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Abstract The timescales associated with precipitation moving through watersheds reveal processes that are critical to understanding many hydrologic systems. Measurements of environmental stable water isotope ratios (δ²H and δ¹⁸O) have been used as tracers to study hydrologic timescales by examining how long it takes for incoming precipitation tracers become stream discharge, yet limited measurements both spatially and temporally have bounded macroscale evaluations so far. In this observation driven study across North American biomes within the National Ecological Observation Network (NEON), we examined δ¹⁸O and δ²H stable water isotope in precipitation (δP) and stream water (δQ) at 26 co‐located sites. With an average 54 precipitation samples and 139 stream water samples per site collected over 2014–2022, assessment of local meteoric water lines and local stream water lines showed geographic variation across North America. Taking the ratio of estimated seasonal amplitudes of δP and δQ to calculate young water fractions (F_yw), showed aF_ywrange from 1% to 93% with most sites havingF_ywbelow 20%. Calculated mean transit times (MTT) based on a gamma convolution model showed a MTT range from 0.10 to 13.2 years, with half of the sites having MTT estimates lower than 2 years. Significant correlations were found between theF_ywand watershed area, longest flow length, and the longest flow length/slope. Significant correlations were found between MTT and site latitude, longitude, slope, clay fraction, temperature, precipitation magnitude, and precipitation frequency. The significant correlations between water timescale metrics and the environmental characteristics we report share some similarities with those reported in prior studies, demonstrating that these quantities are primarily driven by site or area specific factors. The analysis of isotope data presented here provides important constraints on isotope variation in North American biomes and the timescales of water movement through NEON study sites. 

Abstract Long‐term watershed experiments provide the opportunity to understand forest hydrology responses to past logging, road construction, forest regrowth, and their interactions with climate and geomorphic processes such as road‐related landslides. We examined a 50‐year record from paired‐watershed experiments in the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, USA in which 125 to 450‐year‐old conifer forests were harvested in the 1960s and 1970s and converted to planted conifer forests. We evaluated how quickflow and delayed flow for 1222 events in treated and reference watersheds changed by season after clearcutting and road construction, including 50 years of growth of planted forest, major floods, and multi‐decade reductions in snowpack. Quickflow runoff early in the water year (fall) increased by up to +99% in the first decade, declining to below pre‐harvest levels (−1% to −15%) by the third to fifth decade after clearcutting. Fall delayed flow responded more dramatically than quickflow and fell below pre‐treatment levels in all watersheds by the fifth decade, consistent with increased transpiration in the planted forests. Quickflow increased less (+12% to 70%) during the winter and spring but remained higher than pre‐treatment levels throughout the fourth or fifth decade, potentially impacted by post‐harvest burning, roads, and landslides. Quickflow remained high throughout the 50‐year period of study, and much higher than delayed flow in the last two decades in a watershed in which road‐related changes in flow routing and debris flows after the flood of record increased network connectivity. A long‐term decline in regional snowpack was not clearly associated with responses of treated vs. reference watersheds. Hydrologic processes altered by harvest of old‐growth conifer forest more than 50 years ago (transpiration, interception, snowmelt, and flow routing) continued to modify streamflow, with no clear evidence of hydrologic recovery. These findings underscore the importance of continued long‐term watershed experiments. 

Tracer-aided hydrological models (TAHMs) are one of the most powerful tools to identify new (event) and old (pre-event) water fractions contributing to stormflow because they account both for streamflow and tracer mixing dynamics in model calibration. Nevertheless, their representativeness of hydrograph dynamics is often limited due to the unavailability of high-resolution conservative tracer data (e.g., water stable isotopes or chloride). Hence, there is a need to identify alternative tracers yielding similar flow partitioning results than “ideal” ones while requiring fewer financial resources for high-frequency monitoring (e.g., sub-hourly). Here, wecompare flow partitioning results of a TAHM calibrated using high-frequency electrical conductivity (EC) and water stable isotope (18O) data collected during 37 rainfall-runoff events monitored during variable hydrometeorological conditions in the Zhurucay Ecohydrological Observatory, a tropical alpine catchment located in southern Ecuador. When the model was calibrated using the sampling resolution of stables isotopes (6-hours to 1-hour), no statistically significant differences of pre-event water fractions (PEWFs) using both tracers for model calibration were found. PEWF differences between both tracers for 89% of the events were < 20% regardless of the events’ antecedent moisture and rainfall conditions. Model transfer functions were also similar suggesting that catchment internal processes inferred using both tracers are comparable. Events presenting larger differences (n = 4; up to 27% PEWF difference) had no samples collected during peak flow. Calibration of the model using EC data collected at sub-hourly intervals (every 5-minutes) showed a significant increase in model performance as compared to the frequency of collection of isotopic data. Similarity in flow partitioning results can be attributed to a quasi-conservative nature of EC due to the presence of organic-rich riparian soils (peat-type) overlying compact bedrock across the catchment. Findings also highlight the importance of capturing rapidly occurring catchment mixing processes though high-temporal frequency monitoring of tracer data. Our study encourages the value of assessing the use of alternative tracers, such as EC, to identify fast occurring rainfall runoff processes, while lowering the costs needed to implement and sustain tracer data collection for long time periods.