Characterizing Water Isotopes in a Watershed that Stretches from Mt. Kenya through the Savanna Ecosystem

About My Research

This is a nomination for my colleague, John Gitonga, a Kenyan researcher who uses a L2140-i that we have installed at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia, Kenya. Our work together focuses on characterizing water isotopes in a watershed that stretches from the upper reaches of Mt. Kenya down through the savanna ecosystem. These ecosystems are home to iconic African fauna, but are also used by Maasai and Samburu pastoralists and increasingly, commercial and small-scale farming. Our work aims to characterize water isotopes across this ecosystem to understand how the current 2-year sustained drought affects people, animals, and plants.

Our goal is to help inform local stakeholders about water use in the region so that appropriate conservation measures can be developed.

How Picarro Analyzers Helped

Our work would not be possible without a Picarro. John samples 25 sites in the watershed every two weeks using a rickety, 25 year old Land Rover to criss cross the watershed. He grew up in this region so he is always talking with farmers. pastoralists, and other locals he meets while sampling. The Picarro allows him to analyze the samples at the Mpala Research Centre (MRC) in Kenya where the project is based. Shipping the samples back to the US would be quite difficult, if not impossible, given all of the permitting restrictions and challenges that currently exist. The L2140 is rugged and can be run without much hassle in our lab at MRC. The Picarro brings new analytical capabilities to Kenya and allows us to work towards understanding water, an increasingly more limited resource, in a complex coupled human and natural system. The Picarro at MRC has also allowed us to hire and train local Kenyans in the Paleo and Ecohydrology Research at the Mpala Isotope Lab (PERMILab;https://kevinuno.com/permilab).