Sources and migration path of chemical compositions in a karst groundwater systems.pdf

? The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at S /scp *Corresponding author (email: balance@) Article Geography doi: 10.1007/s11434-013-5762-x Sources and migration path of chemical compositions in a karst groundwater system during rainfall events YANG PingHeng1,2*, YUAN DaoXian1,2, YE XuChun1, XIE ShiYou1, CHEN XueBin1 LIU ZiQi1 1 School of Geographical Sciences, Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; 2 The Karst Dynamics Laboratory, Ministry of Land and Resources, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin 541004, China Received July 18, 2012; accepted January 5, 2013 Physical and chemical dynamics at Jiangjia Spring (JJS), the outlet of the Qingmuguan karst groundwater system in Chongqing, were monitored in situ during rainfall events to acquire a series of high-resolution data. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to identify the sources of chemical compositions in the karst groundwater. The coefficients of variations (CVs) of the physical and chemical data of JJS were utilized to interpret the migration path of the chemical compositions. The results showed that water-rock interactions, agricultural activities, and soil erosion were the main sources of the groundwater chemical composi- tions. Ions of potassium, sodium, nitrate, chloride and phosphate from agricultural activities together with ions of calcium, mag- nesium, strontium and bicarbonate derived from carbonate dissolution appear to be stored and regulated by the karst unsaturated zone in features such as fissures, pores and solution cracks. The concentrations of the ions remained relatively stable and they showed low CVs owing to their migration by diffuse flow to recharge the underground river. In contrast, concentrations of ions such as total iron, total manganese and aluminum from soil