SEASONAL ISOTOPE HYDROLOGY OF 3 APPALACHIAN FOREST CATCHMENTS

compare the hydrology of two forested basins in West Virginia (WV) (34 and 39 ha) and one in Pennsylvania (PA) (1134 ha). Precipitation and throughfall were measured with funnel/bottle samplers, soil water with ceramic-cup suction lysimeters and spring flow/baseflows by grab and automatic sampling during the period March 1989 to March 1990. Isotopi c damping depths, or depths required to reduce the amplitude of subsur face oxygen-18 fluctuations to 37% of the surface amplitude, were gene rally similar for soil water on the larger PA basin, and baseflows and headwater spring flows on the smaller WV basins. Computed annual isot opic damping depths for these water sources averaged 49 cm using soil depth as the flow path length. The equivalent annual mean hydraulic di ffusivity for the soil flow paths was 21 cm(2) d(-1). Mean transit tim es, based upon an assumed exponential distribution of transit times, r anged from 0.2 y for soil water at a depth of 30 cm on the larger catc hment, to 1.1-1.3 y for most spring flows and 1.4-1.6 y for baseflows on the smaller catchments. Baseflow on the larger PA basin and flow of one spring on a small WV basin showed no detectable seasonal fluctuat ions in oxygen-18, indicating flow emanated from sources with mean tra nsit times greater than about 5 y. Based upon this soil flow path appr oach, it was concluded that seasonal oxygen-18 variations can be used to infer mean annual isotopic damping depths and diffusivities for soi l depths up to approximately 170 cm. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.