Abstract
Triglavska Bistrica is a typical Alpine river in the north-western part of Slovenia. Its recharge area includes some of the highest peaks in the Julian Alps. The hydrogeological conditions and flow of the river depend largely on groundwater exchange between the karstified aquifer in the carbonate rocks and the intergranular aquifer in the glaciofluvial deposits. The average volume of the river flow is up to several m3/s. In this study, water samples from different locations along the river were analysed for stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen, major ions, and concentration of tritium activity. The correlation of major ions suggests that the recharge area consists of both limestone and dolomite rocks. The δ18O and δ2H values decrease downstream, implying that the average recharge elevation increases. At the downstream sampling site V-5, located approx. 300 m upstream from the confluence of the Sava Dolinka River, the calculated mean recharge altitude is estimated to be 1,996 m.
Highlights
Triglavska Bistrica is a small Slovenian river flowing in the Vrata glacial valley and surrounded by the highest peaks in Slovenia
The Triglavska Bistrica hydrograph illustration has a specific shape, which can be described with snow-rain regime
The start of the snow-melt period can be detected by the small discharges in early spring, which start with the slow rise of discharges, and during the high-thaw period form a specific shape with high discharge values
Summary
Water from the river can infiltrate the banks and surrounding aquifers These conditions change temporally (seasonally) and spatially (lithology, geomorphological processes, etc.). In addition to chemical parameters, stable isotope ratios of oxygen and hydrogen (expressed as δ18O and δ2H) in water can provide information on recharge areas (Clark and Fritz, 1997), while tritium activity concentration (3H) can provide information on the average residence time of groundwater. A combination of chemical and isotope data has been widely used for hydrogeological research of alpine water streams (Carey & Quinton, 2005; Thiébauda et al, 2010; Shamsi et al, 2019), and the same techniques have been applied in Slovenia (Kanduč et al, 2012; Torkar et al, 2016)
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