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The controlling factors of the karst water hydrochemistry in a karst basin of southwestern China

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Abstract

The Karst aquifers are usually characterized by high spatial heterogeneity in the humid tropics and subtropics, evidenced by specific landforms features (e.g., heavily fractured outcrops, sinkholes, etc.) and complex subterranean conduit networks. The marked high heterogeneity leads to the temporal–spatial variability of hydrological and hydro-chemical processes, making its environments extremely vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic hazards. The complicated temporal–spatial variability of hydrochemistry in karst systems depends on several underlying factors which influence the hydro-chemical processes. Investigating the factors of the karst water hydrochemistry variability is necessary to understand the hydro-chemical processes and mitigate natural and anthropogenic hazards for ensuring the sustainability of karst water resources. In this paper, an attempt is made to couple geostatistical and geochemical analysis to extract the underlying controlling factors and effective information about the geochemical evolution behave of karst water in Houzhai karst area, southwestern China. Factor analysis was performed to obtain significant statistical relationship of the hydrochemistry variation in the Houzhai karst basin. The ordinary kriging method was applied to the factor scores to investigate the contributions of factors on different regions. The results of the factor analysis indicated four principal factors which explained > 81.678% of the total sample variance: (1) the dilution effect by rainfall; (2) the dissolution effect dominated by calcite; (3) the human agricultural activities effect; (4) the migration of dissolved components under the control of alkaline environments in karst water. It revealed that the dilution effect was more significant (36.579%) than the dissolution effect (22.036%) and human agricultural activities effect (14.596%). These factors made more significant difference of contributions on the karst area in the dry periods than in the rainy periods. The dilution process by rainfall and the dissolution process of carbonate rock had a great influence on the upstream area whereas the human agricultural activities played important roles in the middle-stream area, especially in the dry periods. This integrated approach which combine factor analysis with kriging method is effective in the identification and interpretation of factors related to the variability of hydrochemistry, as well as the contributions of these factors on space and time.

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modified from Liu et al. 2010)

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modified from Liu et al. 2010)

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Acknowledgements

The research work was funded by National Development Program for Basic Key Science Research entitled “The fundamental theoretical problems concerning the processes of rocky desertification in the mountainous areas of Southwest China and adaptively ecological rehabilitation (2006CB403200)”, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51774107; 42077249; 4210071795), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (CN) (2108085QD166), the Open Program of State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology (Beijing Institute of Technology) (KFJJ19-02M), and the Fundamental Research Funds of the Housing and Construction Department of Anhui Province (2013YF-27). Special thanks to Puding karst ecosystem research station of China for providing abundant research data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Xian Li, Yixian Wang, Yanqiao Wang, Fang Tong, Junling Han & Wenyu Shu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Longcang Shu

  3. Nanjiang Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Team of Chongqing Bureau of Geology and Minerals Exploration, Chongqing, 401146, China

    Delong Li

  4. No. 208 Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Team of Chongqing Bureau of Geology and Minerals Exploration (Chongqing Institute of Geological Hazard Prevention Engineering Exploration and Design), Chongqing, 400700, China

    Jinmei Wen

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  1. Xian Li
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Correspondence to Yixian Wang or Longcang Shu.

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This article is a part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on Sustainable Management of Karst Natural Resources, guest edited by Drs. Sasa Malinovic and Zoran Stevanovic.

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Li, X., Wang, Y., Shu, L. et al. The controlling factors of the karst water hydrochemistry in a karst basin of southwestern China. Environ Earth Sci 80, 793 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-10082-1

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