Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Source and seasonal variation in the major ion chemistry of two eastern Himalayan high altitude lakes, India

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Arabian Journal of Geosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A chemical survey of two high-altitudes lakes, i.e., Tsokyo Tso and Sella, was conducted during pre-monsoon (May) and post-monsoon (November) 2011. Lake water is found to be pure with very low EC values even lesser than rainwater. This shows where lake water receives most of its contribution. A comprehensive and systematic study on the seasonal pattern of major ions (Cl−, PO4 3−, HCO3 −, NO3 −, SO4 2−, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and SiO2) was carried out to understand the geochemical processes controlling water quality. There was marked seasonal variation observed for almost all ions. Factor analysis identifies geochemical controls, snow melting, and evaporative enrichment as main controlling factor. The partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) value has increased in the post-monsoon probably due to higher atmospheric CO2 during winter. Overall, factor analysis identified processes like geochemical control, snowmelt water input, and evaporative enrichment in the pre-monsoon, atmospheric input and dilution of ions due to rainfall, microbial activities, and accumulation of weathered material lake system in the post-monsoon as governing processes switching among themselves in different seasons. HYSPILT back trajectory model was used to trace the source of long-range transport of pollutant. Results show for both the lakes that air arriving to the vicinity of the lake has an origin from the southeast direction during pre-monsoon and the mid-Gangetic plain during post-monsoon season, respectively. The results show that both the studied lakes have significant impacts of long-range transport of air pollutants rather than local interferences. Long-term monitoring of the fluctuation in key parameters can further verify the findings of this study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig 3
Fig 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anshumali (2006) The study of heavy metals and PAHs in Lake Pandoh, Mandi Town, Himachal Pradesh, India. PhD thesis, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (submitted)

  • Anshumali, Ramanathan AL (2007) Seasonal variation in the major ion chemistry of pandoh lake, Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, India. Applied Geochem 22:1736–1747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • APHA, AWWA, WEF (2005) Standard methods for examination of the water and wastewater. (21st ed.). Washington DC, APHA ISBN 0-87553-047-8

  • Chakrapani GJ (2005) Chemical studies of water in the Kumaun Himalayan Lakes. In: Ramachandra, T,V., Ahalya, N., Murthy, C.R. (Eds.), Aquatic Ecosystems (Conservation, Restoration and Management). Capital Publishing Company, New Delhi, pp 147–153

  • Clow DW, Striegl RG, Nanus L, Mast MA, Campbell DH, Krabbenhoft DP (2001) Chemistry of selected high-elevation lakes in seven national parks in the western United States. Water Air Soil Pollut Focus 2:139–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen MD, Draxler RR, Artz R, Commoner B, Bartlett P, Cooney P, Couchot K, Dickar A, Eisl H, Hill C, Quigley J, Rosenthal JE, Niemi D, Ratte D, Deslauriers M, Laurin R, Mathewson-Brake L, McDonald J (2002) Modeling the atmospheric transport and deposition of PCDD/F to the great Lakes. Environ Sci Technol 36(22):4831–4845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton MG, Upchurch SB (1978) Interpretation of hydrochemical facies by factor analysis. Ground water 16:228–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Das BK, Kaur P (2001) Major ion chemistry of renuka lake and weathering processes, sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh, India. Environ Geol 40:908–917

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deka JP, Baruah B, Singh S, Chaudhury R, Prakash A, Bhattacharyya P, Selvan MT, Kumar M (2015) Tracing phosphorous distributions in the surficial sediments of two eastern Himalayan high altitude lakes through sequential extraction, multivariate and HYSPLIT back trajectory analyses. Environ Earth Sci 73(11):7617–7629

  • Edmond JM, Palwer MR, Measures CF, Grant B, Stallard RF (1995) The fluvial geochemistry and denudation rate of the guayana shield in Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. Geochim Cosmochim Ac 59:3301–3323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fovell RG, Fovell MC (1993) Cluster analyses of U.S. temperature and precipitation data: Regionalization and data reduction. Preprint, Eight Conferences on Applied Climatology, Anaheim, CA. Amer Meteor Soc 165-168

  • Gaillardet J, Dupre B, Allegre CJ (1999) Global silicate weathering and CO2 consumption rates deduced from the chemistry of large rivers. Chem Geol 159:3–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs RJ (1970) Mechanisms controlling worlds water chemistry. Science 170(1088):1090

    Google Scholar 

  • Gopal B (2005) Identification of Lakes for Conservation and Restoration (Final Report). National River Conservation Directorate, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, New Delhi, 234pp

  • Grasby SE, Hutcheon I (2000) Chemical dynamics and weathering rates of a carbonate basin, Bow River, southern Alberta. Appl Geochem 15:67–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guler C, Thyne GD, McCray JE, Turner AK (2002) Evaluation of graphical and multivariate statistical methods for classification of water chemistry data. J Hydrogeol 10(4):455–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Håkanson L, Jansson M (1983) Principles of Lake Sedimentology. Springer, Heidelberg, 316 pp

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Helgeson HC (1968) Evaluation of irreversible reactions ingeochemical processes involving minerals and aqueous solu-tions I. Thermodynamic relations. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 32:853–877

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland HD (1978) The Chemistry of the Atmosphere and Oceans. Wiley-Interscience, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz AJ, Meybeck M, Idlafkih Z, Biger E (1999) Variations in trace element geochemistry in the Seine River Basin based on floodplain deposits and bed sediments. Hydrol Process 13:1329–1340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hren MT, Chamberlain CP, Hilley GE, Blisniuk PM, Bookhagen B (2007) Major ion chemistry of the yarlung tsangpo-brahmaputra river: chemical weathering, erosion and CO2 consumption in the southern Tibetan plateau and eastern syntaxis of the Himalaya. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 71:2907–2935

