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Comparative study of streamflow components in two inland rivers in the Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China

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Abstract

Runoff generation and its dynamics are fundamental to hydrology and very crucial to water resource management. Based on isotope hydrograph method, we explored and compared the runoff generation mechanism of two typical inland rivers in the Tianshan Mountains (i.e., Urumqi River on the north slope and Huangshuigou River on the south slope), based on a year-long frequently monitored weather, flow and isotope data. Results show the following: (1) In both rivers, precipitation, river water and groundwater exhibit noticeable spatial and temporal variations in stable δ18O and δD compositions in the Urumqi River and Huangshuigou River, and there is an increasing trend of δ18O in the river water during snowmelt period; (2) isotope hydrograph separation shows that generally groundwater is the major recharging source (over 50 % of streamflow), followed by glacier melt, snowmelt and precipitation in these two rivers, and Urumqi River has a larger contribution from glacier melt than Huangshuigou River; (3) these two rivers have similar contribution components in all seasons except spring in which Huangshuigou River has similar contributions from groundwater (55.6 %) and snowmelt (44.4 %) whereas Urumqi River has a larger contribution from groundwater (72.7 %) than snowmelt (27.3); (4) the Urumqi River is more sensitive to the temperature change than the Huangshuigou River, which might cause flooding that resulted from glacier melt in the Urumqi River.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the “Thousand Youth Talents” Plan (Xinjiang Project), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41101042), and the “One Hundred Talents Program” (No. Y071121) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geographical Science, Shanxi Normal University, Gongyuan Street 1, Linfen, 041000, Shanxi, China

    Congjian Sun & Yongqing Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Urumqi, 830011, Xinjiang, China

    Congjian Sun, Jing Yang, Yaning Chen, Xingong Li & Yuhui Yang

  3. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Christchurch, 8011, New Zealand

    Jing Yang

  4. University of Kansas, Geography 1475 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 409, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Xingong Li

  5. College of Geographic Science and Tourism, Xinjiang Normal University, 102 Xinyi Road, Urumqi, 830054, China

    Yuhui Yang

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  1. Congjian Sun
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  2. Jing Yang
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  3. Yaning Chen
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Correspondence to Jing Yang.

Additional information

This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Water in Central Asia”, guest edited by Daniel Karthe, Iskandar Abdullaev, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Dietrich Borchardt, Sergey Chalov, Jerker Jarsjö, Lanhai Li and Jeff Nittrouer.

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Sun, C., Yang, J., Chen, Y. et al. Comparative study of streamflow components in two inland rivers in the Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China. Environ Earth Sci 75, 727 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5314-1

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