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A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science

A wide range of hydrological, ecological, environmental, and forensic science applications rely on predictive “isoscape” maps to provide estimates of the hydrogen or oxygen isotopic compositions of environmental water sources. Many water isoscapes have been developed, but few studies have produced i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bowen, Gabriel J., Guo, Jessica S., Allen, Scott T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34995313
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261651
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author Bowen, Gabriel J.
Guo, Jessica S.
Allen, Scott T.
author_facet Bowen, Gabriel J.
Guo, Jessica S.
Allen, Scott T.
author_sort Bowen, Gabriel J.
collection PubMed
description A wide range of hydrological, ecological, environmental, and forensic science applications rely on predictive “isoscape” maps to provide estimates of the hydrogen or oxygen isotopic compositions of environmental water sources. Many water isoscapes have been developed, but few studies have produced isoscapes specifically representing groundwaters. None of these have represented distinct subsurface layers and isotopic variations across them. Here we compiled >6 million well completion records and >27,000 groundwater isotope datapoints to develop a space- and depth-explicit water isoscape for the contiguous United States. This 3-dimensional model shows that vertical isotopic heterogeneity in the subsurface is substantial in some parts of the country and that groundwater isotope delta values often differ from those of coincident precipitation or surface water resources; many of these patterns can be explained by established hydrological and hydrogeological mechanisms. We validate the groundwater isoscape against an independent data set of tap water values and show that the model accurately predicts tap water values in communities known to use groundwater resources. This new approach represents a foundation for further developments and the resulting isoscape should provide improved predictions of water isotope values in systems where groundwater is a known or potential water source.
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spelling pubmed-87410102022-01-08 A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science Bowen, Gabriel J. Guo, Jessica S. Allen, Scott T. PLoS One Research Article A wide range of hydrological, ecological, environmental, and forensic science applications rely on predictive “isoscape” maps to provide estimates of the hydrogen or oxygen isotopic compositions of environmental water sources. Many water isoscapes have been developed, but few studies have produced isoscapes specifically representing groundwaters. None of these have represented distinct subsurface layers and isotopic variations across them. Here we compiled >6 million well completion records and >27,000 groundwater isotope datapoints to develop a space- and depth-explicit water isoscape for the contiguous United States. This 3-dimensional model shows that vertical isotopic heterogeneity in the subsurface is substantial in some parts of the country and that groundwater isotope delta values often differ from those of coincident precipitation or surface water resources; many of these patterns can be explained by established hydrological and hydrogeological mechanisms. We validate the groundwater isoscape against an independent data set of tap water values and show that the model accurately predicts tap water values in communities known to use groundwater resources. This new approach represents a foundation for further developments and the resulting isoscape should provide improved predictions of water isotope values in systems where groundwater is a known or potential water source. Public Library of Science 2022-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8741010/ /pubmed/34995313 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261651 Text en © 2022 Bowen et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bowen, Gabriel J.
Guo, Jessica S.
Allen, Scott T.
A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title_full A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title_fullStr A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title_full_unstemmed A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title_short A 3-D groundwater isoscape of the contiguous USA for forensic and water resource science
title_sort 3-d groundwater isoscape of the contiguous usa for forensic and water resource science
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34995313
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261651
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