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Spatiotemporal variability of heavy metals and identification of potential source tracers in the surface water of the Lhasa River basin

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Abstract

The Lhasa River basin is the economic and population center of Tibet and has abundant resources. Due to its harsh weather condition, high elevation, and inconvenient accessibility, few studies have focused on heavy metal distributions in this region. In the present study, to investigate the dissolved trace metal pollution and its controlling factors, 57 water samples from the Lhasa River and its tributaries were collected during three water flow regimes in 2016. The data on the dissolved fraction revealed that the Lhasa River basin appeared to have no to low pollution levels. However, the Lhasa River water showed alkaline characteristics which may affect the presence of heavy metal elements in a dissolved fraction. The concentration of heavy metal elements in colloidal or particulate matter therefore needs attention. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine the significant relationship between the data and to identify controlling factors for dissolved heavy metals in the study area. The results suggested that Mn, Cd, Cu, and Zn originated from a natural geological background, whereas Pb originated from mining drainage and As was influenced by geothermal flows. The concentration of dissolved heavy metals in the Meldromarchu tributary was greatly affected by the mining drainage water, while that in the Tölungchu tributary was greatly influenced by the geothermal water sources. This paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of dissolved heavy metal pollution characteristics and the controlling factors of pollution during the three different water flow regimes of the Lhasa River basin.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51641407 and No. 21667027) and the Science and Technology Basic Work of Science and Technology (Grant No. 2015FY111000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Indoor Air Environmental Quality Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Guozhu Mao, Yushun Zhao & Fengrong Zhang

  2. College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jiaju Liu

  3. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Tibet University, Lhasa, 850000, China

    Xiang Huang

Authors
  1. Guozhu Mao
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  2. Yushun Zhao
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  3. Fengrong Zhang
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  4. Jiaju Liu
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  5. Xiang Huang
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Correspondence to Xiang Huang.

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Mao, G., Zhao, Y., Zhang, F. et al. Spatiotemporal variability of heavy metals and identification of potential source tracers in the surface water of the Lhasa River basin. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 7442–7452 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04188-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04188-0

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