Hydrologic processes in the different landscape zones of Mafengou River basin in the alpine cold region during the melting period

Abstract

Hydrologic processes of glacier, snow, frozen soil, groundwater, surface water and precipitation have always been the common concern of hydrologists. The purpose of this study is to identify the hydrologic processes in different landscape zones, based on the isotopic and hydrochemical analysis of glacier, snow, frozen soil and groundwater. The chemical compositions were characterized by Ca-HCO3 in the glacier snow zone, Mg-Ca-SO4-HCO3 in the alpine cold desert zone, Ca-Mg-HCO3 in the marsh meadow zone, Ca-Mg-HCO3 in the alpine shrub zone, and Na-Ca-SO4 in the mountain grassland zone. The end-member mixing model was employed for hydrograph separation. The results showed that during the meltin..