Notice of RetractionWater Resources Assessment of the Forest Watershed in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River, Using Isotope Tracers

Abstract

To assess the hydrologic features of the alpine river systems in the Huangbengliu basin, stable isotopic composition was measured on more than 150 water samples, including meteoric water, stream water, ice-snow meltwater and ground water, collected almost monthly in 2008 and 2009. The results of this work indicate that: (i) the stable isotope of meteoric waters has amount effect, and melt water is most depleted, and ground water and river water show evident seasonal variation due to the influence of meteoric water; (ii) there exist overall different spatial and temporal trends in isotopic variations between the sampling locations in stream flow, which are mainly caused by the influences of various water sources and the effects of tributary water inputs; (iii) using a δ18O based binary model, we estimated that the annual proportion of ice-snow meltwater inputs over the total stream flow varied from 39.84% to 81.89%, and that of ground water varied from 18.1% to 60.16%. Ice-snow meltwater is an important source of the alpine rivers, and precipitation provides the main part of seasonal variations of stream water in δ18O and δD. The ice-snow meltwater is significantly important in the alpine water source management in the periphery of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.