Beyond the window of detection: Using multi-scale solute tracer studies to assess mass recovery at the detection limit
Abstract
Stream solute tracers are a common basis to assess transport and transformation in study reaches, but results are biased toward the shortest and fastest storage locations. While these errors have been accepted for decades, solute tracer studies are now being used as a basis to scale findings from short study reaches to entire river networks (e.g., to estimate turnover). In these cases, small errors at one scale may aggregate along the reach. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to manipulate experimental conditions and observe mass that is stored at timescales beyond the traditional reach-scale window of detection. We are able to explain the fate of about 26% of solute tracer mass that would have been considered as lost in a traditional study design, extending our detection limits to characterize flowpaths that would have been previously unmeasured. Additionally, we review the evolution of tracer studies and their interpretation including this approach and provide a proposed future direction to extend empirical studies to not-before-seen timescales
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.H32E..08W