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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2020, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (6): 1791-1799.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202006.020

• Special Features of Stable Isotope Ecology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of water vapor source and local environmental factors on the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of precipitation in Huitong, Hunan Province, China

SUI Ming-zhen1, ZHANG Ying1, XU Qing1*, GAO De-qiang1, WANG Ting1, WANG Si-long2   

  1. 1Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China;
    2Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
  • Received:2019-12-30 Online:2020-06-15 Published:2020-06-15
  • Contact: * E-mail: xuqing@caf.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870716), the National Non-profit Institute Research Grant of Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAFYBB2017ZB003) and the National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFD060020106).

Abstract: Deuterium (D) and oxygen-18 (18O) are common environmental tracers in water. Understanding the isotopic compositions of precipitation is necessary for further studies on local and global water cycling processes. To reveal the mechanism of isotopic compositions of precipitation in subtropical monsoon region in response to environmental changes, we collected 49 precipitation samples and recorded related environmental factors from May 2017 to August 2019 in Huitong field station of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hunan Province. We analyzed the temporal variations in D and 18O values in precipitation and analyzed the influence of water vapor source and local environmental factor on stable isotopic compositions of precipitation. The local meteoric water line was established as δD=(7.45±0.17)δ18O+(10.10±1.25) (R2=0.93, P<0.01), the slope of which was slightly lower than China’s meteoric water line and the global meteoric line. The D and 18O values of precipitation samples were closely coupled with local meteorological conditions and dominant moisture sources. The 18O and D contents were depleted during summer monsoon season but enriched during winter monsoon season. During the summer monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, precipitation in this area came mainly from the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, and the West Pacific at three different types of air pressure, which lead to the similarity of the D-excess value of the precipitation to global average. The lower intercept of meteoric water line and the higher D-excess value for precipitation during the winter monsoon season resulted from moisture from remote westerly air masses, degenerated tropical marine air masses from the Bay of Bengal, and inland moisture in the pre-monsoon period, which were also affected by local environmental factors.