Spatial and temporal patterns of stable water isotopes along the Yangtze River during two drought years

Changes in the level of the Yangtze River caused by anthropogenic water regulation have major effects on the hydrological processes and water cycle in surrounding lakes and rivers. In this study, we obtained isotopic evidence of changes in the water cycle of Yangtze River during the two drought years of 2006 and 2013. Isotopic evidence demonstrated that the δ¹⁸O and δD levels in Yangtze River exhibited high spatial heterogeneity from the upper to lower reaches, which were controlled by atmospheric precipitation, tributary/lake water mixing, damming regulation, and water temperature. Both the slope and intercept of Yangtze River evaporative line (δD = 7.88 δ¹⁸O + 7.96) were slightly higher than those of local meteoric water line of Yangtze River catchment (δD = 7.41 δ¹⁸O + 6.01). Most of the river isotopic values were located below the local meteoric water line, thereby implying that the Yangtze River water experienced a certain degree of evaporative enrichment on isotopic compositions of river water. The high fluctuations in the isotopic composition (e.g., deuterium excess [d‐excess]) in the middle to lower reaches during the initial stage of operation for the Three Gorges Dams (2003–2006) were due to heterogeneous isotopic signatures from the upstream water. In contrast to the normal stage (after 2010) characterized by the maximum water level and largest water storage, a relatively small variability in the deuterium excess was found along the middle to lower reaches because of the homogenization of reservoir water with a longer residence time and complete mixing. The effects of water from lakes and tributaries on the isotopic compositions in mainstream water were highlighted because of the high contributions of lakes water (e.g., Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake) efflux to the Yangtze River mainstream, which ranged from 21% to 85% during 2006 and 2013. These findings suggest that the retention and regulation of the Three Gorges Dams has greatly buffered the isotopic variability of the water cycle in the Yangtze catchment, thereby improving our understanding of the complex lake–river interactions along the middle to lower reaches in the future.     

Turbidity and suspended sediment dynamics in small catchments in the Nepal Middle Hills

The Himalayan environment has, until recently, been perceived to be in a critical state of environmental decline, resulting from rapid population growth and associated land‐use change. Recent research, however, has emphasized the difficulty of developing an objective appraisal of the state of the environment in a region where empirical data are scarce and unstructured and where an understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of natural environmental processes remains highly uncertain. This paper presents results from an intensive three‐year project designed to help address the regional empirical deficit, establish detailed baseline environmental data and to gain an insight into storm period and seasonal suspended sediment dynamics. The instrumentation, calibration and analysis of high‐frequency infrared turbidimetric records from a number of small subcatchments in the Nepal Middle Hills are reported. Storm period and seasonal variation in turbidity and suspended sediment are examined and hysteresis patterns explored and explained. A variety of methods to estimate seasonal suspended sediment yield in a mixed land‐use catchment are examined, and found to vary by up to a factor of five. Despite the inherent uncertainty, all estimates of catchment sediment yield are found to be high with respect to erosion plot studies from the local area, and this suggests the importance of riparian and channel erosion as major sediment sources, a finding consistent with other regional studies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

长江流域水资源、灾害及水环境状况初步分析

长江是我国第一、世界第三大河流,发源于青藏高原,全长6300多公里,流域面积180×104km²,占中国陆地面积的1/5。长江及其流域不仅以其不可替代的自然资源优势和其他江河无法比拟的区位优势,在我国国民经济和社会发展中扮演着举足轻重的角色,特别是约占全国的36%、拥有9616×10⁸m³的年径流量(为黄河的20倍),是我国最重要的水源地。这不仅对长江流域资源优势的发挥和缓解我国北方地区日趋严重的水资源短缺问题至关重要,而且对全国的可持续发展也将产生深远影响。然而,在长江流域大规模开发及经济快速发展的同时,人类活动与自然规律的负面效应相互叠加,导致了流域环境的生态调节和自我恢复功能大幅降低,引起了日趋严重的水环境退化、洪涝灾害威胁加剧等问题。文章首先对长江流域水资源的重要性及其作用做了分析,肯定了其丰富的资源和重要的战略地位,该流域在占全国不足18%的土地上,集中了40%以上的人口及国民生产总值,而且其经济地位有进一步上升的趋势,在水量及水能的蕴藏上,全流域湖泊面积达10323km²,占我国淡水湖泊总面积的37.2%,水能蕴藏总计达2.7×10⁸kW。另外,对长江流域日趋严重灾害及水环境问题做了探讨,尤其中游的洪水、淤积以及随着经济发     

