Regresar

Key controls on water transit times along a tropical precipitation gradient

Abstract:

The tropics are one of the most diverse and dynamic regions on Earth. Despite their importance, our understanding of tropical hydrological processes remains a significant challenge, mostly due to limited monitoring. Here, we used high-resolution daily input–output isotope data sets from seven tropical catchments ranging in size from 1.6 to 990 km2, situated within a precipitation gradient ranging from on average 958 to 5117 mm year−1, in Australia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. For these catchments, we estimated and compared streamflow mean transit times (MTT) with potential explanatory hydro-geomorphological and climate variables. Using a simple lumped convolution integral model with a Gamma distribution as transfer function (best-fit Kling Gupta efficiencies up to 0.92), our tropical dataset resulted in short MTTs from 49 to 497 days (0.13 – 1.4 years), together with considerable presence of new water in the …