A compositional approach to stable isotope data analysis

Abstract

Isotopic data are currently becoming an important source of information regarding sources, evolution and mixing processes of water in hydrogeologic systems. However, it is not clear how to treat with statistics the geochemical data and the isotopic data together. We propose to introduce the isotopic information as new parts, and apply compositional data analysis with the resulting increased composition. Results are equivalent to downscale the classical isotopic delta variables, because they are already relative (as needed in the compositional framework) and isotopic variations are almost always very small. This methodology is illustrated and tested with the study of the Llobregat River Basin (Barcelona, NE Spain), where it is shown that, though very small, isotopic variations comp lement geochemical principal components, and help in the better identification of pollution sources