Hydrochemical Characteristics and Ion Sources of Precipitation in the Upper Reaches of the Shiyang River, China

• Main Authors: Zhiyuan Zhang, Wenxiong Jia, Guofeng Zhu, Xinggang Ma, Xiuting Xu, Ruifeng Yuan, Yang Shi, Le Yang, Hui Xiong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: Shiyang River; precipitation; ion; wet deposition; enrichment factor method
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/5/1442

The Shiyang River Basin is located at the edge of the monsoon wind system of South and Southeast Asia. The hydrochemical characteristics of precipitation are influenced by both monsoon and arid regions. The regression analysis method, comparative analysis, neutralization factor (NF), enrichment factor (EF) and HYSPLIT4 were used to analyze the precipitation samples collected from the upper reaches of the Shiyang River from October 2016 to October 2017. In order to study the hydrochemical characteristics and ion sources of precipitation in this basin. The results, as discussed in this paper, show that the precipitation in the upper reaches of the Shiyang River is mildly alkaline all year round while the neutralization ability of Ca²⁺ and NH₄⁺ in precipitation is strong. The ion concentration was higher in the dry season than that in the wet season, but the concentration of NH₄⁺ was higher in summer. Furthermore, as the altitude increased, the electrical conductivity (EC) of the precipitation decreased gradually. Influenced by precipitation and rainy days, the wet deposition of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) was higher in the wet season than that during the dry season, and the wet deposition gradually increased with the elevation. In precipitation, the earth’s crust is a major source of Ca²⁺, K⁺ and Mg²⁺, the ocean is a major source of Cl⁻, the ocean and the earth’s crust are the sources of Na⁺, human activities are the main sources of SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻ and NH₄⁺, the amount of F⁻ is very small, its sources are natural and human activities. Water vapor in precipitation mainly comes from westerly air mass circulation and monsoon circulation while the particles come mainly from the earth’s crust.