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• Stable isotope tracing of plant water use can illuminate plant water sources. • Xylem water isotope values showed strong sorting and niche segregation. • The majority of the observed species relied on 0.0–0.2 m depth soil water. • Tropical forest water uptake depth is largely driven by tree functional traits. Stable isotope tracing of plant water use can illuminate plant water sources. But to date, the number of species tested at any given site has been minimal. Here, we sample 46 tropical hardwood tree species in a 0.32 ha plot with uniform soils. Soil water was characterized at 6 depths at 0.2 m intervals down to 1 m and showed simple and predictable depth patterns of δ2H and δ18O, and simple and spatially uniform isotope composition at each depth. Nevertheless, tree xylem water δ2H and δ18O showed remarkable variation covering the full range of soil composition, suggesting strong sorting and niche segregation across the small plot. Wood density, tree size and mean basal area increment together explained approximately 55% of the variance of xylem water isotope composition through principal component analysis. A Bayesian mixing model was applied to the data and showed that sampled trees were either sourcing their water from very shallow or deep soil layers, with very little contribution from the middle portion of the soil profile. The majority of the observed species relied on 0.0–0.2 m depth soil water. This layer contributed approximately 75% of the xylem water which was significantly higher than the contributions from all other depths. The contribution from shallow soil was highest for trees with high wood density, slow-growing trees and small-sized trees. Our work suggests that stable isotope tracers may aid a better understanding of tropical forest water uptake depths and their relation to tree functional traits and potential hydrological niche segregation among co-occurring tropical species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the first North American conference that specifically addressed the issue of a feminist geography. On March 29, 1990, the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Geography, together with both the Program and the Institute for the Study of Women and Men in Society at USC, sponsored "Geography and Gender: A Feminist Geography Symposium." Most of the conference participants were drawn from the California region. The conference provided a much-needed forum for face-to-face conversation, debate, and discussion of the relevant issues facing the newly-emerging field of feminist geography. The morning session, looked at feminist perspectives on nature and the environment. It raised a set of interrelated issues about the sources of the environmental crisis and the metaphorical alliance of women with the natural world. The afternoon session focused on the city and the suburb. This conference--and a feminist critique of the discipline--is a signpost pointing down the yet-untrodden road.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Addendum to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Evaluation of factors controlling the water storage of seven headwater Páramo catchments. • Hydrometric, isotopic, and soil hydrophysical properties data used for the evaluation. • Passive storage increases linearly with the areal proportion of wetlands. • Dynamic storage increases linearly with precipitation intensity. • Small proportion of passive storage (<10%) is hydrologically active in water balance. Understanding how tropical montane catchments store and release water, and the resulting water ecosystem services they provide is crucial for improving water resource management. But while research in high–elevation tropical environments has made progress in defining streamflow generation processes, we still lack fundamental knowledge regarding water storage characteristics of catchments. Here we explore catchment storage and the factors controlling its spatial variability in seven Páramo catchments (0.20–7.53 km2) in southern Ecuador. We applied a field-based approach using hydrometeorological, water stable isotopic, and soils hydrophysical data from a 3 year collection period to estimate the passive (PasS) and dynamic (DynS) storage of the catchments. We also investigated relations between these storages and landscape and hydrometric variables using linear regression analysis. PasS estimates from hydrophysical soil properties and soil water mean transit times were consistent with estimates using streamflow mean transit times. Computed catchment PasS and DynS for the seven watersheds were 313–617 mm and 29–35 mm, respectively. PasS increased directly with the areal proportion of Histosol soils and cushion plant vegetation (wetlands). DynS increased linearly with precipitation intensity. Importantly, only 6–10% of the mixing storage of the catchments (DynS / PasS) was hydrologically active in their water balance. Wetlands internal to the catchments were important for PasS , where constant input of low intensity precipitation sustained wetlands recharge, and thus, the water regulation capacity (i.e., year–round water supply) of Páramo catchments. Our findings provide new insights into the factors controlling the water regulation capacity of Páramo catchments and other peaty soils dominated environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the method and process of academic paper writing, referencing the author's personal experience in doing so as a professor and author, including learning how to write and methods of teaching Ph.D. students how to write. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author reflects on the author's discovery of the impact teamwork, soft skills, and peer-to-peer mentoring has in driving research and commented while diversity in the lab could make developing a community difficult, the presence of diversity would result in increased productivity.

