Abstract
The understating of the dynamics of tracers and water transit times at
catchment scale has increasingly grown in the last decades, becoming a
consolidated approach in the field of hydrological and ecohydrological
research. Recently, a benchmark contribution has been given in the work
by Benettin et al. (2022), which reviews the state of art on the topic,
also addressing present and future challenge, pointing out some open
questions in transit time research. This commentary tries to
contextualize the above article, highlighting the most focal points and
relating it to a broader context in the field. A brief overview on the
main concepts of backward transit times, StorAge selection functions and
forward transit time distributions is given in a logical-historical
order, giving to the reader the primary instruments for a later
comprehensive understating of the Transit Time Theory. Eventually, a
numerical example helps to clarify the above concepts in a very simple
and effective way.