Environmental isotopes, such as oxygen-18 and deuterium, have been used increasingly to separate stormflow into its event and pre-event components in order to elucidate the sources, pathways and re...

Isotope hydrograph separations and rapid delivery of pre-event water from drainage basins:

Hydrograph separation using stable isotopes: Review and evaluation

A method is presented for quantifying the uncertainty in two- and three-component tracer-based hydrograph separations. The method relates the uncertainty in computed mixing fractions to both the tracer concentrations used to perform the hydrograph separation and the uncertainties in those concentrations. A two-component example and a three-component example illustrate the application of the method. The three-component example yields uncertainty results very similar to those from a previously published Monte Carlo analysis and requires less computation.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/98WR00010

Quantifying uncertainty in tracer‐based hydrograph separations

[1] Source waters and flow paths of streamflow draining high-elevation catchments of the Colorado Rocky Mountains were determined using isotopic and geochemical tracers during the 1996 snowmelt runoff season at two subcatchments of the Green Lakes Valley, Colorado Front Range. A two-component hydrograph separation using δ18O indicates that new water dominated (82 ± 6%) streamflow at the 8-ha Martinelli catchment and old water dominated (64 ± 2%) at the 225-ha Green Lake 4 (GL4) catchment. Snowmelt became isotopically enriched as the melt season progressed, complicating the interpretation of source water models. Thus old water may be underestimated if the temporal variation in δ18O of snowmelt is ignored or extrapolated from point measurements to the catchment. Two-component hydrograph separations for unreacted and reacted waters using a single geochemical tracer were not always meaningful. Three-component hydrograph separations using end-member mixing analysis indicated that subsurface flow contributed more than two thirds to the streamflow at both catchments. Talus fields contributed more than 40% of the total discharge during summer at the GL4 catchment. A conceptual model was established for flow generation based on these results. It is suggested that surface water and groundwater interactions are much more important to the quantity and quality of surface water in high-elevation catchments than previously thought.

/pdf/source-waters-and-flow-paths-in-an-alpine-catchment-colorado-2c3jbwxqe5.pdf

Source waters and flow paths in an alpine catchment, Colorado Front Range, United States

An overview of current research in isotope hydrology, focusing on recent Canadian contributions, is discussed under the headings: precipitation networks, hydrograph separation and groundwater studies, river basin hydrology, lake and catchment water balance, and isotope palaeohydrology from lake sediment records. Tracer-based techniques, relying primarily on the naturally occurring environmental isotopes, have been integrated into a range of hydrological and biogeochemical research programmes, as they effectively complement physical and chemical techniques. A significant geographic focus of Canadian isotope hydrology research has been on the Mackenzie River basin, forming contributions to programmes such as the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment. Canadian research has also directly supported international efforts such as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation and IAEAs Coordinated Research Project on Large River Basins. One significant trend in Canadian research is toward sustained long-term monitoring of precipitation and river discharge to enable better characterization of spatial and temporal variability in isotope signatures and their underlying causes. One fundamental conclusion drawn from previous studies in Canada is that combined use of υ 18 O and υ 2 H enables the distinction of precipitation variability from evaporation effects, which offers significant advantages over use of the individual tracers alone. The study of hydrological controls on water chemistry is one emerging research trend that stems from the unique ability to integrate isotope sampling within both water quality and water quantity surveys. Copyright  2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~jjgibson/gibson_files/Gibson%20et%20al.,%202005.pdf

Progress in isotope tracer hydrology in Canada

Hydrograph separation: A comparison of geochemical and isotopic tracers

Current conceptual runoff models hypothesize that stormflow generation on the Canadian Shield is a combination of subsurface stormflow and saturation overland flow. This concept was tested during spring runoff in a small (3.3 ha) headwater basin using: (1) isotopic and chemical hydrograph separation and (2) field mapping and direct tracing of saturated areas. Isotopic and chemical hydrograph separation indicated three runoff components: (1) pre-melt subsurface flow; (2) subsurface flow of new (event) water; and (3) direct precipitation on to saturated areas (DPS). During early thaw-freeze cycles, their relative contributions to total flow remained constant (65 per cent, 30 per cent, and 5 per cent respectively). It is hypothesized that lateral flow along the bedrock/mineral soil interface, possibly through macropores, supplied large volumes of subsurface flow (of both old and new water) rapidly to the stream channel. Much higher contributions of DPS were observed during an intensive rain-on-snow event (15 per cent of total flow). Mapping and direct tracing of saturated areas using lithium bromide, suggested that saturated area size was positively correlated to stream discharge but its response lagged behind that of discharge. These observations suggest that the runoff mechanisms, and hence the sources of stream flow, will vary depending on storm characteristics.

Streamflow generation in a headwater basin on the precambrian shield

Experimental evidence is presented on the influence of specific surface area on the transport of the sorbing tracer strontium in fractures with uniform, but differing aperture. Specific surface area is defined as the ratio of the fracture surface area to the volume of mobile water in the fracture. Static sorption experiments on granite coupons suggest hysteresis in the sorption process, showing higher surface distribution coefficients for desorption than for sorption. Strontium was subject to significantly greater dispersion than the nonreactive tracer tritium. This enhanced dispersion is believed to be the result of chemical heterogeneity at the mineral grain scale, hysteresis in sorption, and limited transverse mixing across the fracture aperture. The influence of fracture aperture on retardation is much greater than predicted by the commonly used definition of the surface retardation factor. Strontium retardation was approximately an order of magnitude greater in a smaller-aperture fracture (450 µm, Ra ∼ 45) than in a large-aperture fracture (780 µm, Ra ∼ 3.5). We hypothesize that hysteresis in sorption, in conjunction with limited transverse mixing across the aperture, caused the apparent increase in sorption strength (Ka) with a decrease in fracture aperture.

Influence of Specific Surface Area on Transport of Sorbing Solutes in Fractures: An Experimental Analysis

Stream water pH may be influenced by (1) the flow paths and (2) the residence time of water that contributes to streamflow, when these hydrologic factors interact with the biogeochemical processes that neutralize H+ ions in the catchment. This paper presents measures of the volumes of groundwater contributing to streamflow, the groundwater residence times, and the sources of stream water acidity found during spring runoff in three basins on the Canadian Shield. Isotopic hydrograph separations were used to estimate the relative contributions of groundwater to spring runoff. The contributions of old (premelt) groundwater to spring runoff were greater (60%) in a well-buffered, third-order basin than in a more acidic first-order basin (49%). Using a simple mixing model, a larger groundwater reservoir (420 mm unit depth) and longer residence time (162 days) were estimated in the third-order basin. The lowest stream pH (4.8) was observed in a second-order basin with a wetland that collects drainage from about 79% of the basin. In this basin the principal source of H+ ions was the conifer-sphagnum wetland. We conclude that the hypotheses that the pH of these streams was proportional to (1) a fraction of streamflow contributed by groundwater or (2) the residence time of water in a basin are rejected. More attention must be focused upon the source of acidity generated in wetlands, since these are ubiquitous in small basins.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/WR026i012p02993%4010.1002/%28ISSN%291944-7973.CHAPMAN5

Christoph Wels

Papers

Hydrograph separation: A comparison of geochemical and isotopic tracers

Streamflow generation in a headwater basin on the precambrian shield

Influence of Specific Surface Area on Transport of Sorbing Solutes in Fractures: An Experimental Analysis

Groundwater and Wetland Contributions to Stream Acidification: An Isotopic Analysis