The article discusses the notion of a research brand identity as developed by early career academic scientists and researchers. Topics include the role of specialization in an academic career, academic publication strategies to create a research brand, and the role of a research brand identity in gaining tenure.

An isotope-enabled module of Hydrus-1D was applied to a potted olive tree to trace water parcels originating from 26 irrigation events in a glasshouse experiment. The soil hydraulic parameters were optimized via inverse modelling by minimizing the discrepancies between observed and simulated soil water content and soil water isotope (18O) values at three soil depths. The model's performance was validated with observed sap flow z-scores and xylem water 18O. We quantified the source and transit time of irrigation water by analysing the mass breakthrough curves derived from a virtual tracer injection experiment. On average, 26% of irrigation water was removed by plant transpiration with a mean transit time of 94 hours. Our proof of concept work suggests that transit time may represent a functional indicator for the uptake of irrigation water in agricultural ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Spatial variability of throughfall isotopic composition in forests is indicative of complex processes occurring in the canopy and remains insufficiently understood to properly characterize precipitation inputs to the catchment water balance. Here we investigate variability of throughfall isotopic composition with the objectives: (1) to quantify the spatial variability in event-scale samples, (2) to determine if there are persistent controls over the variability and how these affect variability of seasonally accumulated throughfall, and (3) to analyze the distribution of measured throughfall isotopic composition associated with varying sampling regimes. We measured throughfall over two, three-month periods in western Oregon, USA under a Douglas-fir canopy. The mean spatial range of δ 18 O for each event was 1.6‰ and 1.2‰ through Fall 2009 (11 events) and Spring 2010 (7 events), respectively. However, the spatial pattern of isotopic composition was not temporally stable causing season-total throughfall to be less variable than event throughfall (1.0‰; range of cumulative δ 18 O for Fall 2009). Isotopic composition was not spatially autocorrelated and not explained by location relative to tree stems. Sampling error analysis for both field measurements and Monte-Carlo simulated datasets representing different sampling schemes revealed the standard deviation of differences from the true mean as high as 0.45‰ (δ 18 O) and 1.29‰ (d-excess). The magnitude of this isotopic variation suggests that small sample sizes are a source of substantial experimental error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Isotopic values of cryogenic vacuum distillation extracted xylem water became more positive with increasing extraction time and temperature. • With total extraction efficiency above 98%, lower extraction temperatures resulted in more negative isotope values of plant water. • Isotopic values of Cavitron extracted xylem water were significantly more negative than cryogenic vacuum distillation extracted xylem water at 200 °C and 30 min. Stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in plant water are widely used for water tracing in ecohydrology studies. In this approach, plant water is extracted for isotopic analysis of δ2H and δ18O. Among the extraction methods, cryogenic vacuum distillation (CVD) has been the most popular, but its impact on the isotopic composition of plant water is currently under debate. Newer Cavitron method have been proposed to replace CVD method for xylem water extraction. These recommendations have been largely based on comparisons between Cavitron-xylem water with low temperatures CVD-xylem water. However, the CVD protocol (extraction temperature and time) varies widely across laboratories, and no direct, systematic comparison has yet been made between extraction temperature and time protocols vs. the Cavitron approach. Here we compared the isotopic values of xylem water from the same tree obtained through CVD extraction at 60 °C (60, 120, 240, 360 min), 100 °C (30, 60, 120, 240 min), 140 °C (15, 30, 60, 120, 240 min), and 200 °C (15, 30 min). Subsequently, we compared the results of CVD-xylem water with Cavitron-xylem water. Our data show that isotopic values for CVD-xylem water became more positive with increasing extraction time under the same extraction temperature. Such extractions also became more isotopically positive with increasing extraction temperature for the same extraction time. When total extraction efficiency exceeded 98 %, there was no δ18O difference in CVD-xylem water among any of the different protocols (p > 0.05). However, lower extraction temperatures resulted in more negative δ2H when compared to higher temperature extraction (p < 0.05). Cavitron-xylem water was close to CVD-xylem water (average difference of 3 ‰ for δ2H and 0.5 ‰ for δ18O, n = 79) when total extraction efficiency for CVD was below 98 %. But for extraction efficiencies beyond 98 %, the Cavitron-xylem water was more negative in δ2H (17.3 ‰, n = 70) and δ18O (1.7 ‰, n = 70) than CVD-xylem water. Compared to Cavitron-xylem water, CVD-xylem water at 200 °C with extraction efficiency > 98 % was closer to the soil water. Further study is necessary to conduct a complete cross-comparison between Cavitron and CVD at different temperatures with different species at various water and salt stress conditions. But our results suggest that abandoning CVD for plant water maybe premature until such complete comparison work is