Analyzing The effects of climate change on precipitation using Isotopes: A case study of Bandipora J&K
Abstract
Precipitation patterns are varying worldwide and have direct effects on earth and atmosphere. The changes in these precipitation patterns are governed by temperature changes. Study of isotopes in precipitation would of great help in analyzing these changes. The air masses changes seasonally quantifying the change in δ 18 O and δD and helps to trace the changes in precipitation. In our study area, the value of δ 18 O for precipitation ranges from -14.07 to -1.29 and for δD, the values range from -102 to 0.27 respectively. The changes in isotopic ratios of δ 18 O and δD may be due to the temporal changes in ambient temperature and/or precipitation. The samples of precipitation were collected in different seasons for δ 18 O, the average value was -13.96 in the month of August, -1.79 in the month of September and -6.23 in the month of October and δD shows average value of -101.43 in the month of August, -3.13 in the month of September and -3.13 in the month of October. The effects of increasing temperature and decrease in precipitation in the month of September reflected from the sample analysis as δ 18 O and δD were higher than other months. In the present study, it was also observed that the temporal and spatial variability apart from the altitudinal and temperature effects were large degree attributed to the origin of air mass that has prevailed during the monitoring period. The d-excess in the study area lies in the range of 9.7–19.2 which strongly indicates the effect of western disturbances as the average d-excess values of the westerly winds.
