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Chemical and strontium isotopic characteristics of the rivers around the Badain Jaran Desert, northwest China: implication of river solute origin and chemical weathering

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Abstract

The chemical and strontium isotopic compositions of four major rivers (Heihe, Shule, Beida, and Shiyang) around the Badain Jaran Desert, northwestern China, were measured to understand the solute sources of surface water and rock weathering in the arid region. These rivers have high total cationic charge (TZ+) and total dissolved solids (TDS), averaging at 7379 μEq and 511 mg l−1, which are significantly higher than the global river average. The increase in TDS and major ions (Na+, Cl−, and SO4 2−) and TDS concentrations from upper to lower reaches is ascribed to the evaporite dissolution and the effect of evaporation in the arid and semiarid areas. 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios of these rivers range between 0.71019 and 0.71628, with an average of 0.71328. The chemical and 87Sr/86Sr isotopic analyses indicate that three reservoirs (evaporites, carbonates, and silicates) contribute to the total dissolved loads. The contributions of the different reservoirs to the dissolved load are first calculated using a forward method in this area. The calculated results show that the dissolved cation load is dominated by carbonates weathering and evaporites dissolution, and their contribution account for about 80 % of the total dissolved cations for the rivers around the Badain Jaran Desert. The proportion of the dissolved cations from silicates weathering is 23.5, 10.8, 12.1, and 18.2 %, and the weathering rate of silicates is 0.81, 0.76, 2.04, and 0.93 ton km−2 a−1 for Heihe, Shule, Beida, and Shiyang, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (“973 Program”, Grant No. 2013CB956401), the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB03020400), Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41173114 and 41402323), the international postdoctoral exchange fellowship program (Grant No. 20140045) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (2014M550833). The authors appreciate the constructive comments from three anonymous reviewers to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Wenjing Liu, Hao Jiang, Chao Shi, Tong Zhao & Zhifang Xu

  2. Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Wenjing Liu

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

    Wenjing Liu, Hao Jiang, Chao Shi, Tong Zhao & Zhifang Xu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, Guizhou, China

    Chongshan Liang & Jian Hu

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  1. Wenjing Liu
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Correspondence to Zhifang Xu.

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Liu, W., Jiang, H., Shi, C. et al. Chemical and strontium isotopic characteristics of the rivers around the Badain Jaran Desert, northwest China: implication of river solute origin and chemical weathering. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1119 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5910-0

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