[1] The relationship between catchment structure and runoff characteristics is poorly understood. In steep headwater catchments with shallow soils the accumulation of hillslope area (upslope accumulated area (UAA)) is a hypothesized first-order control on the distribution of soil water and groundwater. Hillslope-riparian water table connectivity represents the linkage between the dominant catchment landscape elements (hillslopes and riparian zones) and the channel network. Hydrologic connectivity between hillsloperiparian-stream (HRS) landscape elements is heterogeneous in space and often temporally transient. We sought to test the relationship between UAA and the existence and longevity of HRS shallow groundwater connectivity. We quantified water table connectivity based on 84 recording wells distributed across 24 HRS transects within the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (U.S. Forest Service), northern Rocky Mountains, Montana. Correlations were observed between the longevity of HRS water table connectivity and the size of each transect's UAA (r 2 = 0.91). We applied this relationship to the entire stream network to quantify landscape-scale connectivity through time and ascertain its relationship to catchment-scale runoff dynamics. We found that the shape of the estimated annual landscape connectivity duration curve was highly related to the catchment flow duration curve (r 2 = 0.95). This research suggests internal catchment landscape structure (topography and topology) as a first-order control on runoff source area and whole catchment response characteristics.

[1] Biogeochemical reactions associated with stream nitrogen cycling, such as nitrification and denitrification, can be strongly controlled by water and solute residence times in the hyporheic zone (HZ , and hydraulic transport parameters (head, flow rates, flow paths, and residence time distributions) of the reach and along HZ flow paths of an instrumented gravel bar. HZ exchange was observed across the entire gravel bar (i.e., in all wells) with flow path lengths up to 4.2 m and corresponding median residence times greater than 28.5 h. The HZ transitioned from a net nitrification environment at its head (short residence times) to a net denitrification environment at its tail (long residence times). NO 3 − increased at short residence times from 0.32 to 0.54 mg-N L −1 until a threshold of 6.9 h and then consistently decreased from 0.54 to 0. ). The rates of the DO and DOC removal and net nitrification were greatest during short residence times, while the rate of denitrification was greatest at long residence times.15 NO 3 − tracing confirmed that a fraction of the NO 3 − removal was via denitrification as 15 N 2 was produced across the entire gravel bar HZ. Production of 15 N 2 across all observed flow paths and residence times indicated that denitrification microsites are present even where nitrification was the net outcome. These findings demonstrate that the HZ is an active nitrogen sink in this system and that the distinction between net nitrification and denitrification in the HZ is a function of residence time and exhibits threshold behavior. Consequently, incorporation of HZ exchange and water residence time characterizations will improve mechanistic predictions of nitrogen cycling in streams.Citation: Zarnetske, J. P., R. Haggerty, S. M. Wondzell, and M. A. Baker (2011), Dynamics of nitrate production and removal as a function of residence time in the hyporheic zone,

[1] Hyporheic exchange flows were simulated using MODFLOW and MODPATH to estimate relative effects of channel morphologic features on the extent of the hyporheic zone, on hyporheic exchange flow, and on the residence time of stream water in the hyporheic zone. Four stream reaches were compared in order to examine the influence of stream size and channel constraint. Within stream reaches, the influence of pool-step or pool-riffle sequences, channel sinuosity, secondary channels, and channel splits was examined. Results showed that the way in which channel morphology controlled exchange flows differed with stream size and, in some cases, with channel constraint. Pool-step sequences drove hyporheic exchange in the second-order sites, creating exchange flows with relatively short residence times. Multiple features interacted to drive hyporheic exchange flow in the unconstrained fifth-order site, where pool-riffle sequences and a channel split created exchange flows with short residence times, whereas a secondary channel created exchange flows with long residence times. There was relatively little exchange flow in the bedrock-constrained fifth-order site. Groundwater flow models were effective in examining the morphologic features that controlled hyporheic exchange flow, and surface-visible channel morphologic features controlled the development of the hyporheic zone in these mountain streams.

[1] The fate of biologically available nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) in stream ecosystems is controlled by the coupling of physical transport and biogeochemical reaction kinetics. However, determining the relative role of physical and biogeochemical controls at different temporal and spatial scales is difficult. The hyporheic zone (HZ), where groundwaterstream water mix, can be an important location controlling N and C transformations because it creates strong gradients in both the physical and biogeochemical conditions that control redox biogeochemistry. We evaluated the coupling of physical transport and biogeochemical redox reactions by linking an advection, dispersion, and residence time model with a multiple Monod kinetics model simulating the concentrations of oxygen (O 2 ), ammonium (NH 4 ), nitrate (NO 3 ), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We used global Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses with a nondimensional form of the model to examine coupled nitrification-denitrification dynamics across many scales of transport and reaction conditions. Results demonstrated that the residence time of water in the HZ and the uptake rate of O 2 from either respiration and/or nitrification determined whether the HZ was a source or a sink of NO 3 to the stream. We further show that whether the HZ is a net NO 3 source or net NO 3 sink is determined by the ratio of the characteristic transport time to the characteristic reaction time of O 2 (i.e., the Damköhler number, Da O2 ), where HZs with Da O2 < 1 will be net nitrification environments and HZs with Da O2 ) 1 will be net denitrification environments.Ã Our coupling of the hydrologic and biogeochemical limitations of N transformations across different temporal and spatial scales within the HZ allows us to explain the widely contrasting results of previous investigations of HZ N dynamics which variously identify the HZ as either a net source or sink of NO 3 . Our model results suggest that only estimates of residence times and O 2 uptake rates are necessary to predict this nitrification-denitrification threshold and, ultimately, whether a HZ will be either a net source or sink of NO 3 .Citation: Zarnetske, J. P., R. Haggerty, S. M. Wondzell, V. A. Bokil, and R. González-Pinzón (2012), Coupled transport and reaction kinetics control the nitrate source-sink function of hyporheic zones, Water Resour. Res., 48, W11508,

