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Chemical and Sr isotopic compositions of rainwater on the Ordos Desert Plateau, Northwest China

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Abstract

The major ions and Sr concentrations and the Sr isotopic compositions of rainwater from four weather stations in the Ordos desert, Northwest China, were measured in this study. In the studied rainwater, Ca2+ was the most abundant cation with a volume-weighted mean (VWM) value of 387 µmol/L, and SO4 2− was the dominant anion, with a VWM value of 229 µmol/L. The Sr concentrations varied from 0.1 to 72 µmol/L, and the strontium isotopic ratios (87Sr/86Sr) range from 0.7098 to 0.7110, with an average of 0.7106, which are higher than that of seawater. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios showed the potential to trace sources of rainwater solutes when combined with other chemical composition data. The covariation between Mg/Ca vs. Ca/Na and Sr isotopic ratios vs. Ca/Sr in the rainwater suggested the mixture of at least three sources: soil dust derived from the local area and/or desert and loess areas in northwest China (87Sr/86Sr values of 0.7114), seawater (87Sr/86Sr value of 0.70917), and anthropogenic inputs (87Sr/86Sr value of 0.7110 and high Ca/Sr, due to coal combustion or automobile exhausts). The human activity inputs are likely the major sources of atmospheric contaminants in the Ordos rainwater. From back-trajectory analysis, principal component analysis and a comparison between the major ion compositions of other selected sites in China, we conclude that the Ordos rainwater ion composition is more significantly influenced by desert and soil dust and anthropogenic sources (primarily industrial and traffic emissions from the surrounding cities) than by marine sources.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Drs. Yaodong Pan and Xiao Wang for the field assistance and experimental help. Local weather bureaus also provided great support for rainwater collections. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40973001, 41273015), and National Basic Research Foundation for Central Universities of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Isotope Hydrology, College of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Wenbo Rao, Hongbing Tan & Sun Jiang

  2. MOE Key Laboratory of Groundwater Circulation and Evolution, School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Guilin Han

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  1. Wenbo Rao
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  2. Guilin Han
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  4. Sun Jiang
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Correspondence to Guilin Han.

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Rao, W., Han, G., Tan, H. et al. Chemical and Sr isotopic compositions of rainwater on the Ordos Desert Plateau, Northwest China. Environ Earth Sci 74, 5759–5771 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4594-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4594-1

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