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Amending soils with biochar, a pyrolyzed organic material, is an emerging practice to potentially increase plant available water and reduce the risks associated with climatic variability in traditionally-rainfed tropical agricultural systems. To investigate the impacts of biochar amendment on soil water storage relative to non-amended soils, we performed an upland rice field experiment in a tropical seasonally dry region of Costa Rica consisting of plots with two different biochar amendments and a control plot. Across all plots, we collected hydrometric and isotopic data (delta O-18 and delta H-2 of rain, mobile soil, ground and rice xylem water). We observed that the soil water retention curves for biochar treated soils shifted, indicating that rice plants had 2% to 7% more water available throughout the growing season relative to the control plots and thus could withstand dry spells up to seven extra days. Furthermore, the isotopic composition of plant water in biochar and control treatments were rather similar, indicating that rice plants in different treatments likely consumed similar water. Hence, we observed that biochar amendments can stabilize water supplies for the rice plants; however, still supplemental irrigation was required to facilitate plant growth during extended dry periods. Ultimately, our findings indicate, that biochar amendments can complement, but not necessarily replace, other water management strategies to help reduce the threat of rainfall variability to rainfed agriculture in tropical regions.

Recent studies applying stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen showed that different methods for extracting water from plant tissues can return different isotopic composition. One of the most used methods to extract plant water is the cryogenic vacuum distillation (CVD), which tends to extract total plant water. Conversely, the Scholander pressure chamber (SPC), which is commonly used by tree physiologists to measure water potential in plant tissues, likely accesses only the mobile plant water (i.e., xylem and inter-cellular water). However, only few studies reported the application of SPC to extract plant water for isotopic analyses, and therefore, an inter-method comparison between SPC and CVD is needed.In this study, we analyzed the variability in the isotopic signature of plant water extracted by SPC and CVD. Furthermore, we considered the potential variability in the isotopic composition of the plant water extracted from various tissues by CVD (i.e., leaves, twig without bark, twig with bark, twig close to the trunk of the tree, and wood core), and from different tree species (i.e., alder, apple, chestnut and beech) located in three different study areas in northern Italy.Results indicate that plant waters extracted by SPC and CVD were significantly different, likely due to the extraction of different plant water domains. The difference in the isotopic composition obtained by the two extraction methods was smaller in the beech samples compared to alder, apple and chestnut samples. The signature of alder, apple and chestnut plant water extracted by SPC was more enriched in heavy isotopes than the samples obtained by CVD (except for the leaf water obtained by CVD, which also had a marked evaporative signature). We conclude that plant water extraction by SPC does not represent an alternative for CVD, as SPC likely extracts mostly the mobile plant water, whereas CVD tends to retrieve all water stored in the sampled tissues. However, studies aiming to quantify the relative contribution of the water sources to transpiration should rely more on the isotopic composition of xylem water transpiring during the sampling day (theoretically sampled by SPC), than the isotopic composition of total plant water (sampled by CVD), which also contains a fraction of water that could be stored in plant tissues for a long time. Keywords: stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen; cryogenic vacuum distillation; Scholander pressure chamber; plant water; xylem water.

Biochar has been put forward as a potential technology that could help achieve sustainable water management in agriculture through its ability to increase water holding capacity in soils. Despite this opportunity, there are still a limited number of studies, especially in vulnerable regions like the tropics, quantifying the impacts of biochar on soil water storage and characterizing the impacts of biochar additions on plant water composition. To address this critical gap, we present a case study using stable water isotopes and hydrometric data from melon production in tropical agriculture to explore the hydrological impacts of biochar as a soil amendment. Results from our 10-week growing season experiment in Costa Rica under drip irrigation demonstrated an average increase in volumetric soil moisture content of about 10% with an average moisture content of 25.4 cm(3) cm(-3) versus 23.1 cm(3) cm(-3), respectively, for biochar amended plots compared with control plots. Further, there was a reduction in the variability of soil matric potential for biochar amended plots compared with control plots. Our isotopic investigation demonstrated that for both biochar and control plots, there was a consistent increase (or enrichment) in isotopic composition for plant materials moving from the roots, where the average delta O-18 was -8.1 parts per thousand and the average delta H-2 was -58.5 parts per thousand across all plots and samples, up through the leaves, where the average delta O-18 was 4.3 parts per thousand and the average delta H-2 was 0.1 parts per thousand across all plots and samples. However, as there was no discernible difference in isotopic composition for plant water samples when comparing across biochar and control plots, we find that biochar did not alter the composition of water found in the melon plant material, indicating that biochar and plants are not competing for the same water sources. In addition, and through the holistic lens of sustainability, biochar additions allowed locally sourced feedstock carbon to be directly sequestered into the soil while improving soil water availability without jeopardizing production for the melon crop. Given that most of the expansion and intensification of global agricultural production over the next several decades will take place in the tropics and that the variability of tropical water cycling is expected to increase due to climate change, biochar amendments could offer a pathway forward towards sustainable tropical agricultural water management.

Recent tracer-based studies using stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen showed that different methods for extracting water from plant tissues can return different isotopic compositions due to the presence of organic compounds and because they extract different plant water domains. One of the most used methods to extract plant water is the cryogenic vacuum distillation (CVD), which tends to extract total plant water. Conversely, the Scholander-type pressure chamber (SPC), which is commonly used by tree physiologists to measure water potential in plant tissues and determine plant water stress, is expected to extract only the more mobile plant water (i.e., xylem and inter-cellular water). However, only few studies reported the application of SPC to extract plant water for isotopic analyses, and therefore, inter-method comparisons between SPC and CVD are of great value. In this work, we analyzed the variability in the isotopic composition of plant water extracted by SPC and CVD, also considering the potential variability in the isotopic signature of the plant water extracted by CVD from various tissues (i.e., leaves, twig without bark, twig with bark, twig close to the trunk of the tree, and wood core) and from different plant species (i.e., alder, apple, chestnut, and beech). The extraction of plant water by SPC is simple, can be carried out in the field, and it does not require specific laboratory work as in the case of CVD. However, the main limitation of SPC is the very small water volume that can be extracted from the lignified twigs under water stress conditions compared to CVD. Our results indicated that plant water extracted by SPC and CVD were significantly different. The difference in the isotopic composition obtained by the two extraction methods was smaller in the beech samples compared to alder, apple, and chestnut samples. The isotopic signature of alder, apple, and chestnut plant water extracted by SPC was more enriched in δ2H and δ18O, respectively, than the samples obtained by CVD. We conclude that plant water extraction by SPC is not an alternative for CVD as SPC mostly extracts the mobile plant water, whereas CVD tends to retrieve all water stored in the sampled tissue from both living and dead cells. However, studies aiming to quantify the relative contribution of the soil water sources to transpiration should rely more on the isotopic composition of xylem water (which is theoretically sampled by SPC) than the isotopic composition of total plant water (sampled by CVD), which also contains a fraction of water that could be stored in plant tissues for a longer time.

Amending soils with biochar, a pyrolyzed organic material, is an emerging practice to potentially increase plant available water. However, it is not clear (1) to what extent biochar amendments increase soil water storage relative to non-amended soils and (2) whether plants grown in biochar amended soils access different pools of water compared to those grown in non-amended soils. To investigate these questions, we set up an upland rice field experiment in a tropical seasonally dry region in Costa Rica, with plots treated with two different biochar amendments and control plots, from where we collected hydrometric and isotopic data (δ18O and δ2H from rain, soil, groundwater and rice plants). Our results show that the soil water retention curves for biochar treated soils shifted, indicating that rice plants had 2 % to 7 % more water available throughout the growing season relative to the control plots. In addition, we observed a within treatment variability in the soil water retention curves which was in the same order of magnitude as one would expect from responses due to differences in biochar application rates or due to differences in biochar typologies. The stable water isotope composition of plant water showed that the rice plants across all plots preferentially utilized the more variable soil water from the top 20 cm of the soil instead of using the deeper and less variable sources of water. Our results indicated that rice plants in biochar amended soils could access larger stores of water more consistently and thus could withstand dry spells of seven extra days relative to rice grown in non-treated soils. Though supplemental irrigation was required to facilitate plant growth during extended dry periods. Therefore, biochar amendments can complement, but not necessarily replace, other water management strategies.

Stable water isotopes have proven to be useful tracers to determine the origin of water taken up by plants, quantify the relative contributions of water sources to stream runoff and investigate water flow paths. However, the presence of different water pools in a catchment and soil water allocation complicates our understanding of water cycling, and calls for research on processes governing soil water movement and storage, as well as interactions between soil and plants.In this study, we used isotopic data from a forested catchment in the Italian pre-Alps to i) investigate the spatial and temporal variability of the isotopic signature of various water sources, and ii) determine which waters are used by beech and chestnut trees in the study area. Ecohydrological and hydrometeorological monitoring took place in the 2.4-ha Ressi catchment (Northern Italy). Elevations range from 598 to 721 m a.s.l., while average slope is 31°. Average annual precipitation is about 1695 mm, while average annual temperature is 9.7 °C. The entire catchment is covered by deciduous forest, with beech, chestnut, hazel and maple as the main tree species.Water samples for isotopic analysis were taken monthly from bulk precipitation, approximately bi-weekly from stream water, groundwater and soil water by two suction lysimeter cups in the riparian zone. Bulk soil water samples and twigs for xylem water extraction by cryogenic vacuum distillation were collected starting in June, 2017. All water samples were analysed by laser spectroscopy, except xylem water that was analysed by mass spectrometry. Stream water, groundwater and soil water extracted by suction lysimeters were isotopically similar to precipitation and aligned to the local meteoric water line. Bulk soil water obtained by cryogenic vacuum distillation showed an evaporation signature, especially on the hillslope where soil moisture was lower and soil water had been extracted by suction lysimeters only during or just after a large rainfall event. This indicates that soil water sampled by suction lysimeters and extracted by cryogenic vacuum distillation is stored differently in the soil layers due to the different soil tension, and hillslopes tend to store less mobile soil water compared to the riparian zone. At greater depths, bulk soil water extracted by cryogenic vacuum distillation was slightly less evaporated and less enriched in heavy isotopes compared to soil water extracted from shallower layers. The isotopic composition of xylem water had a large temporal and tree-species variability, with chestnut xylem water samples more enriched in heavy isotopes than samples obtained from beech trees. Xylem water was more similar to soil water obtained by cryogenic vacuum distillation, suggesting that in the study area trees likely use more bulk soil water than the mobile soil water, groundwater and stream water. Keywords: stable water isotopes; soil water; xylem water; forested catchment.

Stable water isotopes are widely used in ecohydrology to trace the transport, storage, and mixing of water on its journey through landscapes and ecosystems. Evaporation leaves a characteristic signature on the isotopic composition of the water that is left behind, such that in dual-isotope space, evaporated waters plot below the local meteoric water line (LMWL) that characterizes precipitation. Soil and xylem water samples can often plot below the LMWL as well, suggesting that they have also been influenced by evaporation. These soil and xylem water samples frequently plot along linear trends in dual-isotope space. These trend lines are often termed "evaporation lines" and their intersection with the LMWL is often interpreted as the isotopic composition of the precipitation source water. Here we use numerical experiments based on established isotope fractionation theory to show that these trend lines are often by-products of the seasonality in evaporative fractionation and in the isotopic composition of precipitation. Thus, they are often not true evaporation lines, and, if interpreted as such, can yield highly biased estimates of the isotopic composition of the source water., Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22 (5), ISSN:1027-5606, ISSN:1607-7938

