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Lyons KJ, Ikonen J, Hokajärvi AM, Räsänen T, Pitkänen T, Kauppinen A, Kujala K, Rossi PM, Miettinen IT. Monitoring groundwater quality with real-time data, stable water isotopes, and microbial community analysis: A comparison with conventional methods. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 864:161199. [PMID: 36581300 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Groundwater provides much of the world's potable water. Nevertheless, groundwater quality monitoring programmes often rely on a sporadic, slow, and narrowly focused combination of periodic manual sampling and laboratory analyses, such that some water quality deficiencies go undetected, or are detected too late to prevent adverse consequences. In an effort to address this shortcoming, we conducted enhanced monitoring of untreated groundwater quality over 12 months (February 2019-February 2020) in four shallow wells supplying potable water in Finland. We supplemented periodic manual sampling and laboratory analyses with (i) real-time online monitoring of physicochemical and hydrological parameters, (ii) analysis of stable water isotopes from groundwater and nearby surface waters, and (iii) microbial community analysis of groundwater via amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and 16S rRNA. We also developed an early warning system (EWS) for detecting water quality anomalies by automating real-time online monitoring data collection, transfer, and analysis - using electrical conductivity (EC) and turbidity as indirect water quality indicators. Real-time online monitoring measurements were largely in fair agreement with periodic manual measurements, demonstrating their usefulness for monitoring water quality; and the findings of conventional monitoring, stable water isotopes, and microbial community analysis revealed indications of surface water intrusion and faecal contamination at some of the studied sites. With further advances in technology and affordability expected into the future, the supplementary methods used here could be more widely implemented to enhance groundwater quality monitoring - by contributing new insights and/or corroborating the findings of conventional analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin J Lyons
- Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
| | - Jenni Ikonen
- Expert Microbiology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland
| | - Anna-Maria Hokajärvi
- Expert Microbiology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland
| | - Teemu Räsänen
- Preventos Informatics Oy, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Environmental Technology, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Kuopio, Finland
| | - Tarja Pitkänen
- Expert Microbiology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Ari Kauppinen
- Expert Microbiology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland; Animal Health Diagnostic Unit, Laboratory and Research Division, Finnish Food Authority, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Katharina Kujala
- Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Pekka M Rossi
- Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Ilkka T Miettinen
- Expert Microbiology Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland
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Novel Water Retention and Nutrient Management Technologies and Strategies Supporting Agricultural Water Management in Continental, Pannonian and Boreal Regions. WATER 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/w14091486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Urgent water and food security challenges, particularly in continental and boreal regions, need to be addressed by initiatives such as the Horizon 2020-funded project WATer retention and nutrient recycling in soils and streams for improved AGRIcultural production (WATERAGRI). A new methodological framework for the sustainable management of various solutions resilient to climate change has been developed. The results indicate that the effect of the climate scenario is significantly different for peatlands and constructed wetlands. The findings also highlight that remote-sensing-based yield prediction models developed from vegetation indices have the potential to provide quantitative and timely information on crops for large regions or even at the local farm scale. Verification of remotely sensed data is one of the prerequisites for the proper utilization and understanding of data. Research shows that current serious game applications fall short due to challenges such as not clarifying the decision problem, the lack of use of decision quality indicators and limited use of gaming. Overall, WATERAGRI solutions improve water and food security by adapting agriculture to climate change, recycling nutrients and providing educational tools to the farming community. Farmers in small agricultural catchments benefit directly from WATERAGRI, but over the long-term, the general public does as well.
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Kühnhammer K, Dahlmann A, Iraheta A, Gerchow M, Birkel C, Marshall JD, Beyer M. Continuous in situ measurements of water stable isotopes in soils, tree trunk and root xylem: Field approval. RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY : RCM 2022; 36:e9232. [PMID: 34862674 DOI: 10.1002/rcm.9232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Revised: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
RATIONALE New methods to measure stable isotopes of soil and tree water directly in the field enable us to increase the temporal resolution of obtained data and advance our knowledge on the dynamics of soil and plant water fluxes. Only few field applications exist. However, these are needed to further improve novel methods and hence exploit their full potential. METHODS We tested the borehole equilibration method in the field and collected in situ and destructive samples of stable isotopes of soil, trunk and root xylem water over a 2.5-month experiment in a tropical dry forest under natural abundance conditions and following labelled irrigation. Water from destructive samples was extracted using cryogenic vacuum extraction. Isotope ratios were determined with IRIS instruments using cavity ring-down spectroscopy both in the field and in the laboratory. RESULTS In general, timelines of both methods agreed well for both soil and xylem samples. Irrigation labelled with heavy hydrogen isotopes clearly impacted the isotope composition of soil water and one of the two studied tree species. Inter-method deviations increased in consequence of labelling, which revealed their different capabilities to cover spatial and temporal heterogeneities. CONCLUSIONS We applied the novel borehole equilibration method in a remote field location. Our experiment reinforced the potential of this in situ method for measuring xylem water isotopes in both tree trunks and roots and confirmed the reliability of gas permeable soil probes. However, in situ xylem measurements should be further developed to reduce the uncertainty within the range of natural abundance and hence enable their full potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathrin Kühnhammer
- IGOE, Environmental Geochemistry, Braunschweig, Germany
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Adrian Dahlmann
- IGOE, Environmental Geochemistry, Braunschweig, Germany
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | | | | | - Christian Birkel
- Department of Geography and Water and Global Change Observatory, Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), San José, Costa Rica
| | - John D Marshall
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
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Tracing plant–environment interactions from organismal to planetary scales using stable isotopes: a mini review. Emerg Top Life Sci 2021; 5:301-316. [DOI: 10.1042/etls20200277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2020] [Revised: 01/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Natural isotope variation forms a mosaic of isotopically distinct pools across the biosphere and flows between pools integrate plant ecology with global biogeochemical cycling. Carbon, nitrogen, and water isotopic ratios (among others) can be measured in plant tissues, at root and foliar interfaces, and in adjacent atmospheric, water, and soil environments. Natural abundance isotopes provide ecological insight to complement and enhance biogeochemical research, such as understanding the physiological conditions during photosynthetic assimilation (e.g. water stress) or the contribution of unusual plant water or nutrient sources (e.g. fog, foliar deposition). While foundational concepts and methods have endured through four decades of research, technological improvements that enable measurement at fine spatiotemporal scales, of multiple isotopes, and of isotopomers, are advancing the field of stable isotope ecology. For example, isotope studies now benefit from the maturation of field-portable infrared spectroscopy, which allows the exploration of plant–environment sensitivity at physiological timescales. Isotope ecology is also benefiting from, and contributing to, new understanding of the plant–soil–atmosphere system, such as improving the representation of soil carbon pools and turnover in land surface models. At larger Earth-system scales, a maturing global coverage of isotope data and new data from site networks offer exciting synthesis opportunities to merge the insights of single-or multi-isotope analysis with ecosystem and remote sensing data in a data-driven modeling framework, to create geospatial isotope products essential for studies of global environmental change.
