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Surface water pH variations and trends in China from 2004 to 2014

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Abstract

With economic development and the increase of energy consumption, surface water acidification has been a potential environmental concern in China. Here, we analyzed variations and trends in surface water pH of 73 sites from ten river basins in China from 2004 to 2014 with nonparametric Seasonal Kendall test method. Our analysis showed that the variations of surface water pH in China ranged from 6.5 to 9.0 in the past decade (2004–2014), which satisfied the water quality criteria in pH for protection of aquatic ecosystems in China (6.0–9.0) and USA (6.5–9.0). However, significant decreasing trends in surface water pH were found in 31 monitoring sites, which were mainly located in Haihe River, Taihu Lake and Yangtze River, while the pH value showed significant increasing trends in 22 sites, which mainly were located in Songhua River and Pearl River. Our results suggested the increased potential acidification of susceptible water bodies in China. Besides the control policy of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, the emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx) should also be reduced to protect the aquatic systems in China.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the editor and two anonymous referees whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the quality of the article. This research was funded by the National Water Pollution Control and Treatment Science and Technology Major Project (2012ZX07501003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria of Ministry of Education and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Yinhuan Qiao, Jianfeng Feng, Xia Liu & Lin Zhu

  2. Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources of Henan Province, Zhenzhou, 450003, China

    Wei Wang & Pei Zhang

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  1. Yinhuan Qiao
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  2. Jianfeng Feng
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Correspondence to Jianfeng Feng.

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Qiao, Y., Feng, J., Liu, X. et al. Surface water pH variations and trends in China from 2004 to 2014. Environ Monit Assess 188, 443 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5454-5

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