Stable isotopes in global lakes integrate catchment and climatic controls on evaporation.

ABSTRACT: Global warming is considered a major threat to Earth's lakes water budgets and quality. However, flow regulation, over-exploitation, lack of hydrological data, and disparate evaluation methods hamper comparative global estimates of lake vulnerability to evaporation. We have analyzed the stable isotope composition of 1257 global lakes and we find that most lakes depend on precipitation and groundwater recharge subsequently altered by catchment and lake evaporation processes. Isotope mass-balance modeling shows that ca. 20% of water inflow in global lakes is lost through evaporation and ca. 10% of lakes in arid and temperate zones experience extreme evaporative losses >40 % of the total inflow. Precipitation amount, limnicity, wind speed, relative humidity, and solar radiation are predominan

SUBMITTER: Vystavna Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8664878 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature