Stable water isotope patterns in a micro-basin in the Panama Isthmus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14295/bjs.v6i1.908Keywords:
La Zanguenga, tropical hydrology, groundwater, precipitation, isotopic hydrologyAbstract
This study was conducted in the narrowest section of the Isthmus of Panama, between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, near the country's geographic center. Although groundwater plays an increasingly important role in economic development and water security, the application of isotope techniques to improve hydrological understanding in tropical regions has been quite a bit meager. Due to the close proximity of two immense oceans, the low latitude, the brisk dynamism of its atmospheric processes, and the limited baseline data, the isotope hydrology of the Isthmus of Panama opens a large room for further investigation. Accordingly, this study marks an initial investigation related to the isotopic composition of precipitation and groundwater in La Zanguenga, a micro-basin located in Panamá Oeste province inside the Panama Canal basin. Groundwater samples were collected during six monitoring campaigns in 2022, while precipitation was sampled in October and November 2024. All samples were analyzed for δ²H, δ¹⁸O, and deuterium excess to establish a local isotopic baseline. The results from seventeen wells distributed along the southern sector of the basin showed highly similar isotopic compositions, suggesting a relatively homogeneous groundwater signature. In addition, the results suggest the dominant influence of the amount effect on the isotopic composition of precipitation, as well as the possible contribution of moisture sources from both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
References
Bowen, G. J., Cai, Z., Fiorella, R. P., & Putman, A. L. (2019). Isotopes in the Water Cycle: Regional- to Global-Scale Patterns and Applications. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 47, 453-479. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-053018-060220
Caballero, A. (2009). Exploración de aguas subterráneas en El Arco Seco de Panamá (Sector De Las Tablas) Mediante métodos geofísicos [tesis doctoral, Universitat de Barcelona]. Repositorio Tesis Doctoral en Xarxa. https://hdl.handle.net/10803/288042
Candanedo, C., & Fábrega, O. (1999). Mapa hidrogeológico de Panamá - Texto Explicativo. Available in: https://www.imhpa.gob.pa/uploads/documentos/Nota_Explicativa_Hidrogeologico.pdf. Assecced on: March 10, 2026.
Clark, I. D., & Fritz, P. (1997). Environmental Isotopes in Hydrogeology. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781482242911
Craig, H. (1961). Isotopic Variations in Meteoric Waters. Science, 133(3465), 1702-1703. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.133.3465.1702
Crawford J., Hughes, C. E., & Lykoudis S. (2014). Alternative least squares methods for determining the meteoric water line, demonstrated using GNIP data. Journal of Hydrology, 519, 344-351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.10.033
Dansgaard, W. (1964). Stable isotopes in precipitation. Tellus, 16(4), 436-468. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1964.tb00181.x
Flasz, A., Fábrega, P., Flores, R., Morales, B., Ortiz, R., & Vergara, A. (2010). Atlas ambiental de la República de Panamá, 1st ed. In: Autoridad nacional del ambiente (ANAM), URS Holdings Inc. Available in: https://sinia.gob.pa/atlas-ambiental-de-la-republica-panama/. Assecced on: March 02, 2026.
Fricke, H. C., & O’Neil, J. R. (1999). The correlation between 18O/16O ratios of meteoric water and surface temperature: its use in investigating terrestrial climate change over geologic time. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 170(3), 181-196. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(99)00105-3
Gat, J. R. (1996). Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in the hydrologic cycle. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 24, 225-262. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.earth.24.1.225
Gómez, S., Esquivel, A., Arcia, M., Espino, K., & Flores, I. (2023). Comportamiento anual de la calidad del agua y caudal sólido de la microcuenca La Zanguenga. Congreso Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología – APANAC, 79-85. https://doi.org/10.33412/apanac.2023.3915
Gonfiantini, R. (1986). Chapter 3 - Environmental isotopes in lake studies. In: Fritz, P., & Fontes, J. C., (Eds.), The terrestrial environment, B , 113-168 p., Elsevier. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-42225-5.50008-5
González-González, A., Fábrega-Duque, J., Adar, E., & Atencio, B. (2023). Aplicación de isótopos ambientales para determinar zonas de recarga en el complejo sistema acuífero de la subcuenca del río Zaratí. Congreso Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología – APANAC, 190-195. https://doi.org/10.33412/apanac.2023.3934
H. S. C. S. A. (2004a). Anexo A. 2 hidráulica de pozos, Panamá. Available in: https://cich.org/Publicaciones/06/anexo2-hidraulica-de-pozos.pdf. Assecced on: March 12, 2026.
H. S. C. S. A. (2004b). Estudio Hidrogeológico en las Subcuencas De Los Hules Tinajones Y Caño Quebrado (Lh-T-Q). 2004. https://cich.org/Publicaciones/06/estudio-hidrogeologico.pdf
Hughes, C. E., & Crawford J. (2012). A new precipitation weighted method for determining the meteoric water line for hydrological applications demonstrated using Australian and global GNIP data. Journal of Hydrology, 464-465, 344-351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.07.029
IAEA. (1992). Statistical treatment of data on environmental isotopes in precipitation, technical reports series No. 331.
