Studying the dynamic of a high alpine catchment based on multiple natural tracers

Michelon, Anthony; Ceperley, Natalie; Beria, Harsh; Vennemann, Torsten; Schaefli, Bettina (2022). Studying the dynamic of a high alpine catchment based on multiple natural tracers. Hydrology and earth system sciences discussions European Geosciences Union 10.5194/hess-2022-48

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Hydrological processes in high elevation catchments are largely influenced by snow accumulation and melt, as well as summer rainfall input. The use of the stable isotopes of water as a natural tracer has become popular over recent years to characterize water flow paths and storage in such environments, in conjunction with electric conductivity (EC) and water temperature measurements. In this work, we analyzed in detail the potential of year round samples of these natural tracers to characterize hydrological processes in a snow-dominated Alpine catchment. Our results underline that water temperature measurements in springs, groundwater and in-stream are promising to trace flow path depth and relative flow rates. The stable isotopes of water are shown here to be particularly valuable to get insights into the interplay of subsurface flow and direct snowmelt input to the stream during winter and early snow melt periods. Our results underline the critical role of subsurface flow during all melt periods and the presence of snowmelt even during winter base flow. We furthermore discuss why reliably detecting the role of subsurface flow requires year-round water sampling in such environments. A key conclusion of our work is the added value of soil and water temperature measurements to interpret EC and isotope analyses, by giving additional information on snow-free periods and on flow path depths.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Physical Geography > Unit Hydrology
10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Physical Geography

UniBE Contributor:

Ceperley, Natalie Claire, Schaefli, Bettina

Subjects:

900 History > 910 Geography & travel
500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology

ISSN:

1812-2116

Publisher:

European Geosciences Union

Funders:

Organisations 0 not found.

Projects:

Projects 0 not found.

Language:

English

Submitter:

Natalie Claire Ceperley

Date Deposited:

12 Apr 2023 10:02

Last Modified:

13 Apr 2023 09:25

Publisher DOI:

10.5194/hess-2022-48

Related URLs:

Additional Information:

Preprint for 10.5194/hess-27-1403-2023

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/181669

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/181669

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