Towards a conceptualization of the hydrological processes  behind changes of young water fraction with elevation:  a focus on mountainous alpine catchments

Gentile, Alessio; Canone, Davide; Ceperley, Natalie; Gisolo, Davide; Previati, Maurizio; Zuecco, Giulia; Schaefli, Bettina; Ferraris, Stefano

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2301-2023

Articles | Volume 27, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2301-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2301-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 27, issue 12

Research article

|

22 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 22 Jun 2023

Towards a conceptualization of the hydrological processes behind changes of young water fraction with elevation: a focus on mountainous alpine catchments

Alessio Gentile, Davide Canone, Natalie Ceperley, Davide Gisolo, Maurizio Previati, Giulia Zuecco, Bettina Schaefli, and Stefano Ferraris

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2301-2023-supplement

Data sets

The CH-IRP data set: fortnightly data of δ2H and δ18O in streamflow and precipitation in Switzerland (Version 2) M. Staudinger, S. Seeger, B. Herbstritt, M. Stoelzle, J. Seibert, K. Stahl, and M. Weiler https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4057967

Short summary

What drives young water fraction, F^*_yw (i.e., the fraction of water in streamflow younger than 2–3 months), variations with elevation? Why is F^*_yw counterintuitively low in high-elevation catchments, in spite of steeper topography? In this paper, we present a perceptual model explaining how the longer low-flow duration at high elevations, driven by the persistence of winter snowpacks, increases the proportion of stored (old) water contributing to the stream, thus reducing F^*_yw.