ABSTRACT
East Africa is an underrepresented region in respect of monitoring the stable isotopic composition of precipitation (δ18Oprec and δ2Hprec). In 2017, we collected precipitation samples from ten weather stations located along an altitudinal transect ranging from 1304 to 4375 m a.s.l. The δ18Oprec and δ2Hprec values varied from –8.7 to +3.7 ‰ and –38 to +29 ‰, respectively. The local meteoric water line is characterised by a lower slope, a higher intercept and more positive d-excess values (δ2H = 5.3 ± 0.2 * δ18O + 14.9 ± 0.9) compared to the global meteoric water line. Both altitude and amount of precipitation clearly correlate with our isotope data. However, the δ18Oprec and δ2Hprec values show at the same time a seasonal pattern reflecting rainy versus dry season. More enriched isotope values prevailed shortly after the end of the dry season; more depleted isotope values coincided with high precipitation amounts recorded in May, August and September. Moreover, HYSPLIT trajectories reveal that during the dry season water vapour originates primarily from the Arabian Sea, whereas during the wet season it originates primarily from the Southern Indian Ocean. These findings challenge the traditional amount effect interpretation of paleoclimate isotope records from East Africa and rather point to a previously underestimated source effect.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, Ethiopia; Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, Bale Mountains National Park and Addis Ababa University for providing access permit to the rain water, access to the Bale Mountains National Park and for the scientific collaboration, respectively. We also extend our gratitude to Prof. G. Gebauer and his team from the Isotope Biogeochemistry Group of Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, for water isotope analyses. We are also indebted to Terefe Endale, Geremew Mebratu, Mekbib Fekadu, Falk Hänsel and members of the central committee of the DFG research unit 2358 for their support with establishing the rain gauges, monitoring and collecting precipitation samples. We kindly thank two anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief Dr Gerhard Strauch for constructive comments and feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
* Originally presented at the IAEA Symposium on Isotope Hydrology 2019, Vienna, Austria, 20–24 May 2019.