done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We present a systematic approach to distributed hydrological model development. • The approach is based on controlled model comparisons within a top-down framework. • A perceptual model is used to guide the controlled model comparison experiment. • Key streamflow signatures are captured by a 12 parameters distributed model. • The model development process favors the contribution of the experimentalist. Regional scale distributed conceptual models are typically developed with a bottom-up approach, which is process-inclusive but prone to over-parameterization. Here we demonstrate a proof of concept top-down approach for distributed conceptual model development, intended to emphasize dominant streamflow generating processes and to fulfill the principle of model parsimony. A key challenge in applying the top-down approach to distributed model development is devising a model comparison experiment that is both informative and limited to a few model alternatives. Here, we show how such model comparisons can be informed by a perceptual model of key processes that control streamflow response variability at the regional scale. We demonstrate our approach for the 27,100 km2 Moselle catchment, using the perceptual model developed in Part 1 of this two-part paper. We develop 5 distributed model structures for simulating daily streamflow at 26 subcatchments, and validate them on subcatchments that are not used during the calibration process. Our model comparisons illustrate how the spatial distribution of precipitation, lithology and topography affect the simulation of key signatures of streamflow response variability in the Moselle catchment, providing a basis to justify model decisions. Our analyses show how a minimally parameterized distributed model, with 12 calibration parameters, matches signatures of streamflow average (r = 0.96), baseflow index (r = 0.86), and hydrograph lag time (correct at 22 out of 26 subcatchments). Our proposed top-down approach contributes to improving distributed model development strategies, and can be used to develop parsimonious process based regional models elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant transpiration is the dominant water flux in the global terrestrial water balance and a key process in the hydrological sciences. Stable isotopes have contributed greatly to this understanding but one difficult assumption for plant water source quantification using hydrogen and oxygen isotopes is that no isotopic fractionation occurs during water uptake and transport within the plant. Here we present a simple glasshouse experiment with two potted olive trees to test isotopic fractionation. We irrigated the trees with labelled water and cryogenically extracted water from twigs, cores and roots. We found no significant differences in the isotopic composition of water extracted from wood cores and twigs in distinct parts of the trees as they reflected the signature of labelled water. However, significant differences were obtained between plant water and deep soil water. Our results suggest no isotopic fractionation in olive trees, under the specific experimental conditions, validating the traditional isotope-tracing approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope ratios (δ2H, δ17O, and δ18O values) are commonly used tracers of water. These ratios can be measured by isotope ratio infrared spectroscopy (IRIS). However, IRIS approaches are prone to errors induced by organic compounds present in plant, soil, and natural water samples. A novel approach using 17O-excess values has shown promise for flagging spectrally contaminated plant samples during IRIS analysis. A systematic assessment of this flagging system is needed to prove it useful. Methods: Errors induced by methanol and ethanol water mixtures on measured IRIS and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) results were evaluated. For IRIS analyses both liquid- and vapour-mode (via direct vapour equilibration) methods are used. The δ²H, δ17O, and δ18O values were measured and compared with known reference values to determine the errors induced by methanol and ethanol contamination. In addition, the 17O-excess contamination detection approach was tested. This is a post-processing detection tool for both liquid and vapour IRIS triple-isotope analyses, utilizing calculated 17O-excess values to flag contaminated samples. Results: Organic contamination induced significant errors in IRIS results, not seen in IRMS results. Methanol caused larger errors than ethanol. Results from vapour-IRIS analyses had larger errors than those from liquid-IRIS analyses. The 17O-excess approach identified methanol driven error in liquid- and vapour-mode IRIS samples at levels where isotope results became unacceptably erroneous. For ethanol contaminated samples, a mix of erroneous and correct flagging occurred with the 17O-excess method. Our results indicate that methanol is the more problematic contaminant for data corruption. The 17O-excess method was therefore useful for data quality control. Conclusions: Organic contamination caused significant errors in IRIS stable isotope results. These errors were larger during vapour analyses than during liquid IRIS analyses, and larger for methanol than ethanol contamination. The 17O-excess method is highly sensitive for detecting narrowband (methanol) contamination error in vapour and liquid analysis modes in IRIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work compared six plant water extraction approaches for hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis.