Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My research involves the application of geochemical tracers to understand processes in groundwater and surface water systems. This includes: radioactive tracers such as C-14 and tritium that determine the pathways and timescales of water flow in catchments; major ions and stable isotopes geochemistry that help understand water-rock interaction, weathering, and evapotranspiration; Radon and major ions that determine the location and fluxes of groundwater inflows to rivers; and carbon isotopes which help understand the origins and fate of riverine carbon. The work is multi-disciplinary and involves fieldwork, lab geochemistry, and numerical analysis.
Research interests
Where does the water in rivers come from and how long does it take to get there?
This might seem like an obvious question, but many details of how river catchments function are poorly known. Streams are fed by several catchment stores, including recent rainfall, shallow young riparian groundwater, deeper older groundwater, water stored for shorter periods in the riverbanks and floodplains, and water from the soils and regolith. Determining the relative contributions from these stores is critical to understanding catchment functioning and to protecting rivers and their ecosystems. The time taken for waters to transit through the catchments to the rivers may range from years to centuries. Understanding the timescales of water flow is critical to predicting the resilience of rivers to environmental or climate change and for assessing contaminant transport.
We are investigating these questions using a range of environmental isotopes and major ions together with streamflow data and groundwater elevations. These data allow us to understand the fluxes of groundwater to rivers, the origin and residence time of river waters, and whether different water stores are activated under different flow conditions. The projects emphasise integration of geochemical and physical data to achieve an understanding of key processes that affect the water balance and water quality in rivers. Field areas are mainly in Victoria (southeast Australia) and include a variety of river types (ephemeral / perennial, headwater catchments, regulated / unregulated).
River geochemistry as a record of catchment processes
Rivers provide an understanding of chemical processes at the Earth’s surface. The major ion geochemistry together with the rare earth elements and isotopes of Sr, Ca, and Mg may be used to understand chemical weathering in river catchments. The concentration, speciation, and isotopic ratios of carbon in rivers constrain the origin, evolution, and fate of this critical element. Many studies have viewed rivers as largely draining surface water; however, much of the water in rivers has been retained for decades. These long timescales allow bio- and geochemical reactions to occur and a full understanding of river chemistry requires an understanding of these timescales. We are integrating river chemistry and catchment residence time estimates to better understand chemical processing in catchments.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- Hydrogeochemistry
- Groundwater
- Surface Water
- Isotope Tracers in Hydrogeology
Network
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Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods
Werner, A., Irvine, D., Banks, E., Cartwright, I., Godfrey, P. & Reading, L.
Australian Research Council (ARC), Lower Burdekin Water
1/07/22 → 30/06/25
Project: Research
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Hydrogeological drivers and fate of spring flow in a semi-arid setting
Werner, A., Irvine, D., Banks, E., Currell, M., Webb, J., Cartwright, I., Fensham, R. & Davies, D.
11/01/21 → 10/01/24
Project: Research
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Untangling the mechanisms of nutrient export from agricultural catchments
Cook, P., Lintern, A., Western, A. W., Cartwright, I., Reich, P., Henry, R. & McCarthy, D.
Project: Research
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A facility for quantification and isotopic analysis of trace gases
Cook, P., Eyre, B., Greening, C., Wells, N., Wong, W. W., erler, D., Cartwright, I. & McCarthy, D.
4/06/20 → 31/05/22
Project: Research
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Exploring water worlds for ecohydrologic modelling of ephemeral catchments
Daly, E., Cartwright, I., Camporse, M. & McDonnell, J.
1/03/18 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
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Depth to water table correction for initial carbon-14 activities in groundwater mean residence time estimation
Irvine, D. J., Wood, C., Cartwright, I. & Oliver, T., 11 Oct 2021, In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 25, 10, p. 5415-5424 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Nitrogen and oxygen isotopomeric constraints on the sources of nitrous oxide and the role of submarine groundwater discharge in a temperate eutrophic salt-wedge estuary
Wong, W. W., Lehmann, M. F., Kuhn, T., Frame, C., Poh, S. C., Cartwright, I. & Cook, P. L. M., Apr 2021, In: Limnology and Oceanography. 66, 4, p. 1068-1082 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Temporal and spatial variations in river specific conductivity: Implications for understanding sources of river water and hydrograph separations
Cartwright, I. & Miller, M. P., Feb 2021, In: Journal of Hydrology. 593, 8 p., 125895.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
3 Citations (Scopus) -
Using geochemistry to identify and quantify the sources, distribution, and fluxes of baseflow to an intermittent river impacted by climate change: The upper Wimmera River, southeast Australia
Zhou, Z. & Cartwright, I., 20 Dec 2021, In: Science of the Total Environment. 801, 12 p., 149725.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Using multiple methods to investigate the effects of land-use changes on groundwater recharge in a semi-arid area
Barua, S., Cartwright, I., Evan Dresel, P. & Daly, E., 5 Jan 2021, In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 25, 1, p. 89-104 16 p., hess-25-89-2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access6 Citations (Scopus)