中蒙边界地区汇水域沉积物69种元素的背景值

中蒙边界地区成矿地质条件优越,是世界上重要的金属成矿省和全球3大斑岩型铜(金、钼)成矿带之一,资源潜力巨大。中蒙合作1∶100万地球化学填图采集了海量的地球化学数据,为研究该地区元素分散富集、成矿趋势、资源评价和环境变化提供基础数据,为“一带一路”资源布局提供决策依据。以X±3S为临界值一次性剔除离群值后的数据集的中位值作为背景值的估计值,计算了中蒙边界地区12个Ⅱ级构造单元和5个Ⅱ级成矿省的汇水域沉积物69种元素背景值,探讨了中蒙边界地区汇水域沉积物69种元素背景值的区域分布规律和特征。研究表明不同的地质背景导致元素的地球化学分布模式不同,不同构造单元具有显著差异的元素地球化学特征,元素的海量聚集为大型矿床的形成提供了充足的元素供给,形成特定的地球化学省。这些背景值为进一步深入开发利用中蒙边界地球化学填图数据提供了可供对比的基础数据。     

Forests and floods: Using field evidence to reconcile analysis methods

The extent to which forests, relative to shorter vegetation, mitigate flood peak discharges remains controversial and relatively poorly researched, with only a few significant field studies. Considering the effect purely of change of vegetation cover, peak flow magnitude comparisons for paired catchments have suggested that forests do not mitigate large floods, whereas flood frequency comparisons have shown that forests mitigate frequencies over all magnitudes of flood. This study investigates the apparent inconsistency using field-based evidence from four contrasting field programmes at scales of 0.34–3.1 km². Repeated patterns are identified that provide strong evidence of real effects with physical explanations. Magnitude and frequency comparisons are both relevant to the impact of forests on peak discharges but address different questions. Both can show a convergence of response between forested and grassland/logged states at the highest recorded flows but the associated return periods may be quite variable and are subject to estimation uncertainty. For low to moderate events, the forested catchments have a lower peak magnitude for a given frequency than the grassland/logged catchments. Depending on antecedent soil saturation, a given storm may nevertheless generate peak discharges of the same magnitude for both catchment states but these peaks will have different return periods. The effect purely of change in vegetation cover may be modified by additional forestry interventions, such as road networks and drainage ditches which, by effectively increasing the drainage density, may increase peak flows for all event magnitudes. For all the sites, forest cover substantially reduces annual runoff.     

Identification of factors influencing hydrologic model performance using a top-down approach in a large number of U.S. catchments

Investigating the performance that can be achieved with different hydrological models across catchments with varying characteristics is a requirement for identifying an adequate model for any catchment, gauged or ungauged, just based on information about its climate and catchment properties. As parameter uncertainty increases with the number of model parameters, it is important not only to identify a model achieving good results but also to aim at the simplest model still able to provide acceptable results. The main objective of this study is to identify the climate and catchment properties determining the minimal required complexity of a hydrological model. As previous studies indicate that the required model complexity varies with the temporal scale, the study considers the performance at the daily, monthly, and annual timescales. In agreement with previous studies, the results show that catchments located in arid areas tend to be more difficult to model. They therefore require more complex models for achieving an acceptable performance. For determining which other factors influence model performance, an analysis was carried out for four catchment groups (snowy, arid, and eastern and western catchments). The results show that the baseflow and aridity indices are the most consistent predictors of model performance across catchment groups and timescales. Both properties are negatively correlated with model performance. Other relevant predictors are the fraction of snow in the annual precipitation (negative correlation with model performance), soil depth (negative correlation with model performance), and some other soil properties. It was observed that the sign of the correlation between the catchment characteristics and model performance varies between clusters in some cases, stressing the difficulties encountered in large sample analyses. Regarding the impact of the timescale, the study confirmed previous results indicating that more complex models are needed for shorter timescales.     

