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Published in

European Geosciences Union, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, p. 1-20, 2018

DOI: 10.5194/hess-2018-538

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Technical note: an alternative water vapor sampling technique for stable isotope analysis

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Recent developments in laser spectroscopy enabled to carry out direct measurements of δ<sup>2</sup>H and δ<sup>18</sup>O of air water vapor in the field. However, certain experimental sites or project budgets do not ease the deployment of this technology to obtain the needed measurements. We carried out three consecutive experiments aiming to provide an alternative method to sample air vapour in the field, and preventing fractionation during the process. The first experiment determined the minimum air sample volume required to obtain measurements of δ<sup>2</sup>H and δ<sup>18</sup>O with a laser spectrometer. The second one test evaluated the capacity to retrieve continuously similar isotopic signatures of the collected samples from one location. The third experiment assessed the applicability of this methodology under an experimental set up in a coniferous forest in The Netherlands. Stable isotope measurements of water vapor by laser spectroscopy can be obtained with a sample volume of 450<span class="thinspace"></span>mL of air. This allows to measure each sample during a period of 300<span class="thinspace"></span>s, obtaining isotope signatures with standard deviations lower than 0.1<span class="thinspace"></span>‰, and 0.5<span class="thinspace"></span>‰, for δ<sup>18</sup>O and δ<sup>2</sup>H, respectively. Air samples collected with bags were homogeneously mixed, allowing to retrieve a better temporal variation in the field than the cold traps employed.</p>