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An investigation of moisture sources and secondary evaporation in Lanzhou, Northwest China

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the atmospheric water cycle in Lanzhou and surrounding areas, a place sensitive to climatic conditions and located in the vertex of the “Monsoon Triangle” of China; this study obtained 243 event-based precipitation samples from four stations in Lanzhou, Yongdeng, Yuzhong and Gaolan for 1 year from April 2011 to March 2012. The seasonal variations of δ 18O and d excess indicate that westerly water vapor, local moisture and summer monsoon all have an influence in this region on a large scale. The westerlies play a dominant role. However, the impact of monsoon moisture has a seasonal limitation, mainly during the period from June to early August. On a local scale, the transportation of moisture appears via two routes. The contribution rate of recycling moisture, over the region, is only 3.6 % on average due to the deficiency of water resource in arid and semi-arid land. Additionally, the effect of secondary evaporation has also been discussed, and the results show that relative humidity, temperature and precipitation amount have different impacts on the effect. However, the influence of precipitation amount is not obvious when the rainfall amount is below 10 mm, while the meteorological parameters of relative humidity and temperature play a significant role in that scope.

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Acknowledgments

The study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41161012; No. 41240001), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2013CBA01801) and the Basic Scientific Research Foundation in University of Gansu Province. The authors thank David Clements for revising the original manuscript, and the workers in the national meteorological stations of Yuzhong, Yongdeng and Gaolan for collecting the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Qian Ma, Mingjun Zhang, Shengjie Wang, Qiong Wang, Wenli Liu, Fei Li & Fenli Chen

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  1. Qian Ma
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  2. Mingjun Zhang
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  3. Shengjie Wang
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  4. Qiong Wang
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  5. Wenli Liu
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  6. Fei Li
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  7. Fenli Chen
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Correspondence to Mingjun Zhang.

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Ma, Q., Zhang, M., Wang, S. et al. An investigation of moisture sources and secondary evaporation in Lanzhou, Northwest China. Environ Earth Sci 71, 3375–3385 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2728-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2728-x

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