Use of oxygen-18 isotope to quantify flows in the upriver and middle reaches of the Heihe River,Northwestern China

In recharge areas, the Heihe River flow was separated into components of ice-snowmelt and precipitation according to 14 gauging stations and to monthly hydrograph using oxygen-18. As shown by the result of the two-component mixing model, on average, 19.8% of the runoff comes from ice-snowmelt. At three stations which are closer to glaciers and with headstream of ice-snow melted water, the ice-snowmelt runoff is larger than 28% of stream water. In addition, because most of the ice-snowmelt infiltrates the groundwater, which later discharges into the river at mountain outlets, the ice-snowmelt percentage in runoff is lower than average at these stations with the elevation higher than 3,600 m. According to monthly hydrograph, the lowest percentage of ice-snowmelt in runoff is in July (6.46%), whereas during November it is the largest (26.1%). In the middle basin, the fraction of groundwater in runoff had a marked increase from 23.57% near Zhangye City to 60.28% near Gaotai City, and then a dramatic drop to 13.61% near Zhengyixia Station because of agricultural flood irrigation in Zhangye Basin.