This award will support collaborative research between Prof. H. James Simpson of Columbia University, and Dr. Graham B. Allison of the Adelaide Laboratory of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research. The investigators will employ stable isotope analysis of river water and agricultural drainage to investigate how much water is lost by transpiration, and how much by evaporation, from the irrigation network in Australia's Murray River system. The project combines the expertise of the investigators, who are both experts in water composition analysis using radioactive techniques. While this research could lead, in the short term, to the improvement of the water and salinity budgets of Australia's important Murray River agriculture zone, it should also demonstrate the general potential of stable isotope methods in management of large irrigation networks.
