Karst aquifers provide drinking water for 10% of the world's population, support agriculture, groundwater-dependent activities, and ecosystems. These aquifers are characterised by complex groundwater-flow systems, hence, they are extremely vulnerable and protecting them requires an in-depth understanding of the systems. Poor data accessibility has limited advances in karst research and realistic representation of karst processes in large-scale hydrological studies. In this study, we present World Karst Spring hydrograph (WoKaS) database, a community-wide effort to improve data accessibility. WoKaS is the first global karst springs discharge database with over 400 spring observations collected from articles, hydrological databases and researchers. The dataset's coverage compares to the global distribution of carbonate rocks with some bias towards the latitudes of more developed countries. WoKaS database will ensure easy access to a large-sample of good quality datasets suitable for a wide range of applications: comparative studies, trend analysis and model evaluation. This database will largely contribute to research advancement in karst hydrology, supports karst groundwater management, and promotes international and interdisciplinary collaborations. Background & Summary Karst aquifers are essential sources of drinking water to about 10% of the world's population 1. In many regions across the globe, karst groundwater is also an indispensable resource for ecosystems, agriculture and, economic activities, as well as for tourism and recreation 2,3. For example, in Europe, 21.6% of the land surface is underlain by carbonate rock 4 which contributes up to 50% of supplied drinking water in some countries 5-7. However, groundwater flow in karst aquifers is characterised by a complex interplay of fast-flowing conduit and slow-flowing matrix systems 8,9. Hence, the storage capacity of karst aquifers is variable and systems are extremely vulnerable to climatic pressures, human impacts and contamination 10. In order to ensure adequate protection of karst water sources, in-depth hydrogeological knowledge is necessary. Large-scale modelling and comparative water resource research have shown the great value of large datasets in hydrology 11. Numerous studies have applied these large datasets for several purposes such as model evaluation, global parameter estimations, impact studies, statistical and comparative analyses. For instance, large-scale hydrological models such as WaterGAP 12 used discharge data from the Global Runoff Data Centre (https://www. bafg.de/GRDC) for parameter estimation. Likewise, streamflow data from the Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX) 13 and the Global Runoff Data Centre (GDRC) were combined to derive global base flow indexes and recession constants 14. Streamflow observations of near-natural catchments obtained from UNESCO's European Water Archive (EWA) were used to investigate the streamflow trends across Europe and differentiated the impacts from climatic variability and anthropogenic dri...
Karst aquifers and watersheds represent a major source of drinking water around the world. They are also known as complex and often highly vulnerable hydrosystems due to strong surface-groundwater interactions. Improving the understanding of karst functioning is thus a major issue for the efficient management of karst groundwater resources. A comprehensive understanding of the various processes can be achieved only by studying karst systems across a wide range of spatiotemporal scales under different geological, geomorphological, climatic, and soil cover settings. The objective of the French Karst National Observatory Service (SNO KARST) is to supply the international scientific community with appropriate data and tools, with the ambition of (i) facilitating the collection of long-term observations of hydrogeochemical variables in karst, and (ii) promoting knowledge sharing and developing cross-disciplinary research on karst. This paper provides an overview of the monitoring sites and collective achievements, such as the KarstMod modular modeling platform and the PaPRIKa toolbox, of SNO KARST. It also presents the research questions addressed within the framework of this network, along with major research results regarding (i) the hydrological response of karst to climate and anthropogenic changes, (ii) the influence of karst on geochemical balance of watersheds in the critical zone, and (iii) the relationships between the structure and hydrological functioning of karst aquifers and watersheds.Abbreviations: CADI, cellular automata-based deterministic inversion; Ex/Em, excitation/emission; NOM, natural organic matter; SLP, sea level pressure; SNO Karst, the French Karst National Observatory Service.Karstified carbonate formations contain 25% of the world's water resources. They cover a very large extent of the continental surface: 10% of the global continental surface, 30 to 70% of the Mediterranean area, 22% of the land in Europe, and 50% in France (Chen et al., 2017). In carbonate karst hydrosystems, the presence of fractures, conduits, and surface solution features leads to strong surface-subsurface interactions that result in significant water, mass, energy, and contaminant transport within the critical zone. Such heterogeneous systems are highly dynamic, with complex hydrologic, geochemical, and biological processes occurring across a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. As a result, they Core Ideas • SNO KARST is dedicated to the study of karst functioning. • Hydrodynamics and geochemistry are measured at springs and in karst compartments. • Process sampling was set up at nine sites in various climatic contexts.
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