JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2020

Presentation information

[E] Poster

A (Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences ) » A-HW Hydrology & Water Environment

[A-HW32] Material transportation and cycling in aquatic ecosystems; from headwaters to coastal areas

convener:Syuhei Ban(The University of Shiga Prefecture), Adina Paytan(University of California Santa Cruz), Takahiro Hosono(Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University), Morihiro Maeda(Okayama University)

[AHW32-P03] Observation for the spatial variation of lacustrine groundwater discharge (LGD) in the northern basin of Lake Biwa by multi-layer measurement of radon (222Rn)

*Mitsuyo Saito1, Shin-ichi Onodera2, Yusuke Tomozawa2, Kunyang Wang2, Syuhei Ban3, Noboru Okuda4 (1.Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, 2.Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, 3.School of Environmental Sciences, The University of Shiga Prefecture, 4.Research Institute for Humanity and Nature)

Keywords:lacustrine groundwater discharge, Lake Biwa, Radon (222Rn)

Primary productivity in freshwater lakes and reservoirs are usually controlled by phosphorus (P). Lacustrine groundwater discharge (LGD), direct discharge of subsurface water to lake, is regarded as a potential nutrient paths, including phosphorus from a catchment to lake water environment. Some researchers have pointed out the presence of LGD into Lake Biwa, however, its spatial variation including deep groundwater discharge from offshore lake bed has not been well examined. In the present research, we aimed to observe the spatial variation in LGD to the northern basin of Lake Biwa by multi-layer measurement of radon (222Rn).

The field campaigns were conducted several times from 2017 to 2019. 222Rn is a radioactive element of uranium (238U) series with 3.8 day of half-life. 222Rn is a powerful tracer of groundwater discharge because it generally enriched in groundwater than surface water. To examine the spatial variation in LGD, 222Rn concentration in lake water was measured in eastern and western transects with different depths (5m, 10m, 20m, and 60m). At each station, 222Rn was measured in different depths (surface, intermediate, and bottom) to observe both of shallow and deep groundwater discharge.

222Rn concentration was totally higher in the bottom than surface layer at each station. It suggests LGD from lake bed. The highest 222Rn was observed in the bottom layer at 20m-deep station on the eastern transect in some periods. This result suggests LGD from offshore lake bed via deep groundwater discharge.

*This work is supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (18H03961, PI: Syuhei BAN) and RIHN research project (D-06 Biodiversity-driven Nutrient Cycling and Human Well-being in Social-Ecological Systems, PI: Noboru OKUDA).