Abstract
A basic approach used in estuarine chemistry is to determine the experimental distribution of one given element with chlorinity and compare it with that predicted from the simple mixing of river water with seawater. This method provides useful results but several practical problems arise—including the definition of correct end-members, the role of input of tributaries or bank flow in the saline part of the estuary, and the occurrence of several water masses of different ages along the estuary. In addition, this method is not applicable in those areas of constant density which can be of prime importance in estuarine geochemistry and dynamic understanding. To characterise these various problems it is worthwhile to use a suitable freshwater tracer such as tritium1, D/H or the 18O/16O isotopic ratio. The oxygen isotope ratio has been used successfully to study river water mixing2 but has been little used in estuaries. The basic principle of this method is that the isotopic composition of river water might vary with time, and that different rivers might have different isotopic composition whereas ocean water is of fairly uniform composition. We present here a study of oxygen isotope composition in various estuaries, ranging (in Pritchard's classification3) from the saltwedge type such as Rhône (France) and Zaire (Congo), to a partially mixed type such as Gironde, Loire and Charente (France) and Godavari (India). These estuaries cover a wide variety of hydroclimatological conditions including the temperate and tropical regimes.
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Martin, J., Letolle, R. Oxygen 18 in estuaries. Nature 282, 292–294 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/282292a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/282292a0
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