Rainfall Stable Water Isotope Variability in Coastal Southwestern Western Australia and Its Relationship to Climate on Multiple Timescales

The factors driving variability in rainfall stable water isotopes (specifically delta O-18 and deuterium excess, d = delta H-2 - 8 delta O-18) were studied in a 13-year data set of daily rainfall samples from coastal southwestern Western Australia (SWWA). Backwards dispersion modeling, automatic synoptic type classification, and a statistical model were used to establish causes of variability on a daily scale; and predictions from the model were aggregated to longer temporal scales to discover the cause of variability on multiple timescales. Factors differ between delta O-18 and d and differ according to temporal scale. Rainfall intensity, both at the observation site and upwind, was most important for determining delta O-18 and this relationship was robust across all time scales (daily, seasonal, and interannual) as well as generalizing to a second observation site. The sensitivity of delta O-18 to rainfall intensity makes annual mean values particularly sensitive to the year's largest events. Projecting the rainfall intensity relationship back through similar to 100 years of precipitation observations can explain similar to 0.2 $0.2$-0.4 parts per thousand shifts in rainfall delta O-18. Twentieth century speleothem records from the region exhibit signals of a similar magnitude, indicating that rainfall intensity should be taken into account during the interpretation of regional climate archives. For d, humidity during evaporation from the ocean was the most important driver of variability at the daily scale, as well as explaining the seasonal cycle, but source humidity failed to explain the longer-term interannual variability.

Automated summary

This study investigates the factors driving variability in rainfall stable water isotopes in coastal southwestern Western Australia. It finds that rainfall intensity is the most important factor for determining δO-18 on all time scales, while humidity plays a role in explaining daily variability of d. Additionally, the study finds that changes in rainfall intensity can explain a portion of the long-term variability in rainfall δO-18.