CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Buttle, J.M.
Date : 2000.
Title : Streamflow generation studies using stable isotope tracers – past practice, present applications and future challenges.
Publication : Annual Scientific Meeting, Canadian Geophysical Union, Banff, Alberta, May 23-27, 2000.
Issue : Abstract.
Page(s) :
Abstract
Stable isotope tracers provide a valuable tool in attempts to study streamflow generation. Isotopic hydrograph separations (IHS) conducted in a wide variety of climatic and hydrogeologic environments have frequently shown that streamflow response to both rainfall and snowmelt is dominated by water stored in the drainage basin prior to the event. This has prompted a paradigm shift in our view of stormflow generation at the basin scale. Hydrologists are increasingly recognizing that models of basin streamflow have to go beyond simply reproducing the stormflow hydrograph; they must also replicate the relative proportions of event and pre-event water in that stormflow. This paper will review the traditional approach to IHS and its more-recent variants. Attention will focus on challenges facing the application of stable isotope tracing techniques to the study of streamflow generation. These include: scale issues related to the assumptions underlying the IHS technique and attempts to relate IHS results to basin properties; implications of isotopic fractionation in snow cover for HIS studies; linkage of stable isotope and other tracers to investigate water residence times and flowpaths in basins; and the use of stable isotope tracers to calibrate and test models of streamflow generation.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology