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Development and Testing of a Hydro-Chemical River Mixing

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Development and Testing of a Hydro-Chemical River Mixing Examensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper Degree Project at the Department of Earth Sciences ISSN 1650-6553 Nr 503 Development and Testing of a Hydro-Chemical River Mixing Model to Investigate Sources of Carbon and Mercury in the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada Kartläggning av källor och transport av kol och kvicksilver i Mackenziefloden Torbjörn-Johannes Erikson INSTITUTIONEN FÖR GEOVETENSKAPER DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES Examensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper Degree Project at the Department of Earth Sciences ISSN 1650-6553 Nr 503 Development and Testing of a Hydro-Chemical River Mixing Model to Investigate Sources of Carbon and Mercury in the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada Kartläggning av källor och transport av kol och kvicksilver i Mackenziefloden Torbjörn-Johannes Erikson ISSN 1650-6553 Copyright © Torbjörn-Johannes Erikson Published at Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University (www.geo.uu.se), Uppsala, 2020 Abstract Development and Testing of a Hydro-Chemical River Mixing Model to Investigate Sources of Carbon and Mercury in the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada Torbjörn-Johannes Erikson Mercury, Hg, is found in Arctic biota in alarming quantity, posing a potential health risk for the local population. It is believed that the large Arctic rivers contribute to this. The Mackenzie River annually transports approximately 325 km3 water to the Arctic Ocean, which is ca 10% of the freshwater received. The annual water flow also transports ca 2 ton of Hg. In order to investigate the source of Hg within the Mackenzie River Basin and the path of transport, a hydro-chemical river mixing model is constructed using field data gathered in summer 2018 and publicly available data. However, since the Hg concentration is very low in the river water and it is known that Hg binds very strongly to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC), both DOC and POC are utilized instead as proxies for Hg. The purpose of the model is to allow for estimations to be made of the relative contributions of different sub-basins and effluents to the total outflow of (e.g.) DOC at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, based on limited hydrographic and riverine water quality data. The model was used to estimate the mixing of DOC and POC sources for summer 2018 as an initial test of its performance. It performs adequately as it can estimate the amount of water discharge and DOC/TOC (total organic carbon) load that each node contributes to the Mackenzie River. The results from the model suggest that the contribution of organic carbon from each sub-watershed is not solely dependent on either drainage area size or water discharge; additionally, it appears to be determined by the local environment and geology. Water from catchment areas containing peatlands have high DOC content, and water passing through regions with coal layers have high POC content. The loss of POC towards the end of the model coincides well with the expected deceleration of the water discharge entering the Mackenzie River delta. It is concluded that the model should be useful for the study of Hg origin and transport in the Mackenzie River. Also, it has the potential for being a starting point for a more advanced or predictive model. Keywords: mercury, Hg, POC, DOC, Mackenzie River Degree Project E1 in Earth Science, 1GV025, 30 credits Supervisors: Christian Zdanowicz and Anne Sørensen Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36 Uppsala (www.geo.uu.se) ISSN 1650-6553, Examensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper, No. 503, 2020 The whole document is available at www.diva-portal.org Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning Kartläggning av källor och transport av kol och kvicksilver i Mackenziefloden Torbjörn-Johannes Erikson Varje år levereras stora mängder kvicksilver till det Arktiska havet. Kvicksilver är ett välkänt miljögift, tungmetall, och har kapaciteten att ackumuleras i näringskedjan. Kring Arktiska havet finns det ett flertal bosättningar där innevånarna får sin näring främst från havet och denna befolkning riskerar att bli påverkad av kvicksilverhalten i deras mat. Mackenziefloden mynnar ut i det Arktiska havet i norra Kanada. Med ett vattenflöde av ca 325 km3 vatten per år och ett avrinningsområde på 1.8 miljoner km2 bidrar Mackenziefloden med ca 10% av färskvattentillförseln till Arktiska havet. Det är också uppskattat att ca 2 ton av kvicksilver transporteras via Mackenziefloden. För att kartlägga flödet och ursprunget av kvicksilver används prover tagna i fält 2018 och allmänt tillgängliga data. Från det konstrueras en modell som kartlägger flödet och ursprung av partikulärt och kemiskt löst kol. Förekomsten av partikulärt och kemiskt löst kol är relaterat till förekomst av kvicksilver och är betydligt enklare att mäta. Tillsammans med data på flödeshastighet, tagna från existerande mätstationer, används provresultaten till att etablera en serie av punkter som kommer att representera de olika delarna av Mackenzieflodens dräneringsområde. På detta sätt kan de olika förgreningarna som mynnar ut i Mackenziefloden observeras var och en för sig, vilket gör det lättare att se vilka områden som tillför partikulärt och kemiskt löst kol och i vilka mängder. Det är föga förvånande att de stora floderna, så som Liardfloden och Peelfloden, är bland de största bidragarna av kol, både partikulärt och kemiskt löst. Nära Mackenzieflodens utlopp kan man se att mängden partikulärt kol i suspension avtar, i samband med att flödeshastigheten minskar och partiklar börjar att fällas ut då floden mynnar ut i deltat. Resultaten i den här studien visar en väldigt hög masstransport (i kg/km2/31d), gentemot tidigare observationer. Detta är dock orsakat av att fältproverna som använts här är tagna under en kort period väldigt nära vårfloden, vilket får de dagliga värdena att se väldigt stora ut. Dessa värden är dock bara aktuella en kortare tid och avtar resten av året. Denna modell utgör en potentiell bas för vidare studie av kol och kvicksilverförekomst i Mackenzieflodens avrinningsområde och eventuellt även för andra floder givet tillgängliga data. Nyckelord: kvicksilver, Hg, DOC, POC, Mackenziefloden Examensarbete E1 i geovetenskap, 1GV025, 30 hp Handledare: Christian Zdanowicz och Anne Sørensen Institutionen för geovetenskaper, Uppsala universitet, Villavägen 16, 752 36 Uppsala (www.geo.uu.se) ISSN 1650-6553, Examensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper, Nr 503, 2020 Hela publikationen finns tillgänglig på www.diva-portal.org Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Thesis objectives ............................................................................................................................ 2 3 Presentation of the study region ..................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Hydrology ......................................................................................................................... 3 3.2 Climate .............................................................................................................................. 3 3.3 Physiography/geography ................................................................................................... 3 3.4 Land cover ........................................................................................................................ 4 4 Sources of riverine organic carbon in the MRB ............................................................................. 5 5 Datasets and methods ..................................................................................................................... 6 5.1 Datasets ............................................................................................................................. 6 5.1.1 Field data collection ............................................................................................. 6 5.1.2 Other supporting datasets .................................................................................. 10 5.2 Model development ........................................................................................................ 11 6 Results .......................................................................................................................................... 16 7 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 21 7.1 Comparison between the model and observations .......................................................... 21 7.2 Errors .............................................................................................................................. 25 7.3 Data reliability ................................................................................................................ 27 8 Conclusions and recommendations for future work ..................................................................... 29 8.1 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 29 8.2 Remarks and future recommendations ............................................................................ 29 9 References .................................................................................................................................... 30 Appendices ......................................................................................................................................
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