Meeting Abstract

Jahr der Veröffentlichung: 2008

Seiten: H31E-0932-

Zeitschrift: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Bandnummer: 89

Heftnummer: 53, Suppl.

Verlag: Wiley

Abstract: 

The application of tracer-based approaches to catchment characterization are increasingly common, and are of particular interest to a number of recent research initiatives including PUB, which have been formulated based upon the clear need for the hydrologic sciences to more fully contribute to watershed management strategies at larger scales. The upscaling of hydrologic process understanding to mesoscale catchments is still a major research challenge, partly due to measurement limitations: we cannot characterize the hydrometric response of large catchments using standard hydrometric measurement protocols. Tracer-based approaches, however, do have significant potential to contribute to our understanding in larger catchments. This study was designed to identify water source areas and flow paths in the previously ungauged basin of the 3600 km² comprising catchment of the Xilin river, Inner Mongolia, P.R. China, in order to improve process understanding for further model development. The catchment is characterized by a relatively homogenous land use consisting of large steppe and sand dune areas used for grazing purposes and few small villages. There is no industry which could act as contaminating point sources to the river. We hypothesize that the water chemistry of the Xilin river reflects the composition of the underlying soils and geology. We examine the stream water chemistry from a series of 5 nested catchments as well as potential, individually sampled water sources (precipitation, groundwater storages at different depths and the headwater area). Samples taken were analyzed for elemental composition with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and for anions with an ion chromatograph (IC). The diagnostic tools of Hooper (Hooper, 2003) serve to identify conservative tracers from a suite of 31 elements and residual analysis serves to assess the number of end members that are needed to explain streamflow at the different catchment scales. In this talk we present results from multivariate statistical analyses and mixing models to better understand and quantify the sources of streamflow at multiple scales. Our results suggest that the sources of streamflow change among the different scales and that simple 2 and 3 three component mixture models are capable of describing the water composition at the various catchment scales.

Harvard-Zitierstil: Barthold, F., Wu, J., Vache, K., Breuer, L. and Frede, H. (2008) Elucidating Hydrologic Process Understanding Using a Multi Tracer Approach at Different Scales in the Grasslands of Inner Mongolia, Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 89(53, Suppl.), p. H31E-0932

APA-Zitierstil: Barthold, F., Wu, J., Vache, K., Breuer, L., & Frede, H. (2008). Elucidating Hydrologic Process Understanding Using a Multi Tracer Approach at Different Scales in the Grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 89(53, Suppl.), H31E-0932.