Analysis of the Spatial Distribution of Stable Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotopes in Precipitation across the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The isotopic composition of precipitation provides insight into the origin of water vapor, and the conditions attained during condensation and precipitation. Thus, the spatial variation of oxygen and hydrogen stable isotope composition (δp) and d-excess of precipitation was explored across the Iberian Peninsula for October 2002–September 2003 with 24 monitoring stations of the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP), and for October 2004–June 2006, in which 13 GNIP stations were merged with 21 monitoring stations from a regional network in NW Iberia. Spatial autocorrelation structure of monthly and amount weighted seasonal/annual mean δp values was modelled, and two isoscapes were derived for stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in precipitation with regression kriging. Only using the GNIP sampling network, no spatial autocorrelation structure of δp could have been determined due to the scarcity of the network. However, in the case of the merged GNIP and NW dataset, for δp a spatial sampling range of ~450 km in planar distance (corresponding to ~340 km in geodetic distance) was determined. The range of δp, which also broadly corresponds to the range of the d-excess, probably refers to the spatially variable moisture contribution of the western, Atlantic-dominated, and eastern, Mediterranean-dominated domain of the Iberian Peninsula. The estimation error of the presented Iberian precipitation isoscapes, both for oxygen and hydrogen, is smaller than the ones that were reported for the regional subset of one of the most widely used global model, suggesting that the current regional model provides a higher predictive power.