Hydro-Chemistry of Gokyo Valley, Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Nepal

Rajendra Bhandari^1*, Subodh Sharma¹, Juerg Merz², Robin Garton²

¹Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal.
²The Glacier Trust, Wiltshire, UK.

DOI: 10.4236/gep.2015.39007                

Abstract

This research work records the baseline inventory of selected ions in running waters of Gokyo Valley, Nepal and tries to establish relationship of these ions’ concentration with elevation gradient. Among these selected hydro-chemical parameters, the average concentration of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, and total silica were determined to be 3.25 (±2.02), 0.64 (±0.47), 207.2 (±423.01) and 0.36 (±0.17) mg/L respectively. Concentration of these parameters was low compared to earlier studies except that could be justified too since the sampling was performed only once in drier period with low atmospheric input of acid protons required for weathering process. Moreover, Pearson Product-moment Correlation Coefficients (r) for elevation gradient and concentration of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, and total silica were determined to be +0.350, +0.145, +0.101 and -0.275 respectively. Such weak relationship between these parameters and elevation gradient suggests that the concentration of these ions is related to weathering phenomena, glacier and watershed characteristics and snow cover dynamics in Gokyo Valley.

Keywords

Gokyo Valley, Himalayan Streams, Hydrochemistry, Sagarmatha National Park

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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