Lake water based isoscape in central-south Chile reflects meteoric water

Warming across the globe is expected to alter the strength and amount of regional precipitation, but there is uncertainty associated with the magnitude of these expected changes, and also how these changes in temperature and the hydrologic cycle will affect humans. For example, the climate in central-south Chile is projected to become significantly warmer and drier over the next several decades in response to anthropogenically driven warming, but these anthropogenic changes are superimposed on natural climate variability. The stable isotope composition of meteoric water provides significant information regarding the moisture source, pathways, and rain-out history of an air mass, but precipitation samples suitable for stable isotope measurements require long-term placement of field equipment making them difficult to obtain. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) stations generate isotopic and ancillary data of precipitation from many locations around the world, but remote areas of developing countries like Chile typically have sparse networks of meteorological stations, which inhibit our ability to accurately model regional precipitation. Central-south Chile, in particular, has a sparse network of GNIP stations and, as a result, the isotopic composition of meteoric water is underrepresented in the global database complicating efforts to constrain modern day hydroclimate variability as well as paleohydrologic reconstruction for southern South America. In this study, we measured the stable isotope compositions of hydrogen (delta H-2) and oxygen (delta O-18) in surface lacustrine waters of central-south Chile to determine what physical and/or climatic features are the dominant controls on lacustrine delta O-18 and delta H-2 composition, assess whether or not the isotopic composition of the lakes record time-averaged isotope composition of meteoric water, and determine whether an isoscape map based on lake surface waters could predict the H and O isotope compositions of precipitation at the few GNIP stations in the region.

Automated summary

Global warming is expected to impact regional precipitation, such as the projected warmer and drier climate in central-south Chile due to anthropogenic warming. Stable isotope compositions of precipitation provide valuable information about moisture sources and history, but data from remote areas like Chile are limited, hindering accurate regional precipitation modeling.