[1] We measured the hyporheic residence time distribution in a 2nd-order mountain stream at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, and found it to be a power-law over at least 1.5 orders of magnitude in time (1.5 hr to 3.5 d). The residence time distribution has a very long tail which scales as t À1.28 , and is poorly characterized by an exponential model. Because of the small power-law exponent, efforts to characterize the mean hyporheic residence time (t s ) in this system result in estimates that are scale invariant, increasing with the characteristic advection time within the stream channel (t ad ). The distribution implies the hyporheic zone has a very large range of exchange timescales, with significant quantities of water and solutes stored over timescales very much longer than t ad . The hyporheic zone in such streams may contribute to short-time fractal scaling in time series of solute concentrations observed in small-watershed studies.

In population ecology, there has been a fundamental controversy about the relative importance of competition-driven (densitydependent) population regulation vs. abiotic influences such as temperature and precipitation. The same issue arises at the community level; are population sizes driven primarily by changes in the abundances of cooccurring competitors (i.e., compensatory dynamics), or do most species have a common response to environmental factors? Competitive interactions have had a central place in ecological theory, dating back to Gleason, Volterra, Hutchison and MacArthur, and, more recently, Hubbell's influential unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography. If competitive interactions are important in driving year-to-year fluctuations in abundance, then changes in the abundance of one species should generally be accompanied by compensatory changes in the abundances of others. Thus, one necessary consequence of strong compensatory forces is that, on average, species within communities will covary negatively. Here we use measures of community covariance to assess the prevalence of negative covariance in 41 natural communities comprising different taxa at a range of spatial scales. We found that species in natural communities tended to covary positively rather than negatively, the opposite of what would be expected if compensatory dynamics were important. These findings suggest that abiotic factors such as temperature and precipitation are more important than competitive interactions in driving year-to-year fluctuations in species abundance within communities.biological interactions ͉ community dynamics ͉ negative covariance ͉ neutral models ͉ zero-sum

Stream-tracer injections were used to examine the effect of channel morphology and changing stream discharge on hyporheic exchange flows. Direct observations were made from well networks to follow tracer movement through the hyporheic zone. The reach-integrated influence of hyporheic exchange was evaluated using the transient storage model (TSM) OTIS-P. Transient storage modelling results were compared with direct observations to evaluate the reliability of the TSM. Results from the tracer injection in the bedrock reach supported the assumption that most transient storage in headwater mountain streams results from hyporheic exchange. Direct observations from the well networks in colluvial reaches showed that subsurface flow paths tended to parallel the valley axis. Cross-valley gradients were weak except near steps, where vertical and cross-valley hydraulic gradients indicated a strong potential for stream water to downwell into the hyporheic zone. The TSM parameters showed that both size and residence time of transient storage were greater in reaches with a few large log-jam-formed steps than in reaches with more frequent, but smaller steps. Direct observations showed that residence times in the unconstrained stream were longer than in the constrained stream and that little change occurred in the location and extent of the hyporheic zone between low-and high-baseflow discharges in any of the colluvial reaches. The transient storage modelling results did not agree with these observations, suggesting that the TSM was insensitive to long residence-time exchange flows and was very sensitive to changes in discharge. Disagreements between direct observations and the transient storage modelling results highlight fundamental problems with the TSM that confound comparisons between the transient storage modelling results for tracer injections conducted under differing flow conditions. Overall, the results showed that hyporheic exchange was little affected by stream discharge (at least over the range of baseflow discharges examined in this study). The results did show that channel morphology controlled development of the hyporheic zone in these steep mountain stream channels.

[1] Channel water balances of contiguous reaches along streams represent a poorly understood scale of stream-subsurface interaction. We measured reach water balances along a headwater stream in Montana, United States, during summer base flow recessions. Reach water balances were estimated from series of tracer tests in 13 consecutive reaches delineated evenly along a 2.6 km valley segment. For each reach, we estimated net change in discharge, gross hydrologic loss, and gross hydrologic gain from tracer dilution and mass recovery. Four series of tracer tests were performed during relatively high, intermediate, and low base flow conditions. The relative distribution of channel water along the stream was strongly related to a transition in valley structure, with a general increase in gross losses through the recession. During tracer tests at intermediate and low flows, there were frequent substantial losses of tracer mass (>10%) that could not be explained by net loss in flow over the reach, indicating that many of the study reaches were concurrently losing and gaining water. For example, one reach with little net change in discharge exchanged nearly 20% of upstream flow with gains and losses along the reach. These substantial bidirectional exchanges suggest that some channel interactions with subsurface flow paths were not measurable by net change in flow or transient storage of recovered tracer. Understanding bidirectional channel water balances in stream reaches along valleys is critical to an accurate assessment of stream solute fate and transport and to a full assessment of exchanges between the stream channel and surrounding subsurface.