Studying the spatial distribution pattern of soil organic carbon and its influencing factors is essential for understanding the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil samples from four active layers of typical vegetation types (Populus, subalpine shrubs, Picea crassifolia Kom, and alpine meadow) in the upper reaches of Shiyang River basin in the Qilian Mountains were collected to determine the soil organic carbon content and physicochemical properties. The results show the following: (1) There are significant differences in the vertical distribution of Soil organic carbon in the watershed, and the Soil organic carbon content decreases significantly with increasing soil depth. (2) Mainly affected by biomass, the organic carbon content of different vegetation types in different soil layers is as follows: Alpine meadow > Picea crassifolia Kom > Populus > Subalpine shrub, and the soil organic carbon content increases with increasing altitude. Under different vegetation types, the Soil organic content is the highest in the 0–30 cm soil profile, and the maximum value often appears in the 0–10 cm layer, then gradually decreases downward. (3) When soil organic carbon is determined in different vegetation types in the study area, the change of hydrothermal factors has little effect on soil organic carbon content in the short term.

Along with the growth of the population and economic and social development, water consumption in the upper-middle reaches of inland rivers is increasing, which has resulted in long-term cutout in the lower reaches of the river, shrinkage and drying up of the wetlands around the terminal lakes, and has caused a series of ecological problems at the same time. In order to protect the fragile ecological environment, comprehensive harnessing projects have been carried out in many inland river basins in China, in which adopting ecological water conveyance to rehabilitate degraded terminal lakes and wetlands is an important means. From June 2014 to October 2017, the water in the upper-middle reaches of the Shiyang River Basin and the lake water of the terminal lake after ecological water conveyance was sampled. The effects of ecological water conveyance on the characteristics of surface water and groundwater were analyzed using, for example, the Piper triangle diagram, Gibbs boomerang envelope model, and mixing diagram. After ecological water conveyance, the ion concentration of water in Qingtu Lake was higher overall, and ion concentration of water in the unstable catchment was higher than that of the stable catchment. The time variation was characterized as high in the summer half year and low in the winter half year. The water of Qingtu Lake is of high and large salinity, and its hydrochemical type is Na-SO 4 (Cl), which is obviously different from the water in the middle-upper reaches of the Shiyang River Basin. The effects of silicate weathering and evaporation crystallization are the main factors leading to the high ion concentration in the water of Qingtu Lake. Ecological water conveyance and the strong evaporation of arid areas have intensified the salinization of water and soils in Qingtu Lake. Meanwhile, implementing the ecological water conveyance policy in the terminal lake has also led to shortage of water resources for agricultural irrigation in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River Basin. The serial negative ecological effects of the ecological water conveyance should be emphasized.

Soil water is a link between different water bodies. The study of soil water evaporation is of great significance to understand the regional hydrological process, promote environmental remediation in arid areas, and rationalize ecological water use. On the basis of soil water δ2H and δ18O data from April to October 2017 in the Xiying River basin in the upper reaches of the Qilian mountains, the lc-excess and Craig-Gordon model were applied to reflect the evaporating fractionation of soil water. The results show that the change in evaporation loss drives the enrichment of soil water isotopes. The signal of evaporative fractionation of soil water isotopes at different elevations has spatiotemporal heterogeneity. From the perspective of time dynamics, the evaporation loss of the whole region during the observation period was affected by temperature before July, while after July, it was controlled jointly by temperature and humidity, evaporation was weakened. Soil salt content and vegetation played an important role in evaporation loss. In terms of spatial dynamics, the soil moisture evaporation at the Xiying (2097 m) and Huajian (2390 m) stations in the foothills area is larger than that at the Nichan station (2721 m) on the hillside and Lenglong station (3637 m) on the mountain top. The surface soil water evaporation is strong, and the evaporation becomes weak with the increase of depth. The research has guiding significance for the restoration and protection of vegetation in arid areas and the formulation of reasonable animal husbandry policies.

The Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) content of rivers is the most significant part of the carbon cycle migration in the basin under consideration, and it is the basis for a comprehensive understanding of the regional carbon cycle. In this study, we periodically collected samples from four monitoring stations in the Xiying River Basin of the Qilian Mountains in the northern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. We calculated the fluxes of organic carbon in the rivers within the study area and have discussed the influencing factors of DOC concentration in these rivers. The results showed that: (a) The DOC concentration and transport flux of the Xiying river showed significant seasonal changes. The DOC concentration during summer and autumn was higher than that in winter and spring, and the output flux in summer and autumn accounted for approximately 88.3% of the total annual output. (b) Precipitation runoff has a higher DOC concentration than meltwater runoff. Climate factors, river-water chemical characteristics, and seasonal frozen-soil changes in the river basin have significant effects on the river DOC concentration and transport flux. (c) Larger runoff causes higher DOC concentrations in rivers. Runoff is the primary means of carbon migration in the inland river basin. Carbon migration is significant from the upstream to the middle and downstream sections of the inland river basin.

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