Using stable isotopes paired with tritium analysis to assess thermokarst lake water balances in the Source Area of the Yellow River, northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

Wan, Chengwei; Gibson, J. J.; Shen, Sichen; Yi, Yi; Yi, Peng; Yu, Zhongbo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.427

Cited by 48 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…For hydrological processes, water-stable isotope data allow us to estimate the source, storage, pathway, and age of different water bodies. Wan et al (2019) used water-stable isotope data ( 2 H, 18 O) to assess the thermokarst lake water balance in the headwaters of the Yellow River and proposed a perceptual model to illustrate the evolution of thermokarst lakes under permafrost degradation. Water-stable isotope studies have revealed that, as with unfrozen catchments, pre-event "old" water also plays an important role in runoff generation (Zhou et al, 2015;Ma et al, 2017), challenging the longheld belief that permafrost is an aquiclude layer.…”

Section: Data Limitation and Advanced Observation Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost Hydrology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Review of Processes and Modeling

et al. 2021

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Permafrost extends 40% of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), a region which contains the headwaters of numerous major rivers in Asia. As an aquiclude, permafrost substantially controls surface runoff and its hydraulic connection with groundwater. The freeze–thaw cycle in the active layer significantly impacts soil water movement direction, velocity, storage capacity, and hydraulic conductivity. Under the accelerating warming on the QTP, permafrost degradation is drastically altering regional and even continental hydrological regimes, attracting the attention of hydrologists, climatologists, ecologists, engineers, and decision-makers. A systematic review of permafrost hydrological processes and modeling on the QTP is still lacking, however, leaving a number of knowledge gaps. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of permafrost hydrological processes and applications of some permafrost hydrological models of varying complexity at different scales on the QTP. We then discuss the current challenges and future opportunities, including observations and data, the understanding of processes, and model realism. The goal of this review is to provide a clear picture of where we are now and to describe future challenges and opportunities. We concluded that more efforts are needed to conduct long-term field measurements, employ more advanced observation technologies, and develop flexible and modular models to deepen our understanding of permafrost hydrological processes and to improve our ability to predict the future responses of permafrost hydrology to climate changes.

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Section: Data Limitation and Advanced Observation Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost Hydrology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Review of Processes and Modeling

et al. 2021

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“…For comparison, the mean δ 18 O of ground ice (À11.8‰) was identical to the average value of the high-altitude (>4,000 m a.s.l) groundwater samples (ranging between À14.1 and À7.2‰; mean: À11.8‰) in the SAYR, and the d-excess was also similar (6.5‰ for ground ice and 7.7‰ for groundwater). 42,[52][53][54][55] This indicates replenishing from both modern precipitation and groundwater fed by paleo-precipitation.…”

Section: Cryostratigraphy and Ground Ice Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐resolution stable isotopic signals of ground ice indicate freeze–thaw history in permafrost on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Yang

Jin

2022

Permafrost & Periglacial

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Understanding the mechanism of formation of ground ice and the freeze-thaw history of permafrost is essential when assessing the future of permafrost in a changing climate. High-resolution ground ice records, integrating stable isotopes (δ 18 O, d-excess, and δ 13 C), hydrochemistry (EC and pH) data, and cryostratigraphy at a depth of 4.8 m from two contrasting permafrost profiles (P-1, P-2) in the Source Area of the Yellow River (SAYR) on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), were investigated. The results suggested significant depth variations in the stable isotopes and hydrochemistry of the ground ice. The near-surface ground ice (NSGI) and deep-layer ground ice (DLGI) were characterized in terms of variations in stable isotopes and known modern active layer data. By synthesizing the measured δ 18 O and the modeled isotopic fractionation processes during freezing, we suggest that both the NSGI and DLGI in P-1 were mainly formed by the segregation mechanism during permafrost aggradation. The NSGI in P-2, however, exhibited quick freezing origins compared with the predominant ice segregation processes for the DLGI. By combining the evolution of various stable isotopes and hydrochemistry with 14 C age data, four historical freeze-thaw stages were identified. Specifically, one thawingrefreezing stage (2.8-2.2 m), one freezing aggradation stage (2.2-1.6 m), and two permafrost aggradation-degradation cycle stages (4.8-2.8 m; 1.6-0.7 m) were differentiated, which emphasize the importance of climate-induced freeze-thaw transitions and differing permafrost aggradation processes on ground ice formation and resultant isotope hydrochemical behaviors. This study is the first to use high-resolution data in ground ice to interpret the freeze-thaw history of permafrost in the SAYR. These findings are important for further understanding of past permafrost evolution and projected future permafrost degradation trends on the QTP, and provide an alternative method to explore permafrost history.

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“…For a more objective reflection of the spatial and temporal distributions of natural tritium in precipitation (also called rain tritium), the concentrations of rain tritium reported in areas without nuclear facilities in China [28,36,37,41,42,45,48,49,[57][58][59][60][61][62], Japan [28,35,39,51,52,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] and South Korea [28,[71][72][73][74][75][76][77] in the past three decades were extracted and plotted against the latitude in Fig. 2.…”

Section: Tritium Levels In Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 4 displays the level of tritium in shallow groundwater (here defined as a sampling depth \ 150 m) investigated in areas without nuclear facilities in China, Japan, and South Korea over the past three decades [31,32,41,58,62,69,76,81,84,88,99,. Compared with the level of tritium in surface water, the level of tritium in shallow groundwater is virtually the same or marginally lower than that in surface water at the same site and during the same period.…”

Section: Tritium Levels In Groundwatermentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels and behavior of environmental tritium in East Asia

Feng

Zhuo

2022

NUCL SCI TECH

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For a more systematic understanding of the levels of environmental tritium and its behavior in East Asia, a database on environmental tritium was established based on the literature published in the past 30 years. Subsequently, the levels and behavior of the environmental tritium were further studied by statistical analyses. The results indicate that the distribution of environmental tritium is inhomogeneous and complex. In areas without nuclear facilities, the level of environmental tritium has decreased to its background level, even though a certain number of atmospheric nuclear tests were performed before 1980. In general, the level of atmospheric tritium was marginally higher than the levels in precipitation and surface water; the levels in shallow groundwater and seawater were considerably lower. Furthermore, the levels of tritium in the atmosphere, precipitation, and inland surface water were strongly correlated with latitude and distance from the coastline. In soil and living organisms, the level of tissue-free water tritium (TFWT) was comparable to the tritium levels in local rainfall, whereas the persistence of organically bound tritium (OBT) in the majority of organisms resulted in an OBT/TFWT ratio greater than one. Conversely, extremely high levels of environmental tritium were observed near certain nuclear power plants and the Fukushima accident sites. These results highlight the requirement to know the tritium baseline level and its behavior in the environment beforehand to better assess the impact of tritium discharge. Further investigations of environmental tritium in East Asia using more efficient and adequate monitoring methods are also required.

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Using stable isotopes paired with tritium analysis to assess thermokarst lake water balances in the Source Area of the Yellow River, northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

Cited by 48 publications

References 70 publications

Permafrost Hydrology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Review of Processes and Modeling

Permafrost Hydrology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: A Review of Processes and Modeling

High‐resolution stable isotopic signals of ground ice indicate freeze–thaw history in permafrost on the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Levels and behavior of environmental tritium in East Asia

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