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huh Y, Panteleyev G, Babich D, Zaitsev A, Edmond JM (1998) The fluvial geochemistry of the rivers of eastern Siberia: II. Tributaries of the Lena, omoloy, Yana, Indigirka, Kolyma, and Anadyr draining the collisional/accretionary zone of the Verkhoyansk and cherskiy ranges. Geochim Cosmochim Ac 62(12):2053–2075

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jha PK, Tiwari J, Singh UK, Kumar M, Subramanian V (2009) Chemical weathering and associated CO2 consumption in the Godavari river basin, India. Chem Geol 264:364–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones JG (1982) Activities of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in lake sediments and their effect on the water column. In: Nedwell DB, Brown CM (eds) Sediment Microbiology. Academic, London, pp 107–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaushal DK, Joshi HC, Kumar S (2001) A note onlimnological features of pandoh lake, Himachal Pradesh. Indian J Fish 48(2):217–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer JR (1968) Mineral-water equilibria in silicate weathering. In: Kantor J (ed) Rep XXIII Int Geol Congr, Prague, Czechoslovakia 6:149–160

  • Kumar M, Ramanathan AL, Keshari AK (2009) Understanding the extent of interactions between groundwater and surface water through major ion chemistry and multivariate statistical techniques. Hydrol Process 23:297–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewin J, Macklin MG (1987) Metal mining and floodplain sedimentation in Britain. In: Gardiner V (ed) International geomorphology, part 1. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Millot R, Gaillardet J, Dupré B, Allégre CJ (2002) The global control of silicate weathering rates and the coupling with physical erosion: new insights from rivers of the Canadian Shield. Earth Planet Sci Lett 196:83–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosello R, Lami A, Marchetto A, Rogora M, Wathne B, Lien L, Catalan J, Camarero L, Ventura M, Psenner R, Koinig K, Thies H, Sommaruga-Wögrath S, Nickus U, Tait D, Thaler B, Barbieri A, Harriman R (2001) Trends in the water chemistry of high altitude lakes in Europe. Water, Air and soil pollut. Focus 2:75–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Njenga J, Ramanathan AL, Subramanian V (2003) Study of water quality in Lake Naivasha, Kenya. In: Ramanathan AL, Ramesh R (eds) Recent Trends in Hydrogeochemistry (Case Studies from Surface and Subsurface Waters of Selected Countries). CPC, New Delhi, pp 37–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Paces T (1972) Chemical characteristic and equilibration in nat-ural water-felsic rock CO2 systems. Geochim Cosmochim Ac 36:217–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick S, Battarbee RW, Wathne BM, Psenner R (1998) Measuring and modelling the dynamic response of remote mountain lake ecosystems to environmental change: an introduction to the MOLAR project. In: Kovar K, Tappeiner U, Peters NE, Craig RG (eds) Hydrology, Water Resources and Ecology in Headwaters. International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publ No. 248. IAHS Press, Wallingford, pp 403–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Piper AM (1944) A graphic procedure in the geochemical interpretation of water analysis. Am Geophys Union Trans 25:914–923

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raymahashay BC (1986) Geochemistry of bicarbonate in river water, rnalf. Geologcal Soc India 27:114–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymo ME, Ruddiman WF, Froelich PN (1988) Influence of Late Cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles. Geology 16:649–653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers RJ (1989) Geochemical comparison of groundwater inareas of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. Ground water 27(5):690–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh S, Goman T, Rahul C, Kumar M (2010) Comparative study illustrating the major ion characteristics of the HALs of India and Europe. In the proceeding of The 9th International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment, p. 82–87

  • Sommaruga-Wögrath S, Koinig KA, Schmidt R, Sommaruga R, Tessadri R, Psenner R (1997) Temperatures effects on the acidity of remote alpine lakes. Nature 387:64–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stumm W, Morgan JJ (1970) Aquatic chemistry, an introduction emphasizing chemical equilibria in natural water. Wiley Interscience, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Talbot MR (1996) Sedimentary environments: processes, facies and stratigraphy. Blackwell Science, Oxford, pp 83–125

    Google Scholar 

  • The MOLAR Chemistry Group (1999) The MOLAR project: atmospheric deposition and lake water chemistry. J Limnol 58:88–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Usunoff EJ, Guzman-Guzman A (1989) Multivariate analysis in hydrogeochemistry: an example of the use factor and correspondence analyses. Ground water 27:27–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White AF (2002) Determining mineral weathering rates based on solid and solute weathering gradients and velocities-Application to biotite weathering in saprolites. Chem Geol 190:69–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams MW, Melack JM (1991) Solute chemistry of snowmelt and runoff in an alpine basin, Sierra Nevada. Water Resources Res 27(7):1575–1588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaharescu DG, Hooda PS, Soler P, Fernande J, Burghelea CI (2009) Trace metals and their source in the catchment of the high altitude Lake Respomuso, Central Pyrenees. Sci Total Environ 407:3546–3553

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (http://www.ready.noaa.gov) used in this publication. Authors also acknowledge the seed money grant from the Tezpur University partly used for this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Napaam, Sonitpur, Assam, 784 028, India

    Jyoti Prakash Deka, Goman Tayeng, Sangeeta Singh, Raza Rafiqul Hoque, Amit Prakash & Manish Kumar

Authors
  1. Jyoti Prakash Deka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Goman Tayeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sangeeta Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Raza Rafiqul Hoque
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Amit Prakash
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Manish Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manish Kumar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Deka, J.P., Tayeng, G., Singh, S. et al. Source and seasonal variation in the major ion chemistry of two eastern Himalayan high altitude lakes, India. Arab J Geosci 8, 10597–10610 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-1964-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-1964-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation