, respectively. The results provide desirable information for assessment of local groundwater resources.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (no. 40671034), the Knowledge Innovation Programs from Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX3-SW-446), and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (no. 18300312). The authors thank Roberto Gonfiantini for his thoughtful review and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan

    Fadong Li

  2. Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050021, People’s Republic of China

    Fadong Li, Changming Liu & Wanjun Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Xianfang Song, Changming Liu & Jingjie Yu

  4. Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba, 271-8510, Japan

    Changyuan Tang

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  1. Fadong Li
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  2. Xianfang Song
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  3. Changyuan Tang
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  4. Changming Liu
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Correspondence to Fadong Li.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0744-4

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Li, F., Song, X., Tang, C. et al. Tracing infiltration and recharge using stable isotope in Taihang Mt., North China. Environ Geol 53, 687–696 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0683-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0683-0

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