Abstract
The implementation of the water sediment regulation scheme (WSRS) is a typical example of artificially controlling land-source input. During WSRS, the water discharge of the Yellow River will increase significantly, and so will the input of terrigenous materials. In this study, we used a natural geochemical tracer 222Rn to quantify terrestrial inputs under the influence of the 2014 WSRS in the Yellow River Estuary. The results indicated that during WSRS the concentration of 222Rn in the estuary increased by about four times than in the period before WSRS. The high-level 222Rn plume disappeared quickly after WSRS, indicating that 222Rn has a very short ‘memory effect’ in the estuary. Based on the investigation conducted from 2015 to 2016, the concentration of 222Rn tended to be stable in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. During WSRS, the concentrations of 222Rn in the river water increased sharply at about 3–5 times greater than in the non-WSRS period. Based on the 222Rn mass balance model, the fluxes of 222Rn caused by submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) were estimated to be (3.5 ± 1.7) × 103, (11 ± 3.9) × 103, and (5.2 ± 1.9) × 103 dpm m−2 d−1 in the periods before, during, and after WSRS, respectively. This finding indicated that SGD was the major source of 222Rn in the Yellow River Estuary, which can be significantly increased during WSRS. Furthermore, the SGD-associated nutrient fluxes were estimated to be 9.8 × 103, 2.5 × 102, and 1.1 × 104 µmol m−2 d−1 for dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon, respectively, during WSRS or about 2–40 times greater than during the non-WSRS period.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42130410, 41876075, and 4157 6075). We would like to thank Dr. Dong Xia for his assistance in field sampling and measurements.
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Xu, Y., Xiao, L., Gao, M. et al. Using Rn-222 to Study Human-Regulated River Water-Sediment Input Event in the Estuary. J. Ocean Univ. China 22, 1464–1472 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5419-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5419-6