Revisiting streamside trees that do not use stream water: can the two water worlds hypothesis and snowpack isotopic effects explain a missing water source?: Riparian tree water sources
Abstract
Abstract We revisit a classic ecohydrological study that showed streamside riparian trees in a semiarid mountain catchment did not use perennial stream water. The original study suggested that mature individuals of Acer negundo , Acer grandidentatum , and other species were dependent on water from “deeper strata,” possibly groundwater. We used a dual stable isotope approach (δ 18 O and δ 2 H) to further examine the water sources of these trees. We tested the hypothesis that groundwater was the main tree water source, but found that neither groundwater nor stream water matched the isotope composition of xylem water during two growing seasons. Soil water (0–1 m depth) was closest to and periodically overlapped with xylem water isotope composition, but overall, xylem water was isotopically enriched compared to all measured water sources. The “two water worlds” hypothesis postulates that soil water comprises isotopically distinct mobile and less mobile pools that do not mix, potentially explaining this disparity. We further hypothesized that isotopic effects during snowpack metamorphosis impart a distinct isotope signature to the less mobile soil water that supplies summer transpiration. Depth trends in water isotopes following snowmelt were consistent with the two water worlds hypothesis, but snow metamorphic isotope effectsmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1425445
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1400998
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0010625
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Ecohydrology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1936-0584
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Bowling, David R., Schulze, Emily S., and Hall, Steven J. Revisiting streamside trees that do not use stream water: can the two water worlds hypothesis and snowpack isotopic effects explain a missing water source?: Riparian tree water sources. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/eco.1771.
Bowling, David R., Schulze, Emily S., & Hall, Steven J. Revisiting streamside trees that do not use stream water: can the two water worlds hypothesis and snowpack isotopic effects explain a missing water source?: Riparian tree water sources. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1771
Bowling, David R., Schulze, Emily S., and Hall, Steven J. Fri .
"Revisiting streamside trees that do not use stream water: can the two water worlds hypothesis and snowpack isotopic effects explain a missing water source?: Riparian tree water sources". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1771. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1425445.
@article{osti_1425445,
title = {Revisiting streamside trees that do not use stream water: can the two water worlds hypothesis and snowpack isotopic effects explain a missing water source?: Riparian tree water sources},
author = {Bowling, David R. and Schulze, Emily S. and Hall, Steven J.},
abstractNote = {Abstract We revisit a classic ecohydrological study that showed streamside riparian trees in a semiarid mountain catchment did not use perennial stream water. The original study suggested that mature individuals of Acer negundo , Acer grandidentatum , and other species were dependent on water from “deeper strata,” possibly groundwater. We used a dual stable isotope approach (δ 18 O and δ 2 H) to further examine the water sources of these trees. We tested the hypothesis that groundwater was the main tree water source, but found that neither groundwater nor stream water matched the isotope composition of xylem water during two growing seasons. Soil water (0–1 m depth) was closest to and periodically overlapped with xylem water isotope composition, but overall, xylem water was isotopically enriched compared to all measured water sources. The “two water worlds” hypothesis postulates that soil water comprises isotopically distinct mobile and less mobile pools that do not mix, potentially explaining this disparity. We further hypothesized that isotopic effects during snowpack metamorphosis impart a distinct isotope signature to the less mobile soil water that supplies summer transpiration. Depth trends in water isotopes following snowmelt were consistent with the two water worlds hypothesis, but snow metamorphic isotope effects could not explain the highly enriched xylem water. Thus, the dual isotope approach did not unambiguously determine the water source(s) of these riparian trees. Further exploration of physical, geochemical, and biological mechanisms of water isotope fractionation and partitioning is necessary to resolve these data, highlighting critical challenges in the isotopic determination of plant water sources.},
doi = {10.1002/eco.1771},
journal = {Ecohydrology},
number = 1,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Fri Oct 14 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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