Comparison of abstraction scenarios simulated by SWAT and SWAT-MODFLOW

In hydrological modelling of catchments, wherein streams are groundwater-fed, an accurate representation of groundwater processes and their interaction with surface water is crucial. With this purpose, a coupled model was recently developed linking SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) with the fully-distributed groundwater model MODFLOW (Modular Groundwater Flow). In this study, SWAT and SWAT-MODFLOW were applied to a Danish groundwater-dominant catchment, simulating groundwater abstraction scenarios and assessing the benefits and drawbacks of SWAT-MODFLOW. Both models demonstrated good performance. However, SWAT-MODFLOW provided more realistic outputs when simulating abstraction: the decrease in streamflow was similar to the volume of water abstracted, while in SWAT the impact was negligible. SWAT also showed impacts on streamflow only when abstractions were taken from the shallow aquifer, not from the deep aquifer. Overall, SWAT-MODFLOW demonstrated wider possibilities for groundwater analysis, providing more insights than SWAT in supporting decision making in relation to environmental assessment.     

Spatiotemporal variations of dissolved inorganic carbon and controlling factors in a small karstic catchment,Southwestern China

Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is the most important carbon component in karst aquatic system where fluid is highly transmissive, but has rarely been examined in the subtropical karst critical zone (K-CZ). In this study, concentrations of dissolved solutes and isotopic compositions of DIC (δ¹³C_DIC) at 11 sites of a 73.4 km² karstic catchment in Southwestern China were analysed monthly in order to uncover the spatiotemporal variations of both DIC and its dominant sources, and to identify relevant controlling factors. Both DIC concentrations and δ¹³C_DIC were highly variable, ranging from 2.52 to 5.85 mmol l⁻¹ and from −15.7 to −4.5‰, respectively. DIC in underground water (UGW) was higher in concentration and more depleted in ¹³C compared to surface water (SFS). DIC concentrations showed an inconsistent seasonal trend with other solutes, with higher values in the wet season at some sites. δ¹³C_DIC values were lower in the wet season than in the dry season. The results of mixing model IsoSource revealed spatiotemporal patterns of DIC sources. During the dry season, carbonate weathering was the primary contributor to DIC in UGW (excluding in the middle reaches). However, during the wet season, soil CO₂ was the dominant source of DIC in both UGW and SFS, and it was higher than in the dry season. Overall, there are significant spatiotemporal disparities and highly transmissive characteristics of both DIC and its sources in the K-CZ, which are controlled by multiple factors. This study also highlights that rainfall may play a crucial role in accelerating carbon dynamics in the K-CZ. High-frequency sampling campaigns in high-flow periods and deep analyses are needed in future work to elucidate the related processes and mechanisms. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

长江中游网湖百年花粉序列及其沉积动力和环境特征

本文研究长江中游网湖钻孔百年来的花粉沉积序列,分析花粉沉积近、现代过程以及其与沉积粒度、过去百年湖泊由开放水系到封闭湖泊的气候、水文动力变化的关系.研究表明,花粉浓度、类型与沉积粒度的变化特征以及聚类分析反映出网湖经历了湖泊水系通江与封闭两个重大阶段变化,其花粉序列变化与沉积粒度、区域降水以及长江流量在时间序列上也具有显著的相关性.主要孢粉类型,包括陆生松属、常绿栎/落叶栎、乔灌木花粉、湿生莎草科、水生和陆生草本花粉、以及蕨类孢子,与沉积物粒度和降水具有同步相关的年份占过去130年的27%-40%,与1960年湖泊封闭以前长江流量的同步相关达到47%-57%,反映出花粉沉积量的变化受到了沉积粒径和流域降水量的影响.花粉类型对沉积和气候具有不同的响应关系,表现出具有大于降水70百分点年份以粘土沉积为主、乔灌木花粉占优的多水年模式,和小于降水30百分点的年份以粉砂沉积为主、水生、湿生、陆生草类花粉增加的少水年模式.花粉沉积与水动力这个关系为认识湖泊碎屑和利用花粉沉积记录反演过去环境变迁、生物湖泊沉积机制提供科学依据.