Home | Contact Us | Sitemap | 中文 | CAS | Director's Email
 
Location:Home > Papers > Recent Papers
Spatial-temporal variations of travertine deposition rates and their controlling factors in Huanglong Ravine, China - A world's heritage site TEXT SIZE: A A A

Huanglong, well known for its unique natural travertine landscape, was listed by UNESCO as an entry in the World's Nature Heritage in 1992, and attracts more than one million of tourists from all over the world each year. However, the landscape has undergone significant degradation ( notably, serious decay of travertine) during the past two decades as the tourist numbers have increased remarkably. To understand the variations of travertine deposition rates and their controlling factors, especially the impact of tourism activities, paired water and modern travertine samples deposited on plexiglass substrates were taken along the Huanglong stream at regular intervals from early May to early November in 2010 (i.e., in the wet season). The travertine deposition rates have declined significantly compared to those in early 90s in all four subsystems in the Huanglong Ravine. The largest decrease (89.5%) occurred at the lowest sampling site. The reduction in travertine deposition most likely resulted from the phosphate pollution caused by the tourism activities. In spite of an increase in concentrations of Ca, calcite saturation, and water temperature, which facilitate calcite precipitation, deposition rates decreased because of inhibition by PO(4)(3-) ions. Seasonally, three control patterns of travertine deposition rates were distinguished along the Ravine. They are control by water-temperature, control by dilution of rainwater and snow-melting water and control by PO(4)- inhibition of calcite precipitation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  Publication name  APPLIED GEOCHEMISTRY Volume: 27  Issue: 1  Pages: 211-222  Published: JAN 2012
  Author(s)

 Zhang, Jinliu; Wang, Haijing; Liu, Zaihua; An, Dejun; Dreybrodt, Wolfgang

  Corresponding author  

 LIU Zaihua
 liuzaihua@vip.gyig.ac.cn
 Chinese Acad Sci, State Key Lab Environm Geochem, Inst Geochem, Guiyang 550002, Peoples R China  

View here for the details from the publisher

Copyright © Institute Of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences All Rights Reserved.
Address: 99 West Lincheng Road, Guanshanhu District, Guiyang, Guizhou Province 550081, P.R.China
Tel: +86-851-85895239 Fax: +86-851-85895239 Email: web_en@mail.gyig.ac.cn