Anthropogenic Impact on the Dissolved Load Geochemistry of the Ramganga River, Ganga Basin, India
Abstract
The Ramganga River is an important tributary of the Ganga River flowing through diverse land use classes inhabiting pristine locations in the Himalayas to industrial towns in the mid-downstream region. To understand the geochemical heterogeneity and different end-member composition, dissolved load samples were collected from the river during different seasons. Mass balancing equations based forward model was employed to quantify the contribution from different sources in the following order: carbonate > silicate > evaporite > atmosphere > anthropogenic in Zone 1 (upstream) and carbonate > silicate > evaporite > anthropogenic > atmosphere in Zone 2 (downstream). The results indicate silicate and carbonate weathering predominantly contribute 93% and 82%, whereas anthropogenic sources contribute up to 42% of the major cation load. Though carbonate weathering is quite strong in the basin, silicate weathering processes efficiently uptake 1.3 - 11.0 t km-2 year-1 of atmospheric CO2. The findings reveal the extent of human activities and land use degradation on the geochemical composition, transportation, and weathering processes at spatial and temporal scales.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022AGUFM.H15U1041P