Stable isotopes are powerful tools for tracing water fluxes and associated nutrients in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Because subsurface water and nutrient fluxes, plant water uptake, and atmospheric processes are tightly interconnected, advances in field methods and laboratory techniques are critical for capturing these dynamics and their drivers with greater temporal and spatial resolution, precision, and accuracy. At the same time, ecohydrological models are expanding our ability to integrate these observations and assess fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. This session welcomes experimental and modeling contributions that apply isotope tracers to advance process-based understanding of water and nutrient fluxes across the subsurface, vegetation, and atmosphere, spanning scales from individual plants and forest stands to catchments. In our session, we aim to discuss i) innovative process-based interpretations of stable isotope data; ii) bridge ecophysiological and hydrological perspectives through field-based approaches; iii) development of novel modeling applications and frameworks or data analysis techniques; and iv) current methodological developments. We aim to foster interdisciplinary exchange among researchers investigating ecohydrological processes with natural tracers, spanning groundwater and vadose zone hydrology, plant physiology, and ecology. By linking those fields through natural tracers, the session will stimulate discussion to deepen our understanding of water and nutrient dynamics across the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum.
Christina Hackmann, Jonas Pyschik