Water and Climate Studies Using Natural Isotope Tracers

The UW-EIL facility forms the cornerstone of my long-running program of water and climate studies using natural isotope tracers, the contributions that arise from this program and, most importantly, the training of highly qualified personnel involved in these efforts. Stated simply, I could not pursue this dynamic and viable research program without the ability to obtain high-quality isotopic analyses on water and other isotopic archives and the unparalleled opportunity for my students to gain hands-on experience in the creation of such data.

Highlights of the UW-EIL's contributions to my research over the past three years include analytical support provided for (1) the Canadian Network for Isotopes in Precipitation, which is the formal Canadian component of the Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation program, jointly operated by the IAEA and WMO, in association with IGBP/PAGES. The CNIP program has now provided continuous monthly station time-series and gridded data products for contemporary precipitation isotope fields over Canada for a full seven years, plus coverage of the Canadian High Arctic over 14 years. In addition to uses in other water and climate studies, this unique (and growing) dataset is a fundamental resource in international efforts to evaluate and refine the water cycles of leading GCMs and RCMs, recently formalized under the international Stable Water Isotope Intercomparison Group initiative, involving both myself and Dr S.J. Birks (my former PhD student and long-time CNIP coordinator).

Over the past three years the EIL has also provided essential analytical service for (2) my participation in the multidisciplinary Mackenzie Basin Deltas research program, founded on Dr B. Wolfe's NSERC Northern Research Chair, and a large program of closely allied industrially-funded environmental and paleoenvironmental research in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, which rely heavily on the use of isotope tracers. A key feature of this research has been the opportunity for UW-EIL staff to collaborate with my students on the development and refinement of new analytical techniques, especially for analysis of water and nutrient isotope tracers (O, H, C, N) in organic matter.

Selected Publications

• Edwards TWD, Wolfe BB, Gibson JJ, Hammarlund D 2004 Ch.7: Use of water isotope tracers in high-latitude hydrology and paleohydrology In Long-term Environmental Change in Arctic and Antarctic Lakes. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research. R Pienitz, MSV Douglas & JP Smol (eds). Kluwer, 121-140.
• Hall, R.I., Wolfe, B.B., Edwards, T.W.D., Karst-Riddoch, T.L., and Vardy, S. 2003. A Multi-Century Flood, Climatic, and Ecological History of the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Northern Alberta, Canada: Final Report. Submitted to BC Hydro, 28 February 2003, 250 pp.
• Wolfe, B.B., Edwards, T.W.D., Jiang, H.B., MacDonald, G.M., Gervais, B.R., and Snyder, J.A. 2003. Effect of varying oceanicity on early to mid-Holocene paleohydrology, Kola Peninsula, Russia: isotopic evidence from treeline lakes. The Holocene 13, 153-160.
• Gibson, J.J., and Edwards, T.W.D. 2002. Regional surface water balance and evaporation-transpiration partitioning from a stable isotope survey of lakes in northern Canada. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16, 10.1029/2001GB001839.
• Birks, S.J., Gibson, J.J., Gourcy, L., Aggarwal, P.K., and Edwards, T.W.D. 2002. Maps and animations offer new opportunities for studying the global water cycle. EOS 83, 406 (plus electronic supplement).
• Motz, J., Shouakar-Stash, O., Drimmie, R.J., Edwards, T.W.D., Frape, S.K., and Annable, W.K. 2001. Hydrogen-isotope analysis of potentially-toxic organic materials employing manganese reduction and disposable nickel-pyrolysis tubes. Chemical Geology 181, 67-81.