IAEA. (2019). Water bulletin. Available in: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/bull601april2019corr.pdf. Assecced on: March 03, 2026.
IAEA/WMO. (2025). Global network of isotopes in precipitation. The GNIP Database. Available in: https://nucleus.iaea.org/wiser. Assecced on: March 04, 2026.
IDAAN. (2020). Boletín estadístico N° 33. Años 2016-2019. Available in: https://www.idaan.gob.pa/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Bolet%C3%ADn_Estad%C3%ADstico_2019.pdf. Assecced on: March 02, 2026.
IMHPA. (n.d.). Descripción general del clima de Panamá. Instituto de Meteorología e Hidrología de Panamá. Retrieved October 10, 2023, from https://www.imhpa.gob.pa/es/descripcion-generall-clima-panama
Jaén, E. (2020). Oferta y uso de agua en Panamá. Basado en los resultados de la cuenta ambiental de agua 2020 – 2018. Ministerio de Ambiente. Available in: https://sinia.gob.pa/datos/Agua%20y%20saneamiento/Oferta%20y%20Usos%20de%20Agua%20en%20Panamá%202019.pdf. Assecced on: March 04, 2026.
Lachniet, M., & Patterson, W. (2006). Use of correlation and stepwise regression to evaluate physical controls on stable isotope values of Panamanian rain and surface waters. Journal of Hydrology, 324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.09.018
Lachniet, M., Patterson, W., Burns, S., Asmerom, Y., & Polyak, V. (2007). Caribbean and Pacific moisture sources on the Isthmus of Panama revealed from stalagmite and surface water δ18O gradients. Geophysical Research Letters, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL028469
MiAmbiente. (2012). Cobertura boscosa y uso de suelo de la República de Panamá. In: SINIA. Available in: https://www.sinia.gob.pa/index.php/cobertura-boscosa/comparaciones-de-cobertura-boscosa. Assecced on: March 02, 2026.
MiAmbiente. (2025). Mapa de Hidrogeología de la República de Panamá, escala 1:250 000, año 2025. In SINIA. https://geoportal.miambiente.gob.pa/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bef8f851f792425db8ae07b9e30fe120
MICI. (1991). Mapa Geológico de la República de Panamá 1:250,000. In STRI GIS Laboratory. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=09021b61cd7946e78fcf16ed53613e60
R Core Team 2025. (n.d.). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. R Project. Retrieved July 23, 2025, from https://www.R-project.org/
Rozanski, K., Araguás-Araguás, L., & Gonfiantini, R. (1992). Isotopic patterns in modern global precipitation. In: Climate change in continental isotopic records, 1-36 p. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1029/GM078p0001
Sánchez-Murillo, R., Esquivel-Hernández, G., Corrales-Salazar, J. L., Castro-Chacón, L., Durán-Quesada, A. M., Guerrero-Hernández, M., Delgado, V., Barberena, J., Montenegro-Rayo, K., Calderón, H., Chevez, C., Peña-Paz, T., García-Santos, S., Ortiz-Roque, P., Alvarado-Callejas, Y., Benegas, L., Hernández-Antonio, A., Matamoros-Ortega, M., Ortega, L., & Terzer-Wassmuth, S. (2020). Tracer hydrology of the data-scarce and heterogeneous Central American Isthmus. Hydrological Processes, 34(11), 2660-2675. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13758
Sánchez-Murillo, R., Esquivel-Hernández, G., Sáenz-Rosales, O., Piedra-Marín, G., Fonseca-Sánchez, A., Madrigal-Solís, H., Ulloa-Chaverri, F., Rojas-Jiménez, L. D., & Vargas-Víquez, J. A. (2016). Isotopic composition in precipitation and groundwater in the northern mountainous region of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 53(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2016.1193503
Schär, C., Lüthi, D., Beyerle, U., & Heise, E. (1999). The Soil–Precipitation Feedback: A Process Study with a Regional Climate Model. Journal of Climate, 12(3), 722-741. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<0722:TSPFAP>2.0.CO;2
Soto, D. X., Sánchez-Murillo, R., Ortega, L., Quiroz Londoño, O. M., Araguás-Araguás, L. J., & Martins, V. (2020). Environmental isotope applications in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 56(5-6), 387-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/10256016.2020.1839448
Yundi Hu, Zaihua Liu, Min Zhao, Qingrui Zeng, Cheng Zeng, Bo Chen, Chongying Chen, Haibo He, Xianli Cai, Yi Ou, Jia Chen (2018). Using deuterium excess, precipitation and runoff data to determine evaporation and transpiration: A case study from the Shawan Test Site, Puding, Guizhou, China. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 242, 21-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2018.08.049
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2027 Shantale Gómez-Aparicio, Rubens Martins Moreira, Leila Rodrigues de Araújo, Cláudio José Chagas, Alexander Esquivel-López
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
