Impacts of river impoundment on the riverine water chemistry composition and their response to chemical weathering rate

Currently, most rivers worldwide have been intensively impounded. River damming becomes a big problem, not only in inducing the physical obstruction between upstream and downstream, but also in destroying the natural continuity of river. But the discontinuity of water quality was often neglected, which presents a challenge to traditional river geochemistry research. To understand the changes in basic chemistry of water upstream and downstream of the dam, we investigated the Miaotiao River reservoirs in series in the Wujiang River Basin, and the Hongjiadu, Dongfeng Reservoir on the upper reaches of the Wujiang River. Chemical weathering rates were calculated using the water chemistry data of the reservoir surface and downstream of the dam, in each reservoir, respectively. The results showed that the difference between the chemical weathering rates calculated from reservoir surface water and water downstream of the dam was greater in reservoirs with a longer water retention time. In Hongjiadu Reservoir with the longest water retention time among the studied reservoirs, this difference reaches 9%. As a result, the influence of fiver damming, especially the influence of reservoirs in series, should be taken into account when calculating the chemical weathering rate of a fiver basin.

CHEMICAL WEATHERING PROCESSES AND ATMOSPHERIC CO_2 CONSUMPTION OF HUANGHE RIVER AND CHANGJIANG RIVER BASINS

Rock weathering plays an important role in studying the long-term carbon cycles and global climatic change. According to the statistics analysis, the Huanghe (Yellow) River water chemistry was mainly controlled by evaporite and carbonate weathering, which were responsible for over 90% of total dissolved ions. As compared with the Huanghe River basin, dissolved load of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River was mainly originated from the carbonate dissolution. The chemical weathering rates were estimated to be 39.29t/(km(2).a) and 61.58t/(km(2).a) by deducting the HCO3- derived from atmosphere in the Huanghe River and Changjiang River watersheds, respectively. The CO2 consumption rates by rock weathering were calculated to be 120.84 x 10(3)mol/km(2) and 452.46 x 10(3)mol/km(2) annually in the two basins, respectively. The total CO2 consumption of the two basins amounted to 918.51 x 10(9)mol/a, accounting for 3.83% of the world gross. In contrast to other world watersheds, the stronger evaporite reaction and infirm silicate weathering can explain such feature that CO2 consumption rates were lower than a global average, suggesting that the sequential weathering may be go on in the two Chinese drainage basins.

Effect of atmospheric precipitation on the dissolved loads of the Dongjiang River,China

The atmospheric precipitation plays an important role in influencing the river chemistry of the Dongjiang River. The atmospheric contribution to river water is estimated by reference to Cl concentration called Cl ref . The Cl ref of 41 97 μmol/L represents the highest chloride concentration of the rainwater inputs to river water, thus sea salts are responsible for total Cl concentration of the Dongjiang River. According to the principal compositions of precipitation and river water, two approaches sea salt correction and precipitation correction were proposed in order to correct the contribution proportions of atmospheric precipitation on the solutes and to calculate chemical weathering rate. The results reflected that the atmospheric contribution ratios fluctuate from ～5% to ～20% of TDS(total dissolved solids) in the Dongjiang River. As compared with the other world watersheds, the lower dissolved ion contents and high runoff may result in the obvious influence of precipitation on river chemistry in the Dongjiang basin. The major elemental chemistry is mainly controlled by silicate weathering, with the anion HCO - 3 and cation Ca 2+ and Na\++ dominating the major compositions in this basin. The estimated chemical weathering rate of 15 78—23 48 t/(km 2·a) is only 40%—60% of a global average in the Dongjiang basin. Certainly, the estimated results are still under correction gradually because the effect of human activities on the precipitation chemistry has never been quantified in detail.