Fluvial geochemistry through a short-duration, tropical-cyclone induced discharge event in the Burdekin River and Hann Creek, North Queensland, Australia

被引:22
作者
Alexander, J [1 ]
Fielding, CR
Wakefield, SJ
George, MT
Cottnam, CF
机构
[1] Univ E Anglia, Sch Environm Sci, Norwich NR4 7TJ, Norfolk, England
[2] Univ Queensland, Dept Earth Sci, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
[3] Cardiff Univ, Dept Earth Sci, Cardiff CF10 3YE, S Glam, Wales
基金
澳大利亚研究理事会;
关键词
river chemistry; Queensland rivers; tropical-cyclone induced runoff; discharge variation;
D O I
10.1023/A:1015203127320
中图分类号
P3 [地球物理学]; P59 [地球化学];
学科分类号
0708 ; 070902 ;
摘要
The chemical composition of river water integrates a number of factors such as weathering, land use, climate, vegetation cover and human activity that individually affect its chemistry. Short term variations may also be significant. The Burdekin River, NE Australia, is an example of a class of tropical streams which experiences two to four orders of magnitude variation in discharge in response to seasonal but erratic monsoonal and cyclonic rainfall. In these systems individual discharge events last for days to weeks. Given the inherent difficulty sampling these events published data on water chemistry (and thus calculated fluxes and global budgets) may tend to be biased to low flow conditions. One such discharge event in February 1996 has been investigated for its impact on the chemistry of the water. Major cations (Na, Mg, K, Ca) all decreased in concentration as the water level rose, as did the minor elements Sr, Ba and U. Some other trace elements, notably Rb, Cr, Pb and REE were enriched in the peak flow waters. The flux of all measured elements increased substantially during the seven days of the discharge event. Such short term but significant events will have a major impact on the annual fluxes of elements delivered to the oceans from the land and global discharge budgets may need to take them into account when refining databases in the future.
引用
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页码:275 / 293
页数:19
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