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Demystifying stable hydrogen isotope offsets between plants and source waters

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Abstract

Stable isotopes are widely used to investigate plant-water interactions, yet many studies report differences in deuterium (δ2H) ratios between plants and source waters (termed δ2H offsets). These δ2H offsets challenge the assumption that water uptake and transport in plants do not alter the isotopic composition of water. Here, we develop a conceptual framework that distinguishes three soil water pools and two plant water pools based on water potential. We synthesize data from 110 published studies across 212 field sites worldwide and reanalyze 6333 δ2H offset measurements using possible source water lines. We find that δ2H offsets are absent when using appropriate water pools (e.g., use sap flow water rather than bulk xylem tissue water to represent plant water), with mean offsets not statistically different from zero. We argue that accurately separating correct water pools from bulk water pools in soils and plants is key to reconciling the observed δ2H offsets.

Data availability

The datasets supporting the findings of this study are publicly available in the Figshare repository at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31076299. Supplementary Information references provide a complete list of the 110 published studies synthesized in this study.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Division of Earth Sciences of the National Science Foundation (EAR-1554894 and EAR-2444867).

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  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indiana University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Yue Li & Lixin Wang

  2. Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Stephen P. Good

  3. Water Resources Graduate Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Stephen P. Good

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  1. Yue Li
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Yue Li and Lixin Wang designed the research, synthesized the database, conducted the analysis, and wrote the first draft. Stephen P. Good contributed ideas and revised the draft. All authors contributed to the writing and reviewing of the paper.

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Lixin Wang.

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Communications Earth & Environment thanks Matthias Beyer and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary handling editors: Mengjie Wang. [A peer review file is available].

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Li, Y., Good, S.P. & Wang, L. Demystifying stable hydrogen isotope offsets between plants and source waters.
Commun Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03230-7

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Source: Ecology - nature.com

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