[1] Previously it was believed that these extraction approaches would provide analytes whose SP 2 sp H and SP 18 sp O values were similar, but the authors found significant differences in the isotopic composition of the produced analytes.[1] We report a short follow-up experiment to specifically explore systematic differences between one form of cryogenic vacuum distillation (hereafter CVD-2 from Millar et al,[1] based on Koeniger et al[2]) and direct vapor equilibration (DVE).[[3]] GLO:2AQ/15dec19:rcm8530-fig-0001.jpg PHOTO (COLOR): 1 Dual isotope plot of extracted plant analyte 2H and 18O values from DVE and CVD-2 methods, for all weeks of sampling and for both growth containers. Depending on the plant portion and method of extraction, certain water pools will dominate the extracted analyte's isotopic composition.[1] In this case we believe that the CVD-2 results are dominated by water and soluble organic compounds from non-transport-related plant water pools, whereas we think that the DVE results are more indicative of the transpiration stream. With a higher number of samples available for comparison in this study, we determined that there are significant differences in the stable isotope composition of analytes produced by the CVD-2 and DVE extraction-analysis approaches. [Extracted from the article]

The time that water takes to travel through the terrestrial hydrological cycle and the critical zone is of great interest in Earth system sciences with broad implications for water quality and quantity. Most water age studies to date have focused on individual compartments (or subdisciplines) of the hydrological cycle such as the unsaturated or saturated zone, vegetation, atmosphere, or rivers. However, recent studies have shown that processes at the interfaces between the hydrological compartments (e.g., soil‐atmosphere or soil‐groundwater) govern the age distribution of the water fluxes between these compartments and thus can greatly affect water travel times. The broad variation from complete to nearly absent mixing of water at these interfaces affects the water ages in the compartments. This is especially the case for the highly heterogeneous critical zone between the top of the vegetation and the bottom of the groundwater storage. Here, we review a wide variety of studies about water ages in the critical zone and provide (1) an overview of new prospects and challenges in the use of hydrological tracers to study water ages, (2) a discussion of the limiting assumptions linked to our lack of process understanding and methodological transfer of water age estimations to individual disciplines or compartments, and (3) a vision for how to improve future interdisciplinary efforts to better understand the feedbacks between the atmosphere, vegetation, soil, groundwater, and surface water that control water ages in the critical zone. Plain language Summary: Investigating how long it takes for a drop of rainwater until it is either evaporated back to the atmosphere, taken up by plants, or infiltrated into groundwater or discharged in streams provides new understanding of how water flows through the water cycle. Knowledge about the time water travels further helps assessing groundwater recharge, transport of contaminants, and weathering rates. Such water age studies typically focus either on water in individual compartments of the water cycle such as soils, groundwater, or stream runoff. But we argue that the interfaces between these compartments can have an influence on the water age. Here, we present methods how water ages can be estimated using tracers and hydrological models. We further discuss the "demographics of water" (water age distribution) in the critical zone that spans from the tree canopy to the bottom of the groundwater. Our review highlights how water flows and mixes between plants, soils, groundwater, and streams and how this interaction affects the water ages. This way, our work contributes toward a better understanding of vital resource water sustaining the life in the Earth's living skin. Key Points: New tracer techniques now allow tracking water at high spatiotemporal resolution across the vastly varying water ages in the water cycleExchanges of water between hydrological compartments at key interfaces influence the water age distribution more than previously assumedVariation from complete to nearly absent mixing of water at the interfaces in the critical zone affects the water ages in compartments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clarifying the water-root-carbon nexus in the entire root zone is crucial for unlocking the potential of afforestation in mitigating climate change. But the nexus in deep soil (depth > 1 m) remains poorly understood. Here we report contrasts in deep soil water and root distributions across 72 paired sites of adjacent farmlands, representing typical pre-afforestation conditions, and tree plantations, representing modern afforestation across the Loess Plateau of China. Ranging from 6 to 25 m of depth, these profiles included plantations of 13 tree species ranging from 1 to 25 years of age. The observations revealed sustained water mining in deep soil following afforestation with mean soil water decline of 75.2 ± 9.8 mm yr−1 that were accompanied by root deepening rates of 1.00 ± 0.06 m yr−1 with an associated biomass input of 0.18 ± 0.04 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. A water for carbon trade-off in deep soil become evident, likely involving a single pulse of C gains and water losses as no signs of soil rewetting under tree plantations where observed total soil water exhaustion that accumulated the equivalent of up to 2.8 years of mean annual precipitation inputs. The reported water-root-carbon nexus reveals overlooked hydrological costs and, more importantly, over-optimistic