Premium
Control of the Interactions Between Stream and Groundwater by Permafrost and Seasonal Frost in an Alpine Catchment, Northeastern Tibet Plateau, China
Author(s) -
Ma Rui,
Sun Ziyong,
Chang Qixin,
Ge Mengyan,
Pan Zhao
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2020jd033689
Subject(s) - permafrost , groundwater recharge , groundwater , hydrology (agriculture) , water table , frost (temperature) , plateau (mathematics) , environmental science , surface water , groundwater flow , seasonality , geology , aquifer , geomorphology , oceanography , ecology , mathematical analysis , geotechnical engineering , mathematics , environmental engineering , biology
While the individual effects of permafrost and seasonal frost on the interactions between groundwater and surface water have received much attention, few attempts have been made to investigate the effects of permafrost and seasonal frost together on groundwater flow and its interactions with surface water. In this study, hydraulic, chemical, and isotopic data as well as a Bayesian mixing model were employed to investigate the interactions between streams and groundwater, the contributions of groundwater to the mainstream, and their relationships to the distribution of permafrost and seasonal frost in a representative subcatchment in the headwater region of the Heihe River Basin on the northeastern Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau in China. Our results showed that due to the freezing and thawing of recharge water sources and soils, the groundwater flow and stream flux from the permafrost zone to the seasonal frost zone increased during the thawing period, with maximum values in thawed period, and decreased during the frozen period. These variations affected groundwater recharge in the seasonal frost zone, resulting in dynamic changes in the groundwater table and the hydraulic gradient between the recharge and discharge points in the seasonal frost zone during the different freeze‐thaw periods. Correspondingly, the contribution of groundwater to the mainstream discharge decreased from 95% during the frozen period to 80%–90% during the thawing period. It then decreased to ∼40%–60% of the mainstream discharge during the thawed period and increased to ∼70%–90% during the refreezing period. From the permafrost zone to the seasonal frost zone and the catchment outlet, the aquifers in the piedmont plain of the seasonal frost zone play an important role in maintaining streamflows by switching their hydrological functions, that is, slowly releasing groundwater to maintain the streamflow during the frozen period and rapidly transferring the groundwater to mainstream during the thawed period.