Contrasting physical and chemical conditions of two rock glacier springs

Brighenti, Stefano; Engel, Michael H.; Tolotti, Monica; Bruno, Maria Cristina; Wharton, Geraldene; Comiti, Francesco; Tirler, Werner; Cerasino, Leonardo; Bertoldi, Walter

doi:10.1002/hyp.14159

Cited by 20 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This pattern requires that the sources of water are changing, not just their proportions. Additionally, the maintenance of cold (<1 °C) temperatures in the rock glacier discharge indicates that these systems are thermally buffered throughout the summer, likely due to the presence of internal ice within the rock glacier (Berger et al, 2004;Brighenti et al, 2021a). High values of d-excess in the rock glacier water are consistent with the melting of ice that has undergone multiple freeze-thaw cycles (Steig et al, 1998;Williams et al, 2006).…”

Section: Rock Glacier Water Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…In a key study to consider multiple years of water chemistry from the same rock glacier springs (Brighenti et al, 2021a), found that patterns of changing EC and hydrochemistry occurred with a similar timing during each melt season, with the magnitude of EC elevation and trace element enrichment corresponding with the date when snowmelt ended and with peak summer temperatures. In this regard it is notable that at the Chepeta SNOTEL site near RG-1 and RG-2, peak snow water equivalent (SWE) was nearly identical in the spring of 2021 (270 mm) and the spring of 2022 (287 mm), therefore although the exact date when snowmelt ended each year is FIGURE 8 Schematic diagram illustrating how the time series of water samples collected in the Uinta and La Sal Mountains are used to address 3 complementary questions.…”

Section: Interannual Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining the variability of rock glacier meltwater in space and time in high-elevation environments of Utah, United States

Munroe

Handwerger

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Rock glaciers are common geomorphic features in alpine landscapes and comprise a potentially significant but poorly quantified water resource. This project focused on three complementary questions germane to rock glacier hydrology: 1) Does the composition of rock glacier meltwater vary from year to year? 2) How dependent is the composition of rock glacier meltwater on lithology? And 3) How does the presence of rock glaciers in a catchment change stream water chemistry? To address these questions, we deployed automated samplers to collect water from late June through mid-October 2022 in two rock-glacierized mountain ranges in Utah, United States characterized by different lithologies. In the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah, where bedrock is predominantly quartzite, water was collected at springs discharging from two rock glaciers previously shown to release water in late summer sourced from internal ice. In the La Sal Mountains of southeastern Utah, where trachyte bedrock is widespread, water was collected at a rock glacier spring, along the main stream in a watershed containing multiple rock glaciers, and from a stream in a watershed where rock glaciers are absent. Precipitation was also collected, and data loggers for water temperature and electric conductivity were deployed. Water samples were analyzed for stable isotopes with cavity ring-down spectroscopy and hydrochemistry with ICP-MS. Our data show that water discharging from rock glaciers in the Uinta Mountains exhibits a shift from a snowmelt source to an internal ice source over the course of the melt season that is consistent from year to year. We also found that the chemistry of rock glacier water in the two study areas is notably different in ways that can be linked back to their contrasting bedrock types. Finally, in the La Sal Mountains, the properties of water along the main stream in a rock-glacierized basin resemble the properties of water discharging from rock glaciers, and strongly contrast with the water in a catchment lacking rock glaciers. Collectively these results underscore the role of rock glaciers as an agent influencing the hydrochemistry of water in high-elevation stream systems.

