Hydrological tracers rank among the most important tools in hydrology and hydrogeology. They improve our conceptual understanding of hydrological systems and support quantitative insights into water budgets, flow paths, groundwater recharge, groundwater-surface water interactions, hydrochemistry, geochemsitry, ecohydrology and geomicrobiology. Recent advances in analytical techniques (e.g., for high-frequency analyses of dissolved noble gases, stable water isotopes or microbial community compositions directly in the field, or high-throughput sequencing of environmental DNA) allow precise measurement of an unprecedented range of physical, chemical, and biological tracers at spatial and temporal resolutions that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Additionally, modern computing resources finally enable explicit numerical simulation of the transport of hydrological tracers, as well as other relevant processes, from the local to the regional scale.
This session aims to showcase recent advances, innovations, and emerging methods in measuring, simulating, and interpreting hydrological tracers. In particular, it seeks to highlight multidisciplinary approaches that provide an improved conceptual and/or quantitative understanding of complex hydrological, hydrogeological and ecohydrological systems. Because acquisition of hydrological tracers also supports the decision-making process, the goal of this Session also lies in demonstrating studies which helped improving water resources management and making the exploitation of our precious water resources more sustainable and adaptable to future anthropogenic and climatic perturbations.