Stable isotopes in soil and water studies

The composition of oxygen-18 and deuterium in soil waters varies mainly as a result of changes in the isotopic composition of rainfall and the processes of evaporation. This paper gives examples of how the isotope profiles which develop in the unsaturated zone can give information about recharge fluxes and mechanisms, evaporation from groundwater systems in arid areas and the zones in soil profiles from which plants use water. J. Ch. Fontes and his colleagues have been leaders in the application of these techniques to the measurement of evaporation from deep water tables in arid areas. (author)