Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin
The temporal dynamics of water ages provide crucial insights into hydrological processes and transport mechanisms, yet there remains a significant gap in quantifying water age variability across different temporal scales. This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset spanning 70 years of hydrological...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada8c1 |
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| author | Siyuan Wang Markus Hrachowitz Gerrit Schoups Anna Störiko |
| author_facet | Siyuan Wang Markus Hrachowitz Gerrit Schoups Anna Störiko |
| author_sort | Siyuan Wang |
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| description | The temporal dynamics of water ages provide crucial insights into hydrological processes and transport mechanisms, yet there remains a significant gap in quantifying water age variability across different temporal scales. This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset spanning 70 years of hydrological observations and tritium records (1953–2022) with a semi-distributed hydrological model with integrated tracer routing routine based on StorageAge Selection functions SAS, to explore the temporal evolution of water ages in the 4000 km ^2 Upper Neckar River basin, Germany. Our findings indicate a systematic convergence of the variability of young water fractions and other metrics of water age in riverflow and evaporation towards stable values when averaging over increasing time scales. While at daily scales exhibiting considerable variability with young water fractions in riverflow F _wy,Q ∼ 0.01–0.91 and in evaporation F _wy,E ∼ 0.02–0.75, the variability of F _wy,Q and F _wy,E gradually reduces with increasing averaging time scales and converge to 0.45–0.47 and 0.96–0.97, respectively, between individual decades. Liquid water input ( P _L ), comprising rainfall and snow melt, emerges as the dominant driver of F _wy,Q across all time scales. In contrast, F _wy,E shows varying controls with time scale: soil moisture content governs daily fluctuations, whereas P _L dominates at the decadal scale. Overall, water ages demonstrate remarkable stability with only minor deviations in response to climatic variability: a 20% fluctuation in average decadal P _L results in only ∼4% variation in F _wy,Q and ∼1% in F _wy,E over the study period. These findings suggest a lack of major long-term dynamics in water ages. Consequently, the results suggest that the physical transport dynamics in the Upper Neckar River basin, and potentially in comparable river basins with similar water age characteristics, can be considered near-stationary over multiple decades. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e437c6cfc2a041dfbeba172262688553 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-e437c6cfc2a041dfbeba1722626885532025-01-30T16:25:59ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262025-01-0120202404610.1088/1748-9326/ada8c1Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basinSiyuan Wang0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9639-9241Markus Hrachowitz1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0508-1017Gerrit Schoups2Anna Störiko3Department of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN Delft, The Netherlands; Faculty of Technology Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Oulu , Pentti Kaiteran katu 1, 8000 Oulu, FinlandDepartment of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN Delft, The NetherlandsDepartment of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN Delft, The NetherlandsDepartment of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology , Stevinweg 1, 2628CN Delft, The NetherlandsThe temporal dynamics of water ages provide crucial insights into hydrological processes and transport mechanisms, yet there remains a significant gap in quantifying water age variability across different temporal scales. This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset spanning 70 years of hydrological observations and tritium records (1953–2022) with a semi-distributed hydrological model with integrated tracer routing routine based on StorageAge Selection functions SAS, to explore the temporal evolution of water ages in the 4000 km ^2 Upper Neckar River basin, Germany. Our findings indicate a systematic convergence of the variability of young water fractions and other metrics of water age in riverflow and evaporation towards stable values when averaging over increasing time scales. While at daily scales exhibiting considerable variability with young water fractions in riverflow F _wy,Q ∼ 0.01–0.91 and in evaporation F _wy,E ∼ 0.02–0.75, the variability of F _wy,Q and F _wy,E gradually reduces with increasing averaging time scales and converge to 0.45–0.47 and 0.96–0.97, respectively, between individual decades. Liquid water input ( P _L ), comprising rainfall and snow melt, emerges as the dominant driver of F _wy,Q across all time scales. In contrast, F _wy,E shows varying controls with time scale: soil moisture content governs daily fluctuations, whereas P _L dominates at the decadal scale. Overall, water ages demonstrate remarkable stability with only minor deviations in response to climatic variability: a 20% fluctuation in average decadal P _L results in only ∼4% variation in F _wy,Q and ∼1% in F _wy,E over the study period. These findings suggest a lack of major long-term dynamics in water ages. Consequently, the results suggest that the physical transport dynamics in the Upper Neckar River basin, and potentially in comparable river basins with similar water age characteristics, can be considered near-stationary over multiple decades.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada8c1water agesyoung water fractionstransport variabilitytemporal scaleshydrological model |
| spellingShingle | Siyuan Wang Markus Hrachowitz Gerrit Schoups Anna Störiko Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin Environmental Research Letters water ages young water fractions transport variability temporal scales hydrological model |
| title | Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin |
| title_full | Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin |
| title_fullStr | Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin |
| title_short | Multi-decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate-humid river basin |
| title_sort | multi decadal stability of water ages and tracer transport in a temperate humid river basin |
| topic | water ages young water fractions transport variability temporal scales hydrological model |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada8c1 |
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