Abstract
As the main anion of groundwater, the content of sulfate affects the drinking water safety and ecological security directly. In recent years, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization development, the problem of sulfate pollution in water environments is becoming more and more serious. It is critical to effectively identify the sulfate sources of water environment to ensure human health and the benign evolution of water environment. Due to its “fingerprints” feature, the sulfur and oxygen isotopes of SO42− have been widely used to identify sources of sulfate contamination in water environment. However, research advances in tracing sulfate contamination sources of water environment by using stable isotopes are rarely reported. This paper reviewed the research advances of sulfate isotope technology domestically and abroad, which was used to trace the sources of sulfate pollution in water environment, compared different pre-treatment methods for analyzing the δ34S and δ18O of sulfate, and compiled the ranges of typical values of δ34S and δ18O from different potential sources of sulfate contamination. In this review, the limitation of the technique in traceability of sulfate pollution was also discussed, and the future traceability techniques of sulfate pollution were prospected.
Highlights
Sulfate, as a common anion in the water environment, is widely distributed in various natural environments and plays an important role in biogeochemical cycles
The source apportionment of sulfate contamination in water environments has gone through the process of relying on the hydrogeochemical theory to the application of stable isotope techniques
The application of stable isotope techniques to trace the sources of sulfate pollution at home and abroad is reviewed
Summary
As a common anion in the water environment, is widely distributed in various natural environments and plays an important role in biogeochemical cycles. With the advancement of the science and technology, scholars have found that the SO4 2− from different sources has particular δ34 S and δ18 O values and it has been widely used to identify sulfate sources and the processes of sulfur biogeochemical cycles [11,12,13,14]. The author reviews the current research progress of identifying the sources of sulfate pollution in water environment by using the δ34 S and δ18 O isotope technology. The main contents are as follows: (1) The fractionation mechanism of sulfur and oxygen isotope of sulfate is introduced, (2) the ranges of typical values of δ34 S and δ18 O from different potential sources of sulfate are complied, (3) the research advances of sulfate isotope technology in domestic and abroad, which was used to trace the sources of sulfate contamination in water environment are summarized, and (4) the future traceability techniques of sulfate in water environment are prospected
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