Spatial and meteorological controls of stable water isotope dynamics of precipitation in Kashmir Valley, Western Himalaya, India.

In the Himalayas, the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are sustained by water resources primarily depending on the moisture brought by Western Disturbances and Indian Summer Monsoon. In the present study, a network of 12 precipitation stations was established across the Kashmir Valley to understand the spatial and meteorological factors controlling precipitation isotopes. Temperature and relative humidity are dominant meteorological factors, whereas altitude, proximity to forest canopy, land use/land cover, windward and leeward sides of the mountains are the main physical factors influencing precipitation isotopes.

New insights into diffusive kinetic fractionation during liquid condensation under supersaturated environment: an alternative approach for isotope tagging of ground-level water vapour.

Stable water isotopes in ground-level vapour are key to estimating water exchange between geospheres. Their sampling, however, is limited to laser-absorption spectrometers and satellite observations, having inherent shortcomings. This study investigates diffusive kinetic fractionation during liquid condensation under supersaturated environment, providing a cost-effective, reliable way of sampling ground-level vapour isotopes (O, H).

Hydrochemical assessment (major ions and Hg) of meltwater in high altitude glacierized Himalayan catchment.

Snowpack and glacial melt samples were collected to understand the hydrochemical, isotopic characteristics and the source of Hg contamination in high altitude glacierized Himalayan catchment. Both the snow and glacial melt were acidic in nature with calcium and magnesium as the dominant cations and bicarbonate and chloride as the dominant anions. The major ion concentrations for cations were found to be Ca > Mg > Na > K and HCO > Cl > SO > NO for anions.

Influence of southwest monsoons in the Kashmir Valley, western Himalayas.

The regional climate of the Himalayas is predominated by the southwest monsoons and the western disturbances. The uplift of the Pir Panjal to its present height is believed to restrict the southwest monsoons from entering into the Kashmir Valley in the western Himalayas. In the present study, monthly precipitation samples were collected across the Kashmir Valley from June 2013 to May 2014 for δO and δH analyses to constrain the influence of southwest monsoons in the valley.

Estimation of snow and glacier melt contribution to Liddar stream in a mountainous catchment, western Himalaya: an isotopic approach.

Snow- and glacier-dominated catchments in the Himalayas are important sources of fresh water to more than one billion people. However, the contribution of snowmelt and glacier melt to stream flow remains largely unquantified in most parts of the Himalayas. We used environmental isotopes and geochemical tracers to determine the source water and flow paths of stream flow draining the snow- and glacier-dominated mountainous catchment of the western Himalaya.

Studies on stable isotopic composition of daily rainfall from Kozhikode, Kerala, India.

The stable isotopic compositions of all major daily rain fall samples (n = 113) collected from Kozhikode station in Kerala, India, for the year 2010 representing the pre-monsoon, southwest and northeast monsoon seasons are examined. The isotopic variations δ(18)O, δ(2)H and d-excess in daily rainfall ranged from δ(18)O: -4.4 to 2 ‰, δ(2)H: -25.