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Stable isotopes in global lakes integrate catchment and climatic controls on evaporation.

Stable isotopes in global lakes integrate catchment and climatic controls on evaporation.

Authors :
Vystavna Y
Harjung A
Monteiro LR
Matiatos I
Wassenaar LI
Source :
Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2021 Dec 10; Vol. 12 (1), pp. 7224. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Dec 10.
Publication Year :
2021

Abstract

Global warming is considered a major threat to Earth's lakes water budgets and quality. However, flow regulation, over-exploitation, lack of hydrological data, and disparate evaluation methods hamper comparative global estimates of lake vulnerability to evaporation. We have analyzed the stable isotope composition of 1257 global lakes and we find that most lakes depend on precipitation and groundwater recharge subsequently altered by catchment and lake evaporation processes. Isotope mass-balance modeling shows that ca. 20% of water inflow in global lakes is lost through evaporation and ca. 10% of lakes in arid and temperate zones experience extreme evaporative losses >40 % of the total inflow. Precipitation amount, limnicity, wind speed, relative humidity, and solar radiation are predominant controls on lake isotope composition and evaporation, regardless of the climatic zone. The promotion of systematic global isotopic monitoring of Earth's lakes provides a direct and comparative approach to detect the impacts of climatic and catchment-scale changes on water-balance and evaporation trends.<br /> (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2041-1723
Volume :
12
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nature communications
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
34893644
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27569-x