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Seasonal variations of organic carbon and nitrogen in the upper basins of Yangtze and Yellow Rivers

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Abstract

The profound impacts exerted by climate warming on the Tibetan Plateau have been documented extensively, but the biogeochemical responses remain poorly understood. This study was aimed at seasonal variations of total organic carbon (TOC) and total organic nitrogen (TON) in stream water at two gauging sections (TTH, ZMD) in the upper basin of Yangtze River (UBYA) and at four gauging sections (HHY, JM, JG, TNH) in the upper basin of Yellow River (UBYE) in 2013. Results showed that concentrations of TON exhibit higher values in spring and winter and lower values in summer. TOC exhibits higher concentrations in spring or early summer and lower concentrations in autumn or winter. Seasonal variations of TOC and TON fluxes are dominated by water flux. In total, the UBYE and UBYA delivers 55,435 tons C of organic carbon and 9,872 tons N of organic nitrogen to downstream ecosystems in 2013. Although the combined flux of TOC from UBYA and UBYE is far lower than those from large rivers, their combined yields is higher than, or comparable with, those from some large rivers (e.g. Nile, Orange, Columbia), implying that organic carbon from the Tibetan Plateau may exert a potentially influence on regional and/or global carbon cycles in future warming climate.

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Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91647102, 41671053, 41201060, 41271035, 41261017), Open Foundations of State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (SKLFSE201411), Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS-OP-2017-03), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2014B16914), Special Fund of State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (20145027312), Open Foundations of State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (2015490111), Academy of Finland (Decision number 268170), Hundred Talents Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Research Program (KZZD-EW-13), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO. B14020167).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Hydrology and Water Resources/State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Xiang-ying Li, Zhong-bo Yu & Cong-rong Yu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Xiang-ying Li, Yong-jian Ding, Tian-ding Han, Jian-zhong Xu & Shi-chang Kang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yong-jian Ding

  4. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Qing-bai Wu

  5. Laboratory of Green Chemistry, School of Engineering Science, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Sammonkatu 12, FI-50130, Mikkeli, Finland

    Mika Sillanpää

  6. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33174, USA

    Mika Sillanpää

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  1. Xiang-ying Li
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Li, Xy., Ding, Yj., Han, Td. et al. Seasonal variations of organic carbon and nitrogen in the upper basins of Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. J. Mt. Sci. 14, 1577–1590 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-016-4354-z

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