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Barbeta A, Gimeno TE, Clavé L, Fréjaville B, Jones SP, Delvigne C, Wingate L, Ogée J. An explanation for the isotopic offset between soil and stem water in a temperate tree species. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2020; 227:766-779. [PMID: 32239512 DOI: 10.1111/nph.16564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Accepted: 03/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
A growing number of field studies report isotopic offsets between stem water and its potential sources that prevent the unambiguous identification of plant water origin using water isotopes. We explored the causes of this isotopic offset by conducting a controlled experiment on the temperate tree species Fagus sylvatica. We measured δ2 H and δ18 O of soil and stem water from potted saplings growing on three soil substrates and subjected to two watering regimes. Regardless of substrate, soil and stem water δ2 H were similar only near permanent wilting point. Under moister conditions, stem water δ2 H was 11 ± 3‰ more negative than soil water δ2 H, coherent with field studies. Under drier conditions, stem water δ2 H became progressively more enriched than soil water δ2 H. Although stem water δ18 O broadly reflected that of soil water, soil-stem δ2 H and δ18 O differences were correlated (r = 0.76) and increased with transpiration rates indicated by proxies. Soil-stem isotopic offsets are more likely to be caused by water isotope heterogeneities within the soil pore and stem tissues, which would be masked under drier conditions as a result of evaporative enrichment, than by fractionation under root water uptake. Our results challenge our current understanding of isotopic signals in the soil-plant continuum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrià Barbeta
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
- BEECA, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Teresa E Gimeno
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
- Basque Centre for Climate Change, 48940, Leioa, Spain
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48008, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Laura Clavé
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
| | | | - Sam P Jones
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, CEP 69060-001, Brazil
| | - Camille Delvigne
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
- Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Lisa Wingate
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
| | - Jérôme Ogée
- INRAE, UMR1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d'Ornon, France
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Kübert A, Paulus S, Dahlmann A, Werner C, Rothfuss Y, Orlowski N, Dubbert M. Water Stable Isotopes in Ecohydrological Field Research: Comparison Between In Situ and Destructive Monitoring Methods to Determine Soil Water Isotopic Signatures. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2020; 11:387. [PMID: 32346381 PMCID: PMC7171290 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.00387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2020] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Ecohydrological isotope based field research is often constrained by a lack of temporally explicit soil water data, usually related to the choice of destructive sampling in the field and subsequent analysis in the laboratory. New techniques based on gas permeable membranes allow to sample soil water vapor in situ and infer soil liquid water isotopic signatures. Here, a membrane-based in situ soil water vapor sampling method was tested at a grassland site in Freiburg, Germany. It was further compared with two commonly used destructive sampling approaches for determination of soil liquid water isotopic signatures: cryogenic vacuum extraction and centrifugation. All methods were tested under semi-controlled field conditions, conducting an experiment with dry-wet cycling and two isotopically different labeling irrigation waters. We found mean absolute differences between cryogenic vacuum extraction and in situ vapor measurements of 0.3-14.2‰ (δ18O) and 0.4-152.2‰ (δ2H) for soil liquid water. The smallest differences were found under natural abundance conditions of 2H and 18O, the strongest differences were observed after irrigation with labeled waters. Labeling strongly increased the isotopic variation in soil water: Mean soil water isotopic signatures derived by cryogenic vacuum extraction were -11.6 ± 10.9‰ (δ18O) and +61.9 ± 266.3‰ (δ2H). The in situ soil water vapor method showed isotopic signatures of -12.5 ± 9.4‰ (δ18O) and +169.3 ± 261.5‰ (δ2H). Centrifugation was unsuccessful for soil samples due to low water recovery rates. It is therefore not recommended. Our study highlights that the in situ soil water vapor method captures the temporal dynamics in the isotopic signature of soil water well while the destructive approach also includes the natural lateral isotopic heterogeneity. The different advantages and limitations of the three methods regarding setup, handling and costs are discussed. The choice of method should not only consider prevailing environmental conditions but the experimental design and goal. We see a very promising tool in the in situ soil water vapor method, capturing both temporal developments and spatial variability of soil water processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelika Kübert
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- *Correspondence: Angelika Kübert,
| | - Sinikka Paulus
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
| | - Adrian Dahlmann
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | | | - Youri Rothfuss
- Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Agrosphere Institute (IBG-3), Jülich, Germany
| | | | - Maren Dubbert
- Ecosystem Physiology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
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