expectations of sustained C sequestration under afforestation that may rather represent a single-pulsed C gain supported by deep soil water exhaustion. • Afforestation on the Loess Plateau led to continuous water loss in deep soil. • Water loss led trees to root deeper, causing over 50% of fine roots growing in deep soil. • Root biomass increased as soil water declined, implying a water for carbon trade-off. • Limited soil water replenishment led to a single pulse of water for carbon trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New stem-temp approach developed to track transpiration phenology. • Stem-temp approach uses the correlation between stem cycle and sapwood temperature. • Four transpiration phenological phases were identified. • Transpiration phenological phases align with canopy-level phenological changes. • Transpiration onset shows great agreement with the onset of carbon uptake in spring. Field-based assessment of transpiration phenology in boreal tree species is a significant challenge. Here we develop an objective approach that uses stem radius change and its correlation with sapwood temperature to determine the timing of phenological changes in transpiration in mixed evergreen species. We test the stem-temp approach using a five year stem-radius dataset from black spruce (Picea mariana) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) trees in Saskatchewan (2016–2020). We further compare transpiration phenological transition dates from this approach with tower-based phenological assessment from green chromatic coordinate derived from phenocam images, eddy-covariance-derived evapotranspiration and carbon uptake, tower-based measurements of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and snowmelt timing. The stem-temp approach identified the start and end of four key transpiration phenological phases: (i) the end of temperature-driven cycles indicating the start of biological activity, (ii) the onset of stem rehydration, (iii) the onset of transpiration, and (iv) the end of transpiration-driven cycles. The proposed method is thus useful for characterizing the timing of changes in transpiration phenology and provides information about distinct processes that cannot be assessed with canopy-level phenological measurements alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Estimated mean transit times (MTTs) in intermittent streams using Tritium. • MTTs of stream water is longer at the start of streamflow. • MTTs of stream water is shorter at high streamflow. • Longer MTTs reflect older regional groundwater that initiates the streamflow. • Shorter MTTs indicate younger water from riparian zones that sustain the streamflow. Determining the sources and mean transit times (MTTs) of water that generates streamflows is important for understanding and managing headwater catchments. The sources and especially the MTTs of water that contributes to streamflow in seasonally intermittent streams are far less studied than for perennial streams. Here we use major ions, dissolved organic carbon, stable isotopes, radon and tritium to quantify the sources and MTTs of intermittent streamflows in three headwater catchments (Banool, McGill and Plantation) from a semi-arid area in southeast Australia. At the start of streamflows, the MTTs of stream water varied from 25 to 42 years in the 1.51 km2 Banool catchment, 3 to 4 years in the 3.38 km2 McGill catchment and 9 to 14 years in the 3.41 km2 Plantation catchment. Winter rainfall increased the relative contribution of younger waters in all three catchments. During higher winter streamflows, the MTTs of stream water reduced to ≤5 years in the Banool catchment and <1 year in the McGill and Plantation catchments. The sources of streamflow also differed between the catchments. Regional groundwater, which close to the stream has a residence time of several hundred years, dominated in the Banool catchment, whereas younger water (residence times of up to 9 years) stored in the riparian zone was the main source in the McGill and Plantation catchments. The differences in MTTs between the catchments may reflect land-use differences, especially the presence of plantation forests in the McGill and Plantation catchments. Overall, due to being less well-connected to the regional groundwater, the MTTs of these intermittent streams are far shorter than those reported for perennial headwater streams in southeast Australia. The short MTTs indicate that these intermittent streams are vulnerable to short-term variations in rainfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the responses of streamflow to changes in forest management is fundamental to the sustainable regulation of water resources. However, studies of changes in forest cover have yielded unclear and largely unpredictable results. Here we compile a comprehensive and spatially distributed database of forest-management studies worldwide, to assess the factors that control streamflow response to forest planting and removal. We introduce a vegetation-to-bedrock model that includes seven key landscape factors in order to explain the impacts of forest removal and planting on water yield. We show that the amount of water stored in a landscape is the most important factor in predicting streamflow response to forest removal, whereas the loss of water through evaporation and transpiration is the most important factor in predicting streamflow response to forest planting. Our findings affect model parameterizations in climate change mitigation schemes (involving, for example, afforestation or deforestation) in different geologic and climate regions around the world, and inform practices for the sustainable management of water resources.