Stream water sourcing from high-elevation snowpack inferred from stable isotopes of water: a novel application of d-excess  values

Sprenger, Matthias; Carroll, Rosemary W. H.; Marchetti, David; Bern, Carleton; Beria, Harsh; Brown, Wendy; Newman, Alexander; Beutler, Curtis; Williams, Kenneth H.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1711-2024

Articles | Volume 28, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1711-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1711-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 28, issue 7

Research article

|

15 Apr 2024

Research article |

| 15 Apr 2024

Stream water sourcing from high-elevation snowpack inferred from stable isotopes of water: a novel application of d-excess values

Matthias Sprenger, Rosemary W. H. Carroll, David Marchetti, Carleton Bern, Harsh Beria, Wendy Brown, Alexander Newman, Curtis Beutler, and Kenneth H. Williams

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1711-2024-supplement

Data sets

Water Data for the Nation USGS https://doi.org/10.5066/F7P55KJN

Stable Waterhttps://editor.copernicus.org/index.php?_mdl=prodover_md&_lcm=lcm104ty&_acm=delete_dataset&_ms=114403&asset_id=76274&salt=927288561292875910 Isotope Data for the East River Watershed, Colorado (2014-2023), K. H. Williams et al. https://doi.org/10.15485/1668053

East River Watershed Stable Water Isotope Data in Precipitation, Snowpack and Snowmelt 2016-2020 R. W. H. Carroll et al. https://doi.org/10.15485/1824223

Stream discharge and temperature data 512 collected within the East River, Colorado for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (water years 2019 to 2022) R. W. H. Carroll et al. https://doi.org/10.15485/1779721

Model code and software

HydroMix v1.0 H. Beria et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3475429

Short summary

Stable isotopes of water (described as d-excess) in mountain snowpack can be used to infer proportions of high-elevation snowmelt in stream water. In a Colorado River headwater catchment, nearly half of the water during peak streamflow is derived from melted snow at elevations greater than 3200 m. High-elevation snowpack contributions were higher for years with lower snowpack and warmer spring temperatures. Thus, we suggest that d-excess could serve to assess high-elevation snowpack changes.