An isotope study of water bodies along a traverse of southwestern Canada

Willamette River Basin surface water isoscape (δ18O and δ2H): temporal changes of source water within the river

“…Distance from the ocean would affect surface water isotopes through the rainout effect on precipitation isotopes. Other studies have also found that longitude or distance inland from the Pacific coast were significant factors explaining variance in surface water isotopes even after accounting for elevation effects, with decreases between 3-45% per 100 km inland for d 2 H (Yonge et al 1989, Ingraham and Taylor 1991, Williams and Rodoni 1997. When considering longitude alone, we observed an average decrease of 18.7 and 2.4% per 100 km inland for d 2 H and d…”

“…O, respectively, which were similar but lower than the values found for coastal southwestern Canada (Yonge et al 1989). Although latitude can explain significant amounts of spatial variation in precipitation isotopes (Bowen and Wilkinson 2002, Bowen and Revenaugh 2003, Dutton et al 2005, Lechler and Niemi 2011, river water isotopes (Kendall and Coplen 2001) and groundwater isotopes (Wassenaar et al 2009), it was not important within our study area because of the limited range in latitude (43.6 and 44.98 N) and large elevational influences (Lechler and Niemi 2011).…”

“…The spatial variation of river water stable isotopes has been characterized at the continental scale from the USGS National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN, Coplen 2001, Dutton et al 2005). For both precipitation and surface water, the isotopic pattern is highly correlated with changes in elevation, latitude and longitude (Yonge et al 1989, Ingraham and Taylor 1991, Williams and Rodoni 1997, Dutton et al 2005, Rowley and Garzione 2007, Wassenaar et al 2009, Lechler and Niemi 2011 These patterns are created by the well known process of Rayleigh distillation also known as the rainout effect (Dansgaard 1964, Gat 1996, Clark and Fritz 1997, Gat 2010. In this process, heavy isotopes accumulate preferentially in water droplets, and fall as precipitation, leaving the vapor cloud more depleted in heavy isotopes as it moves along its storm trajectory.…”

“…Given that precipitation isotopes can change over relatively small geographic distances, particularly along the west coast of North America (Yonge et al 1989, Ingraham and Taylor 1991, Williams and Rodoni 1997, we decided to explore how this variation can be used to understand variation in source waters within a ;30,000 km 2 river basin. Specifically, our objective was to characterize the temporal and spatial isotopic variation of surface waters within the Willamette Basin, Oregon to understand dynamics in source water variation over space and time within the Willamette River.…”

Characteristics of hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope ratios in precipitation collected in a snowfall region, Aomori Prefecture, Japan

“…Investigations of isotopic ratios of water have significantly contributed to our understanding of atmospheric circulation (e.g., Epstein and Mayeda, 1953;Fritz et al, 1987;Hoffman et al, 2000). Moreover, many hydrological studies have investigated 2 H/ 1 H and 18 O/ 16 O ratios in precipitation in relation to surface water (Gonfiantini, 1985;Telmer and Veizer, 2000;Gibson and Edwards, 2002), groundwater (Gat, 1981;Yonge et al, 1989), and their interaction. Mizota and Kusakabe (1994) mapped hydrogen and oxygen isotopic data for surface and shallow groundwater in Japan and the surrounding area using their own measurement data and data available in the literature, and others have examined the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic data of local meteoric waters in relation to the regional hydrological system of central Japan (e.g., Kusakabe et al, 1970).…”