Identification of Seasonal Water Discharge Characteristics using Stable Isotopes of Water in the Mountain Region, Japan

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-278-1_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Mountain Region; Oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes; Seasonal variation; Water discharge

Abstract

Understanding water discharge processes in mountainous areas with large amounts of precipitation and high hydraulic gradients is important for disaster prevention and water resource management. In recent years, it has become clear that mountain bodies themselves have water storage functions in addition to primary water storage as snow accumulation in winter. However, the water discharge process in an environment with large amount of precipitation throughout the year is not fully understood. This study focuses on mountain springs and rivers in the Japanese Northern Alps to clarify the characteristics of water discharge processes. Hydrological observations and analysis of oxygen and hydrogen stable isotope ratios revealed the followings. Stream water level decreased in winter when snow cover was observed, and increased in summer when heavy precipitation was frequently occurred. The stable isotope ratios of spring water and river water showed smaller fluctuations during the study period than those of precipitation. This may be because precipitation is not discharged quickly, but rather after storage and mixing. The d-excess increased to the similar value of winter precipitation in summer at the same time as the stream level rose. This suggests that a winter precipitation component with high d-excess contributes to the discharge in summer due to snowmelt. On the other hand, during winter, snow accumulation limits groundwater recharge by precipitation, and summer precipitation stored in the mountain could be discharged, resulting in lower d-excess value in springs and river.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Anji Kanai
AU  - Koichi Sakakibara
AU  - Yoshitake Nagahata
AU  - Keisuke Suzuki
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/10/29
TI  - Identification of Seasonal Water Discharge Characteristics using Stable Isotopes of Water in the Mountain Region, Japan
BT  - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (EST 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 46
EP  - 54
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-278-1_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-278-1_6
ID  - Kanai2023
ER  -