Implications for the effect of climate change on the water
quality and quantity of the Yellow River
There were two probable reasons for the increasing
trends of major ion concentrations in the Yellow River.
One was that the increasing of temperature caused by
climate change enhances rock weathering, leading to the
higher concentrations of major ions in river water. The
other reason was that the decreasing trends of river runoff
weaken its dilution effect for major ions in river
water, resulting in the concentration of major ions. This
was manifested by the negative correlation between river
runoff and total ion concentrations. The decreasing
trend of river runoff of the Yellow River and the increase
of temperature were mainly caused by the climate
change (Zeng et al. 2004; Liu 2007; Jia et al. 2008).
Therefore, the results obtained in this research implicates
that climate change will affect the water quality including
major ion concentrations, conductivity and pH
value of rivers.