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Hydrochemical changes in a small tropical island’s aquifer: Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Small islands groundwater are often exposed to heavy pumpings as a result of high demand for freshwater consumption. Intensive exploitation of groundwater from Manukan Island’s aquifer has disturbed the natural equilibrium between fresh and saline water, and has resulted increase the groundwater salinity and leap to the hydrochemical complexities of freshwater–seawater contact. An attempt was made to identify the hydrochemical processes that accompany current intrusion of seawater using ionic changes and saturation indices. It was observed that the mixing between freshwater–seawater created diversity in geochemical processes of the Manukan Island’s aquifer and altered the freshwater and seawater mixture away from the theoretical composition line. This explained the most visible processes taking place during the displacement.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia through fundamental research grant of FRG0050-ST-1/2006. Permission from the Sabah Parks Trustees for the study site exploration is highly acknowledged. A special thanks to Mr Ahmad Fairudz Jamaludin and Mrs Maimunah Mohamad from Climatological and Hydrological Division, Malaysian Meteorological Department for the rainfall data. The authors also thank anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, 43400, Selangor, Malaysia

    A. Z. Aris

  2. Environmental Science Programme, School of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88999, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

    M. H. Abdullah & S. M. Praveena

  3. Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju, 500-712, South Korea

    K. W. Kim

Authors
  1. A. Z. Aris
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  2. M. H. Abdullah
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  3. K. W. Kim
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  4. S. M. Praveena
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Correspondence to A. Z. Aris.

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Aris, A.Z., Abdullah, M.H., Kim, K.W. et al. Hydrochemical changes in a small tropical island’s aquifer: Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia. Environ Geol 56, 1721–1732 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1275-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1275-3

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