Environmental tracers in groundwater of the North China Plain

Environmental tracers such as stable isotopes or noble gases in groundwater are important tools to study issues of water resources and to obtain palaeoclimate records. Applications of these methods to semi-arid regions are of particular interest. Old groundwaters in such places are not only climate archives, but in the first place water resources of high quality but finite quantity. The goal of our ongoing study is to investigate groundwater recharge and palaeo-climate in the semi-arid North China Plain. Here we present the first palaeoclimatic results