A Multiple Composite Fingerprinting Method and Its Application

Fingerprinting technique provides an essential means for estimating source contributions of watershed sediments, in which a single group of “optimum composite fingerprints” has been widely used in the literature to estimate sediment provenance. This type of methods is not restricted by the scale or process of sediment transportation so that similar procedures can be applied in sediment provenance research for aeolian depositions. However, recent studies found no direct link (positive relationship) between the ability of the tracer group to discriminate sources and its rigor in estimating source contributions after optimization. Here, we introduced a recently developed multiple composite fingerprinting method with additional screening based on analytical solutions, and further reviewed its verification in watersheds at different scales. It turned out that compared to Monte Carlo optimization method, a reasonable estimation can be achieved using the mean of the maximum number of composite fingerprints that given analytical solution to the mixing model, but the computational cost can be reduced significantly. The reliability of this new method was also tested in source contribution estimating of aeolian sediments, and the provenance quantification of reservoir sediment in an arid region experiencing both wind and water sediments.