ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1600851
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Monitoring, Modelling, and Analysis of Coastal Environments and EcosystemsView all 31 articles
Unraveling Hydrogeochemical Dynamics and Mixing Mechanisms in North Shandong Coastal Aquifers: Insights from Isotopic and Geochemical Tracers
Provisionally accepted
- 1China University of Geosciences Wuhan, Wuhan, China
- 2China Geological Survey, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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The muddy coastal region of North Shandong, China, including Laizhou Bay and the Huanghe River (Yellow River) Delta, is a complex depositional environment where land and sea intersect, creating diverse water types and intricate coastal groundwater formation and evolution. This study focuses on the hydrochemistry and isotopes of groundwater in the Shallow Holocene aquifers (SHA) and Deep Pleistocene aquifers (DPA) to infer sources and hydrogeochemical processes of water and salts. The aim is to understand the sources and evolution of moisture and salinity in coastal groundwater, aiding in the study of varying groundwater qualities. The aim is to understand the sources and evolution of moisture and salinity in coastal groundwater, aiding in the study of varying groundwater qualities. Interestingly, δ 18 O and δ 2 H stable isotopes' relative abundance in the DPA brine samples from the Huanghe River Delta (at a burial depth of ~260 m) and Huanghe River water samples bear a resemblance, suggesting a strong correlation between the river water and the subsurface brine water source in the EPA. The results reveal that the groundwater is a mix of seawater, freshwater, and brine, with significant differences in hydrochemical types and isotopic signatures between the SHA and DPA aquifers. The Hydrochemical Facies Evolution Diagram (HFE-Diagram) analysis shows 63.77% of SHA water samples underwent desalination, while 79.31% of DPA samples experienced seawater intrusion. This study provides new insights into the hydrogeochemical evolution of coastal aquifers, offering guidance for groundwater management and optimization of coastal restoration strategies.
Keywords: groundwater chemistry, Hydrological Mixing Phenomena, Geological Aquifer Dynamics, HFE-Diagram, Hydrochemical evolution
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Gao, Wang, Sun, Chang, Hou and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhenlin Liu, China University of Geosciences Wuhan, Wuhan, China
Maosheng Gao, China Geological Survey, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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