Natural and anthropogenic budgets of a small watershed in the massif central (France): Chemical and strontium isotopic characterization of water and sediments

A small watershed (160 km²) located in the Massif Central (France) has been chemically, isotopically and hydrologically studied through its dissolved load, bed sediments and soils. This watershed is underlain by basaltic bedrock and associated soils in which the vegetation is dominated mainly by meadows.Dissolved concentrations of major ions (Cl, SO₄, NO₃, HCO₃, Ca, Na, Mg, K, Al and Si), trace elements (Rb and Sr) and strontium isotopes have been determined for two different hydrologic periods on the main stream of the Allanche river and its tributaries.The major objectives of this study were to characterize the chemical and isotopic signatures of each reservoir occurring in the watershed. Changes in chemical and isotopic signatures are interpreted in terms of fluctuations of the different components inputs: rainwater, weathering products, anthropogenic addition.Water quality may be influenced by natural inputs (rainwater, weathering processes) and anthropogenic additions (fertilizers, road salts, etc.). Precipitation serves as a major vehicle for dissolved chemical species in addition to the hydrosystem and, in order to constrain rain inputs, a systematic study of rainwaters is carried out over a one year period using an automatic collector. Corrections of rainwater addition using chloride as an atmospheric input reference were computed for selected elements and the Sr/Sr ratio. After such corrections, the geochemical budget of the watershed was determined and the role of anthropogenic additions evaluated through the relationship between strontium isotopes and major and trace element ratios. Thus, 10% of Ca and Na originate in rainwater input, 40 to 80% in fertilizer additions and 15 to 50% in rock weatheringThe cationic denudation rates for this watershed are around 0.3 g s^–1 km² during low water discharge and 0.6 g s^–1 km² in high water stage. This led to a chemical denudation rate of 5.3 mm/1000 years.For solid matter, the normalization of chemical species relative to parent rocks shows the depletion or enrichment in soils and sediments. The use of K and Ca as mobile reference illustrates the weathering state of soils and sediments relative to parent rocks. This weathering state for bed sediments range from 15 to 45% for the K normalization and from 2 to 50% for the Ca normalization. For the soils, the weathering state ranges from 15 to 57% for the K normalization and from 17 to 90% for the Ca normalization.