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Section: Rock Glacier Water Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Interannual Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the variability of rock glacier meltwater in space and time in high-elevation environments of Utah, United States

Munroe

Handwerger

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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“…In the last decades, the hydraulic behavior of frozen layers has been defined mainly by studying the response of the rock glaciers springs to geochemical tracers (e.g., stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, electrical conductivity and radionuclides e.g., Krainer et al, 2007;Brighenti et al, 2021). Therefore, the most interesting result of this infiltration experiment with ERT time-lapse measurements is that negative resistivity variations, related to the injected water flow, are almost negligible inside the detected frozen layer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the hydraulic behavior of rock glaciers and their impact on the hydrology of alpine catchments are relatively less defined (Pauritsch et al, 2017). The hydrological and the geochemical monitoring of spring waters emerging downslope of active rock glaciers have been used to investigate runoff processes and the presence and role of frozen layers in alpine catchments (e.g., Krainer et al, 2007;Carturan et al, 2016;Brighenti et al, 2021). In active or ice-rich intact rock glaciers, continuous frozen layers are typically considered as aquicludes (Giardino et al 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief communication: Mountain permafrost acts as an aquiclude during an infiltration experiment monitored with ERT time-lapse measurements

Pavoni

Boaga

Carrera

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Continuous frozen layers within the subsoil are generally assumed to act as aquicludes or aquitards. So far, this behavior has been mainly defined analyzing the geochemical characteristics of spring waters. In this work, for the first time, we experimentally confirmed this assumption by executing an infiltration test in a rock glacier of the Southern Alps, Italy. Time-lapse electrical tomography (ERT) technique was adopted to monitor the infiltration of a huge amount of water spilled on the surface of the rock glacier. 24 hours ERT monitoring highlighted that the injected water was not able to infiltrate into the underlying frozen layer.

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“…Earlier studies have shown that a waveletbased approach is suitable for investigating hydrological data (Graf et al, 2014;Fang et al, 2015;Weigand et al, 2017). It has been applied to detail transit times, and in more limited scope used in hydrochemistry/biogeochemical studies, for example on temporal changes of dissolved elements in glacier springs and karst springs or forested areas (Weigand et al, 2017;Brighenti et al, 2021;Rezaei and Saatsaz, 2021). However, its application is (still) limited by the fact that the method is rather "data hungry" (Lloyd et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of deforestation on dissolved organic carbon and nitrate in catchment stream water revealed by wavelet analysis

Robinson

Bogena²,

Wang³

et al. 2022

Front. Water

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Deforestation can lead to an increase in the availability of nutrients in the soil and, in turn, have an impact on the quality of water in receiving water bodies. This study assesses the impact of deforestation by evaluating the in-stream concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate, their internal relationship, and those with stream discharge in the Wüstebach headwater catchment (Germany). This catchment has monitored stream water and associated environmental parameters for over a decade as part of the TERENO initiative. Additionally, there is a paired undisturbed forested catchment that serves as a reference stream. Our approach included a more advanced correlation analysis, namely wavelet analysis, that assists in determining changes in the correlation and lag time between the variables of interest over different time scales. This study found that after deforestation, there was an immediate increase in in-stream DOC concentrations, followed by an increase in nitrate ~1 year later. Overall, the mean DOC concentration increased, and mean nitrate concentration decreased across the catchment post-deforestation. Elevated stream water nutrient levels peaked around 2 to 3 years after the clear-cutting, and returned to pre-deforestation levels after ~5 years. The deforestation had no influence on the anti-correlation between DOC and nitrate. However, the correlation between both compounds and discharge was likely altered due to the increased soil nutrients availability as a result of deforestation. Wavelet coherence analysis revealed the “underlying” changing strengths and directions of the main correlations between DOC, nitrate and discharge on different time scales resulting from severe forest management interventions (here deforestation). This information provides new valuable impact insights for decision making into such forest management interventions.

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Contrasting physical and chemical conditions of two rock glacier springs

Cited by 20 publications

References 41 publications

Examining the variability of rock glacier meltwater in space and time in high-elevation environments of Utah, United States

Examining the variability of rock glacier meltwater in space and time in high-elevation environments of Utah, United States

Brief communication: Mountain permafrost acts as an aquiclude during an infiltration experiment monitored with ERT time-lapse measurements

Effects of deforestation on dissolved organic carbon and nitrate in catchment stream water revealed by wavelet analysis

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