Articles | Volume 24, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1293-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1293-2020
Research article
 | 
19 Mar 2020
Research article |  | 19 Mar 2020

Groundwater mean residence times of a subtropical barrier sand island

Harald Hofmann, Dean Newborn, Ian Cartwright, Dioni I. Cendón, and Matthias Raiber

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AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (11 Dec 2019) by Christine Stumpp
AR by Harald Hofmann on behalf of the Authors (13 Jan 2020)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (24 Jan 2020) by Christine Stumpp
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (27 Jan 2020)
ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (30 Jan 2020) by Christine Stumpp
AR by Harald Hofmann on behalf of the Authors (05 Feb 2020)  Author's response    Manuscript
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Short summary
Fresh groundwater (GW) on barrier islands is affected by GW use and precipitation variability. Mean residence times (MRTs) of GW on a sand barrier island were determined. They ranged from 37 years to more than 150 years for tritium and had a much larger range (modern to 5000 years) for carbon-14. Perched aquifer systems in the unsaturated zone and peat formations around wetlands are the most likely cause of longer MRTs, as they have a significant impact on regional recharge and flow diversion.