Air Masses Origin and Isotopic Tracers: A Study Case of the Oceanic and Mediterranean Rainfall Southwest of France

Water

Luc Lambs¹  Issam Moussa¹ 

[1]Laboratory of Functional Ecology and Environment (EcoLab), UPS, INPT, University of Toulouse,118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse F-31062, France

[2] E-Mails:

关键词: rainfall;    stable isotopes;    Mediterranean climate;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w5020617

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Aquifers recharge mainly by local rainfall, which depend on the air mass humidity and orographic lifting, causing rain. The stable isotopes of the water molecule, i.e., oxygen-18 and deuterium, are useful tracers to determine the water source origin. Moreover, the calculation of the deuterium excess enables one to differentiate between the air masses from the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea. A transect from one coast to the other one and going through the city of Toulouse have been made to sample the groundwater and determine their isotopic characteristic. A monthly rainfall sampling has also been done over one year, close to the city Toulouse, to see how the d-excess values range over the season. The discussion replaces these results in available isotopic data.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.