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Major ions in typical subterranean rivers and their anthropogenic impacts in southwest karst areas, China

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Subterranean rivers contain much of the groundwater in karst and supply many local people in southwest China. The quality of groundwater in subterranean rivers is of concern because of its sensitivity to anthropogenic activity. Groundwater samples in a rural catchment were collected at the discharge point, and the concentrations of major ions including potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulfate, nitrate and bicarbonate were analyzed in this study. Rainfall and discharge were also observed at the same time. It could be concluded from the data that the concentrations of sulfate and nitrate had a peak in the rainy season when the concentrations of sodium, calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate were low. The concentrations of potassium and chloride changed randomly throughout the year. The concentration of major ions in flood process was not completely controlled by discharge. Only the concentrations of nitrate and sulfate had obviously increased during the past two decades. It was believed that dilution, eluviation, karst erosion and anthropogenic activity can explain the ion variations and hence this study helps to understand environmental problem in karst.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by China Geological Survey: Groundwater and Environmental Geology Survey in Southwest Karst Areas (1212010340104) and Monitoring and Environmental Sensitivity Evaluation for Karst Groundwater (1212010634805). We would like to thank the reviewers who read the first draft of this paper for their constructive comments to further improve the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Professor Chris Groves, Ian J. Fairchild, Beth Medley and Jichun Wu for their help to polish the language of the paper and Prof. Yushi Lin, Mr. Jinliang Wang, Ms. Li Shu and Mr. Ke Li for their field assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karst Dynamics Laboratory, Institute of Karst Geology, MLR, 50 Qixing Road, Guilin, 541004, China

    Fang Guo, Guanghui Jiang & Daoxian Yuan

  2. College of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Fang Guo

  3. Department of earth Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Guanghui Jiang

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  1. Fang Guo
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  2. Guanghui Jiang
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  3. Daoxian Yuan
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Correspondence to Fang Guo.

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Guo, F., Jiang, G. & Yuan, D. Major ions in typical subterranean rivers and their anthropogenic impacts in southwest karst areas, China. Environ Geol 53, 533–541 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0665-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0665-2

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