Water ages in the critical zone of long-term experimental sites  in northern latitudes

Sprenger, Matthias; Tetzlaff, Doerthe; Buttle, Jim; Laudon, Hjalmar; Soulsby, Chris

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3965-2018

Articles | Volume 22, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3965-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3965-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 7

Research article

|

20 Jul 2018

Research article |

| 20 Jul 2018

Water ages in the critical zone of long-term experimental sites in northern latitudes

Matthias Sprenger, Doerthe Tetzlaff, Jim Buttle, Hjalmar Laudon, and Chris Soulsby

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Final revised paper (published on 20 Jul 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 27 Mar 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Nice study', Todd Walter, 23 Apr 2018
- SC1: 'Response to T. Walter (Referee 1)', Matthias Sprenger, 04 May 2018
  - AC1: 'Please see SC1 for detailed response by the authors to the comments made by Referee #1.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
RC2: 'Comments on "Water ages in the critical zone of long-term experimental sites in northern latitudes"', Anonymous Referee #2, 26 Apr 2018
- SC2: 'Response to Referee 2', Matthias Sprenger, 07 May 2018
  - RC4: 'Major comment 2 (derivation of MTT and water ages)', Anonymous Referee #2, 11 May 2018
    - SC4: 'Response to follow up by Referee 2', Matthias Sprenger, 16 May 2018
    - AC2: 'Please see SCs for detailed responses by the authors to the comments made by Referee #2.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
- AC2: 'Please see SCs for detailed responses by the authors to the comments made by Referee #2.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
RC3: 'interesting work', Anonymous Referee #3, 02 May 2018
- SC3: 'Response to Referee 3', Matthias Sprenger, 07 May 2018
- AC3: 'Please see SC3 for detailed response by the authors to the comments made by Referee #3.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
RC5: 'Derivation of MTT and Water Age', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 May 2018
- SC5: 'Response to Referee 2: Mass fluxes were used', Matthias Sprenger, 18 May 2018
  - RC6: 'Water Ages', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 May 2018
    - SC6: 'Detailed explanation on estimation of water ages', Matthias Sprenger, 22 May 2018
      - RC7: 'Thanks for the detailed explanation', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 May 2018
        
        AC2: 'Please see SCs for detailed responses by the authors to the comments made by Referee #2.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
    - AC2: 'Please see SCs for detailed responses by the authors to the comments made by Referee #2.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018
  - AC2: 'Please see SCs for detailed responses by the authors to the comments made by Referee #2.', Doerthe Tetzlaff, 24 May 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (02 Jun 2018) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Doerthe Tetzlaff on behalf of the Authors (06 Jun 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (24 Jun 2018) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Doerthe Tetzlaff on behalf of the Authors (25 Jun 2018) Manuscript

Short summary

We estimated water ages in the upper critical zone with a soil physical model (SWIS) and found that the age of water stored in the soil, as well as of water leaving the soil via evaporation, transpiration, or recharge, was younger the higher soil water storage (inverse storage effect). Travel times of transpiration and evaporation were different. We conceptualized the subsurface into fast and slow flow domains and the water was usually half as young in the fast as in the slow flow domain.