Spatial-temporal patterns of major ion chemistry and its controlling factors in the Manasarovar Basin, Tibet

doi:10.1007/s11442-015-1196-5

Abstract

Abstract:

The Manasarovar Basin in southern Tibet, which is considered a holy land in Buddhism, has drawn international academic attention because of its unique geographical environment. In this study, based on actual measurements of major ion concentrations in 43 water samples collected during the years 2005 and 2012, we analyzed systemically the spatial- temporal patterns of water chemistry and its controlling factors in the lake and inflowing rivers. The results reveal that the water in the Manasarovar Basin is slightly alkaline, with a pH ranging between 7.4-7.9. The amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS) in lake and river waters are approximately 325.4 and 88.7 mg/l, respectively, lower than that in most of the surface waters in the Tibetan Plateau. Because of the long-term effect of evaporative crystallization, in the lake, Na⁺ and HCO₃^- have the highest concentrations, accounting for 46.8% and 86.8% of the total cation and anion content. However, in the inflowing rivers, the dominant ions are Ca²⁺ and HCO₃^-, accounting for 59.6% and 75.4% of the total cation and anion content. The water exchange is insufficient for such a large lake, resulting in a remarkable spatial variation of ion composition. There are several large inflowing rivers on the north side of the lake, in which the ion concentrations are significantly higher than that on the other side of the lake, with a TDS of 468.9 and 254.9 mg/l, respectively. Under the influence of complicated surroundings, the spatial variations in water chemistry are even more significant in the rivers, with upstreams exhibiting a higher ionic content. The molar ratio between (Ca²⁺+Mg²⁺) and (Na⁺+K⁺) is much higher than 1.0, revealing that the main source of ions in the waters is carbonate weathering. Although natural processes, such as rock weathering, are the major factors controlling main ion chemistry in the basin, in the future we need to pay more attention to the anthropogenic influence.

Key words: Manasarovar, surface water chemistry, spatial-temporal distribution, rock weathering, Tibetan Plateau

Zhijun YAO, Rui WANG, Zhaofei LIU, Shanshan WU, Liguang JIANG. Spatial-temporal patterns of major ion chemistry and its controlling factors in the Manasarovar Basin, Tibet[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2015, 25(6): 687-700.

Figures/Tables 10

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	K⁺	Ca²⁺	Na⁺	Mg²⁺	Cl^-	SO₄^2-	HCO₃^-	SiO₂	TDS	pH
2005 measurements
Lake	4.76	35.72	49.54	32.68	14.03	33.24	347.54	-	343.7	-
River estuaries	0.84	16.47	4.70	4.18	1.68	23.69	52.28	-	77.7	-
Basin	2.80	26.10	27.12	18.43	7.85	28.47	199.91	-	210.7	-
2012 measurements
Lake	6.24	20.11	54.23	29.28	14.57	31.03	299.30	1.87	307.0	7.85
River estuaries	1.68	18.65	7.02	4.75	2.10	18.14	75.59	9.56	99.7	7.78
Upper rivers	1.19	23.64	14.69	6.95	7.95	15.08	115.42	7.88	135.1	7.42
Basin	3.04	20.80	25.31	13.66	8.21	21.42	163.44	6.44	180.6	7.68
Average levels between 2005-2012 measurements
Lake	5.50	27.91	51.89	30.98	14.30	32.14	323.42	-	325.36	-
River estuaries	1.26	17.56	5.86	4.46	1.89	20.92	63.94	-	88.70	-
Precipitation	2.66	10.54	3.19	1.36	4.16	9.27	32.76	-	47.56	-
Basin	2.92	23.45	26.22	16.04	8.03	24.94	181.67	-	195.65	-

Lake	TDS	K⁺	Na⁺	Ca²⁺	Mg²⁺	Cl^-	SO₄^2-	HCO₃^-	Reference
Manasarovar	0.31	0.14	2.31	0.61	1.27	0.42	0.34	5.11	This study
Qinghai	18.05	4.24	191.8	0.57	33.44	226.4	29.52	29.16	Xu et al., 2010
Nam Co	1.2	0.89	13.91	0.18	3.28	3.65	2.15	13.8	Wang et al., 2010b
Tangra Yumco	11.1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Wang et al., 2010a
Zhari Namco	7.74	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Wang et al., 2010a
Pumayum Co	0.1	0.45	-	1.12	1.03	0.05	0.81	1.75	Ju et al., 2010
Yamzhog Yumco	1.28	0.46	12.29	0.18	7.85	2.31	7.25	9.74	Sun et al., 2013
La'ang Co	0.49	0.52	7.65	0.32	4.48	1.94	1.12	13.34	Wang et al., 2013

	K⁺	Ca²⁺	Na⁺	Mg²⁺	Cl^-	SO₄^2-	HCO₃^-	TDS
Lake center
1976^a	5.92	24.31	44.05	25.72	14.83	26.3	264.66	277.04
2009-2010^b	5.97	26.86	49.09	28.73	13.83	29.73	300.71	304.57
Lake peripheries (L1 sample for 2005 and 2012)
1976^a	3.23	22.13	24.21	16.35	9.6	15.75	178.03	182.88
2005	6.32	69.55	59.30	41.73	10.21	13.93	556.17	479.12
2012	7.75	35.08	65.21	36.35	14.62	28.41	415.61	395.22
River estuaries (R5 sample for 2005 and 2012)
1976^a	1.65	16.13	6.35	5.33	3.68	8.06	67.69	80.60
2005	0.81	24.17	4.13	3.59	1.69	36.34	55.10	98.28
2012	1.17	31.50	11.77	8.77	4.31	15.88	146.12	146.46

	K⁺	Ca²⁺	Na⁺	Mg²⁺	SO₄^2-	HCO₃^-	Cl^-
Magnitude (μmol)	4.90	19.93	11.01	4.19	7.20	40.64	9.11
Max. percentage (%)	37.8	21.2	35.4	22.8	24.9	81.2	100.0
Mean percentage (%)	21.1	7.1	9.4	5.7	6.7	10.8	47.5
Min. percentage (%)	3.5	1.9	0.7	0.6	1.3	1.3	1.3

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