scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Carbon and Freshwater Browning in the Zoige Alpine Wetland, Northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2453
Author(s):  
Zheyue Zhang ◽  
Jihong Qin ◽  
Hui Sun ◽  
Jiyuan Yang ◽  
Yanyang Liu

The concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and its light-absorbing fraction (chromophoric dissolved organic matter; CDOM) in surface waters, particularly those draining organic-rich peatlands, have dramatically increased over the past decade due to climate change and human disturbance. To explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of DOC and CDOM in surface waters of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we collected water samples from two rivers in the Zoige alpine wetland and from two rivers in its adjacent alpine-gorge region, during wet and dry seasons. DOC concentration ranged from 4.82 mg·L−1 to 47.83 mg·L−1, with a mean value of 15.04 mg·L−1, 2.84 times higher than the global average. The Zoige rivers had higher DOC concentration and highly terrigenous CDOM. Significantly higher DOC concentration was observed for the Zoige rivers in the wet season compared to the dry season. In contrast, the alpine-gorge rivers had higher DOC levels in the dry season. No significant correlations were observed between DOC and CDOM at all rivers due to the influence of autochthonous sources on the alpine-gorge rivers and intensive photochemical degradation of terrigenous DOM in the Zoige rivers. Significant relationships between CDOM and specific ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (SUVA254) and between CDOM/DOC and SUVA254 were observed, indicating that the aromaticity of DOM in the rivers was mainly determined by CDOM. Moreover, the DOC/CDOM properties of the Hei River indicate critical human-induced water quality degradation. High DOC level and high browning degree were found in rivers in the Zoige alpine wetland, indicating that large amounts of terrigenous DOC were released to the aquatic systems of the region.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. e0181295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Qu ◽  
Mika Sillanpää ◽  
Chaoliu Li ◽  
Shichang Kang ◽  
Aron Stubbins ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 3661-3675 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. I. Stutter ◽  
D. G. Lumsdon ◽  
A. P. Rowland

Abstract. Moorland carbon reserves in organo-mineral soils may be crucial to predicting landscape-scale variability in soil carbon losses, an important component of which is dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Surface water DOC trends are subject to a range of scaling, transport and biotic processes that disconnect them from signals in the catchment's soils. Long-term soil datasets are vital to identify changes in DOC release at source and soil C depletion. Here we show, that moorland soil solution DOC concentrations at three key UK Environmental Change Network sites increased between 1993–2007 in both surface- and sub- soil of a freely-draining Podzol (48 % and 215 % increases in O and Bs horizons, respectively), declined in a gleyed Podzol and showed no change in a Peat. Our principal findings were that: (1) considerable heterogeneity in DOC response appears to exist between different soils that is not apparent from the more consistent observed trends for streamwaters, and (2) freely-draining organo-mineral Podzol showed increasing DOC concentrations, countering the current scientific focus on soil C destabilization in peats. We discuss how the key solubility controls on DOC associated with coupled physico-chemical factors of ionic strength, acid deposition recovery, soil hydrology and temperature cannot readily be separated. Yet, despite evidence that all sites are recovering from acidification the soil-specific responses to environmental change have caused divergence in soil DOC concentration trends. The study shows that the properties of soils govern their specific response to an approximately common set of broad environmental drivers. Key soil properties are indicated to be drainage, sulphate and DOC sorption capacity. Soil properties need representation in process-models to understand and predict the role of soils in catchment to global C budgets. Catchment hydrological (i.e. transport) controls may, at present, be governing the more ubiquitous rises in river DOC concentration trends, but soil (i.e. source) controls provide the key to prediction of future C loss to waters and the atmosphere.


2011 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Banaś

The effect of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) on the environmental conditions of macrophytes has been studied in 35 lakes divided into soft- and hardwater: oligohumic (&lt;4.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup>), α-mesohumic (4.0-8.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup>), β-mesohumic (8.1-16.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup>) and polihumic (&gt;16.0 mg C dm<sup>-3</sup>). The optimum environmental conditions for macrophytes have been found in oligohumic lakes, characterised by low water colour and its good transparency. In soft- and hardwater lakes increasing concentration of DOC is accompanied with an increase in the colour (r=0.95), while the visibility decreases. With increasing DOC in the near-sediment layer the pH values decrease while the concentration of nitrogen increases and the concentration of phosphorus slightly increases. In hardwater lakes with increasing DOC concentration, the redox potential, conductivity, total hardness and calcium concentration in the near-sediment water decrease, whereas the content of CO<sup>2</sup> remains at a very low level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Josipovic ◽  
Catherine Leal-Liousse ◽  
Belinda Crobeddu ◽  
Armelle Baeza-Squiban ◽  
C. Keitumetse Segakweng ◽  
...  

This study aimed to characterise aerosols sampled in the vicinity of a major industrialised area, i.e. the Vaal Triangle. It included thedetermination of oxidative potential as a predictive indicator of particle toxicity. Aerosol samples were collated through the cascadefiltering during an eight-month period (12 h over three days in one week). Three size fractions were analysed for organic carbon(OC), black carbon (BC) and oxidative potential (OP), while ionic content was presented as monthly and seasonal concentrations. Thecontinuous measurement of black carbon by an optical attenuation instrument was collated concurrently with cascade filtering. Thecarbonaceous content was low compared to the ionic one. Within the carbonaceous concentrations, the organic carbon was higherthan concentrations of black carbon in both seasons in the ultra-fine fraction; the opposite was the case for the fine fraction, whilethe coarse fraction concentrations of organic carbon in the dry season had higher concentrations than black carbon in the wet seasonand organic carbon in the wet season. The OP tended to increase as the size was decreasing for wet season aerosols, whereas, forthe dry season, the highest OP was exerted by the fine fraction. The ultrafine fraction was the one showing the most contrasting OPbetween the two seasons. Continuous monitoring indicated that the higher BC concentrations were recorded in the dry/winter partof the year, with the daily pattern of concentrations being typically bimodal, having both the morning and evening peaks in bothseasons. Within the ionic content, the dominance of sulphate, nitrate and ammonium was evident. Multiple linear correlations wereperformed between all determined compounds. Strong correlations of carboxylic acids with other organic compounds were revealed.These acids point to emissions of VOC, both anthropogenic and biogenic. Since they were equally present in both seasons, a mixtureof sources was responsible, both present in the wider area and throughout the year.


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