Determining the Isotopic Composition of Surface Water Vapor Flux From
High-Frequency Observations Using Flux-Gradient and the Keeling Methods
Abstract
The isotopic composition of surface water vapor flux (δ) is a quantity
frequently used to investigate the local and regional water cycle. In
this study, the δ determined with the Keeling method was evaluated
against the flux-gradient method and the Craig-Gordon model prediction.
Previous studies have shown that the choice of regression fitting
methods can bias the δ intercept results and precision of the Keeling
method. Here, the Keeling method was applied to high-frequency (0.2 to 1
Hz) data measured at a cropland and a lake site to test different
regression methods. Results show that the Keeling method with the York’s
solution (YS) and the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression produced
robust estimates of δ when compared with the flux-gradient method.
Increasing concentration range reduced the standard error of estimate
but did not bring obvious improvement to the bias error for the YS and
OLS regression. The Keeling result was better using data from two
sampling heights than only one. There was evidence that the Keeling
method with the OLS regression slightly outperformed the flux-gradient
method during periods with small vertical vapor gradient. Results also
show that the Keeling method with the geometric mean regression gave
highly biased estimate of δ for the types of isotope ratio infrared
spectroscopy analyzer deployed in this study. These results can inform δ
calculations and future experimental designs.