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Environmental Management of River Basin Ecosystems pp 91–109Cite as

Climate Effects on Recharge and Evolution of Natural Water Resources in middle-latitude Watersheds Under Arid Climate

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the physico-chemical characteristics of natural waters in middle-latitude drainage systems of central Asia, including the climatic, lithological and geomorphological conditions in which water flows and resides. This analysis allowed the identification of the geological evolution and recharge mechanism of the water resources in an arid environment. The studied waters at various sites are different in mineralization but similar to the majority of large rivers on earth, which are typically alkaline. However, no Cl-dominated water type occurs in the study area, indicating that these natural waters are still at an early stage of evolution. The regolith and geomorphological parameters controlling ground-surface temperature may play a large role in rock weathering regime and so in the geological evolution of water. Three main morphological and hydrological units are reflected in water physico-chemistry: the montane areas (recharge area) with silicate and carbonate weathering, the piedmonts and sedimentary platform (runoff area) with carbonate weathering, and the desert plains (discharge area) with evaporite dissolution. Climate influences the salinization of natural waters substantially. Direct recharge from seasonal snow and meltwater and infiltration of rainfall into the ground are thought to be significant recharge processes for natural waters in the study area, while recharge from potential deep groundwater may be much less important. The chemistry of lakes is generally consistent with those of large lakes in the world, but the enrichment of the ions in the lakes has been caused mainly by evaporation, rather than through the quality of the recharged water.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 41371060, 41271049) and the Kezhen Young Talent Project of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS (Grant No.: 2013RC101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Bingqi Zhu, Jingjie Yu & Yichi Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Patrick Rioual

  3. Centro de Investigaciones en Geografia Ambienta, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Campus Morelia, Morelia, Mexico

    Yan Gao

  4. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Ministry of Education, Urumqi, China

    Heigang Xiong

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  1. Bingqi Zhu
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  2. Jingjie Yu
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  4. Yan Gao
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  5. Yichi Zhang
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  6. Heigang Xiong
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Correspondence to Bingqi Zhu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. and South East Asia Carbonate Laboratory (SeaCarl), Universiti Teknologi Petronas,, Periyar University,Depatment of Geology,Salem,India, Tronoh, Malaysia

    Mu. Ramkumar

  2. Department of Geography, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India

    K Kumaraswamy

  3. Department of Environmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India

    R. Mohanraj

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Zhu, B., Yu, J., Rioual, P., Gao, Y., Zhang, Y., Xiong, H. (2015). Climate Effects on Recharge and Evolution of Natural Water Resources in middle-latitude Watersheds Under Arid Climate. In: Ramkumar, M., Kumaraswamy, K., Mohanraj, R. (eds) Environmental Management of River Basin Ecosystems. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13425-3_5

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