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River water quality across the Himalayan regions: elemental concentrations in headwaters of Yarlung Tsangbo, Indus and Ganges River

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Abstract

To study the water quality across the Himalayan region, a total of 43 river water samples were collected in September 2012 from the Yarlung Tsangbo (Brahmaputra), Indus and Ganges basins. We measured the common water quality parameters (pH, EC, TDS, and water temperature) and analyzed the element concentrations (As, Cr, S, Sr, Tl, B, Ba, Ca, Al, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Rb, and Ti) using ICP-AES. The results show that all the rivers have an alkaline environment with pH from 7.9 to 8.9. TDS has a positive relationship with Ca and Mg concentrations. The elemental contents are comparable among the samples from different river basins. The enrichment factor of As in river water across Himalayas showed a high value at 30, indicating the impacts of anthropogenic activities. The river water quality in this region is under the influence of climate change on the glacier melting, which will affect the water chemistry and the seasonal discharge of river runoff.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41121001, 41225002, 41201074), Academy of Finland (decision number 264307). The authors would like to thank Dr. Qianggong Zhang and Dr. Jie Huang for the field work and Dr. Eveliina Repo for conducting ICP-OES analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Green Chemistry, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Sammonkatu 12, 50130, Mikkeli, Finland

    Yulan Zhang, Mika Sillanpää & Bin Qu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Yulan Zhang & Shichang Kang

  3. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Chaoliu Li, Junming Guo, Bin Qu & Shichang Kang

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  1. Yulan Zhang
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  2. Mika Sillanpää
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  5. Bin Qu
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Correspondence to Mika Sillanpää.

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Zhang, Y., Sillanpää, M., Li, C. et al. River water quality across the Himalayan regions: elemental concentrations in headwaters of Yarlung Tsangbo, Indus and Ganges River. Environ Earth Sci 73, 4151–4163 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3702-y

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