Stable isotopes in river waters in the Tajik Pamirs: regional and temporal characteristics

The Gunt River catchment in the Central Pamirs is a representative of the headwater catchments of the Aral Sea Basin. It covers 14,000 km ², spanning altitudes between 2000 and 6700 m a.s.l. In a monitoring network, water samples were taken at 30 sampling points every month and analysed for the stab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Isotopes in environmental and health studies 2013, Vol.49 (4), p.542-554
Main Authors: Meier, Christiane, Knoche, Malte, Merz, Ralf, Weise, Stephan M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
altitude effect
Central Asia
Deuterium - analysis
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Freshwater
hydrogen-2
Oxygen Isotopes - analysis
oxygen-18
Pamir
Rivers - chemistry
seasonal variations
Seasons
surface water
Tajikistan
water cycle
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Summary:The Gunt River catchment in the Central Pamirs is a representative of the headwater catchments of the Aral Sea Basin. It covers 14,000 km ², spanning altitudes between 2000 and 6700 m a.s.l. In a monitoring network, water samples were taken at 30 sampling points every month and analysed for the stable water isotopes (¹⁸O and ²H). Our first results show δ ²H values in the range from−131.2 to−94.9 ‰ and δ ¹⁸O values from−18.0 to−14.0 ‰. The stable isotope patterns in the catchment seem to follow a systematic way, dominated by an altitude effect with a mean Δ δ ²H=−3.6 ‰/100 m. The observed seasonal variations can be explained by geographical aspects such as the influence of different wind systems as well as melting processes.
ISSN:1477-2639
1025-6016
1477-2639
DOI:10.1080/10256016.2013.835809