The highly dynamic processes within a hillslope-riparian-stream (HRS) continuum are known to affect streamflow generation, but are yet not fully understood. Within this study, we simulated a headwater HRS continuum in western Luxembourg with an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model (HydroGeoSphere). The model was set up with thorough consideration of catchment-specific attributes and we performed a multi criteria model evaluation (4 years) with special focus on the temporally varying spatial patterns of surface saturation. We used a portable thermal infrared (TIR) camera to map surface saturation with a high spatial resolution and collected 20 panoramic snapshots of the riparian zone (approx. 10 m x 20 m) under different hydrologic conditions. Qualitative and quantitative comparison of the processed TIR panoramas and the corresponding model output panoramas revealed a good agreement between spatiotemporal dynamic model and field surface saturation patterns. A double logarithmic linear relationship between surface saturation extent and discharge was similar for modeled and observed data. This provided confidence in the capability of an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model to represent temporal and spatial water flux dynamics at small (HRS continuum) scales. However, model scenarios with different parameterizations of the riparian zone showed that discharge and surface saturation were controlled by different parameters and hardly influenced each other. Surface saturation only affected very fast runoff responses with a small volumetric contribution to stream discharge, indicating that the dynamic surface saturation in the riparian zone does not necessarily imply a major control on runoff generation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

In this commentary, we build on discussions that emerged during the workshop "Isotope-based studies of water partitioning and plant-soil interactions in forested and agricultural environments" held in San Casciano Val di Pesa, Italy, in September 2017. Quantifying and understanding how water cycles through the Earth's critical zone is important to provide society and policy makers with the scientific background to manage water resources sustainably, especially considering the ever-increasing worldwide concern about water scarcity. Stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water have proven to be a powerful tool to track water fluxes in the critical zone. However, both mechanistic complexities (e.g., mixing and fractionation processes, heterogeneity of natural systems) and practical methodological issues (e.g., lack of standard protocols to sample specific compartments, such as soil water and xylem water) limit the application of stable water isotopes in critical zone science. In this commentary, we examine some of the opportunities and critical challenges of using isotope-based ecohydrological applications, and outline new perspectives focused on interdisciplinary research opportunities for this important tool in water and environmental science.

Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are one of the most common and diverse algal groups (ca. 200 000 species, ≈ 10–200 μm, unicellular, eukaryotic). Here we investigate the potential of aerial diatoms (i.e. diatoms nearly exclusively occurring outside water bodies, in wet, moist or temporarily dry places) to infer surface hydrological connectivity between hillslope-riparian-stream (HRS) landscape units during storm runoff events. We present data from the Weierbach catchment (0.45 km2, northwestern Luxembourg) that quantify the relative abundance of aerial diatom species on hillslopes and in riparian zones (i.e. surface soils, litter, bryophytes and vegetation) and within streams (i.e. stream water, epilithon and epipelon). We tested the hypothesis that different diatom species assemblages inhabit specific moisture domains of the catchment (i.e. HRS units) and, consequently, the presence of certain species assemblages in the stream during runoff events offers the potential for recording whether there was hydrological connectivity between these domains or not. We found that a higher percentage of aerial diatom species was present in samples collected from the riparian and hillslope zones than inside the stream. However, diatoms were absent on hillslopes covered by dry litter and the quantities of diatoms (in absolute numbers) were small in the rest of hillslope samples. This limits their use for inferring hillslope-riparian zone connectivity. Our results also showed that aerial diatom abundance in the stream increased systematically during all sampled events (n = 11, 2011–2012) in response to incident precipitation and increasing discharge. This transport of aerial diatoms during events suggested a rapid connectivity between the soil surface and the stream. Diatom transport data were compared to two-component hydrograph separation, and end-member mixing analysis (EMMA) using stream water chemistry and stable isotope data. Hillslope overland flow was insignificant during most sampled events. This research suggests that diatoms were likely sourced exclusively from the riparian zone, since it was not only the largest aerial diatom reservoir, but also since soil water from the riparian zone was a major streamflow source during rainfall events under both wet and dry antecedent conditions. In comparison to other tracer methods, diatoms require taxonomy knowledge and a rather large processing time. However, they can provide unequivocal evidence of hydrological connectivity and potentially be used at larger catchment scales.

The river basin, watershed or catchment is central to many of concepts in hydrology [1] including contaminant hydrology. In fact, two different studies in the Seine River basin during the end of seventeenth century, independently made by Pierre Perraut and Edme Mariotte have been identified by A. K. Biswas as the beginning of quantitative hydrology [2], Along with Perraut and Mariotte, Biswas also suggested Edmond Halley as co-founder of experi‐ mental hydrology. It was later accepted that scientific hydrology was founded on these two basin studies [3].