Geochemical elements characteristics and sources of the riverbed sediment in the yellow river’s desert channel

The Yellow River flows through an extensive area of aeolian desert and extends from Xiaheyan, Ningxia Province, to Hekouzhen, Inner Mongolia Province, for a total of 1,000 km. In the desert channel of the Yellow River, the major chemical components are SiO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , Al 2 O 3 , Ti, CaO, MgO, Ba, P, Mn, Ce, Co in which SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , Fe 2 O 3, and Ti have significant value as indicators of the sources of the coarse sediment. The spatial distribution of the elements’ weight percentages and the ratios of Si/Ti, Si/Al between sediment sources and riverbed sediment of the Gansu reach and the desert channel of the Yellow River, indicating that the coarse sediments deposited in the desert reach of the Yellow River are mostly controlled by the local sediment sources; and due to the higher mobility of the fine sediments, they are primarily contributed by the local sediment sources and the tributaries that originate from the loess area of the upper reach of Yellow River. The results of R-factor analysis illustrate that the first component score mainly shows negative values in the desert channel, suggesting that the coarse sediments in this reach contain a higher content of Si and a lower content of Mg + Ca + Al + Fe, which further proves that the Ningxia Hedong, Inner Mongolian Wulanbuhe, and Kubuqi deserts are the primary sources of the coarse sediment in the desert channel of the Yellow River.