Abstract
An epikarst spring in the Maolan forest karst mountain area in SW China was selected for this study. Continuous auto-monitoring of the spring’s discharge, pH, electrical conductivity, temperature and rainfall had been done for more than one year. The results indicated that generally in rainy season, the spring’s pH showed a temporary decrease after rainfall, and the spring’s EC increased temporally, while the spring’s water temperature displayed a transitory increase. However in dry season the behaviors of these parameters were different. According to the spring’s different reflection to rainfall ranging from faintness to intensity, the response could be classified into three grades. The first grade was characterized by no change after rain in discharge, pH, EC and water temperature. The second grade meant slow and little change in a part of these parameters. The third grade showed a distinct change in all of the four parameters. Basing on the spring’s response it was determined that the threshold value of runoff in the epikarst was 12 mm of rainfall. For epikarst, the threshold value was the mark to distinguish effective or invalid rainfall and also an important parameter for the study on the formation of groundwater resources.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support was provided by the Chinese Geological Survey. The authors wish to specially thank Professor Yuan Daoxian, whose critical comments greatly improved the manuscript.
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Jiang, G., Guo, F., Wu, J. et al. The threshold value of epikarst runoff in forest karst mountain area. Environ Geol 55, 87–93 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0967-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0967-4