Magnesium as Environmental Tracer for Karst Spring Baseflow/Overflow Assessment—A Case Study of the Pertuso Karst Spring (Latium Region, Italy)

• Main Authors: Francesco Maria De Filippi, Silvia Iacurto, Gerardo Grelle, Giuseppe Sappa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: karst spring; aquifer; magnesium; environmental tracer; discharge; baseflow
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/1/93

Following a previous research carried out on the same site, this paper presents the update of the Mg²⁺ based method for the estimation of Pertuso Spring discharge, located in Central Italy. New collected data confirmed the validity of the proposed model and the conservative behaviour of Mg²⁺ for groundwater related to the Pertuso Spring aquifer. Further analysis allowed to obtain a local linear relationship between magnesium concentration and total spring discharge (including exploitation rate), regardless of the mixing model proposed with the Aniene River. As regards two samples which fall out of the linear relationship and could have been detected as “outliers”, more in-depth data processing and sensitivity analyses revealed that the lowering in magnesium, at equal discharges, is determined by the appearance of the quick-flow component, less mineralized and related to storm events. Results showed that under specific conditions, related to the absence or presence of previous intense rainfall events, Mg²⁺ could be effectively a useful tracer for separating spring conduit flow (overflow) from diffuse flow (baseflow) within the karst aquifer.