Shallow and local or deep and regional? Inferring source groundwater characteristics across mainstem riverbank discharge faces

Haynes, A.; Briggs, Martin A.; Moore, E. T.; Jackson, Kevin E.; Knighton, James; Rey, David M.; Helton, Ashley M.

doi:10.1002/hyp.14939

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 63 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…Additionally, GIEs are vulnerable to reduced precipitation and increased evapotranspiration attributed to climate change, leading to reduced groundwater recharge and increased groundwater withdrawals [22][23][24]. GIEs are connected to groundwater by local and regional flow paths that determine the sources of water that discharge to a GIE [19,25,26]. Local groundwater flow paths are more sensitive to changes in climate (i.e., precipitation, air temperature, evapotranspiration) than regional groundwater flow paths [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability Assessment of Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Snyder,

Loftin,

Reeve

2024

Water

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Groundwater-influenced ecosystems (GIEs) are increasingly vulnerable due to groundwater extraction, land-use practices, and climate change. These ecosystems receive groundwater inflow as a portion of their baseflow or water budget, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. In some systems (e.g., springs, seeps, fens), this connection with groundwater is central to the system’s integrity and persistence. Groundwater management decisions for human use often do not consider the ecological effects of those actions on GIEs. This disparity can be attributed, in part, to a lack of information regarding the physical relationships these systems have with the surrounding landscape and climate, which may influence the environmental conditions and associated biodiversity. We estimate the vulnerability of areas predicted to be highly suitable for the presence of GIEs based on watershed (U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Unit Code 12 watersheds: 24–100 km2) and pixel (30 m × 30 m pixels) resolution in the Atlantic Highlands and Mixed Wood Plains EPA Level II Ecoregions in the northeastern United States. We represent vulnerability with variables describing adaptive capacity (topographic wetness index, hydric soil, physiographic diversity), exposure (climatic niche), and sensitivity (aquatic barriers, proportion urbanized or agriculture). Vulnerability scores indicate that ~26% of GIEs were within 30 m of areas with moderate vulnerability. Within these GIEs, climate exposure is an important contributor to vulnerability of 40% of the areas, followed by land use (19%, agriculture or urbanized). There are few areas predicted to be suitable for GIEs that are also predicted to be highly vulnerable, and of those, climate exposure is the most important contributor to their vulnerability. Persistence of GIEs in the northeastern United States may be challenged as changes in the amount and timing of precipitation and increasing air temperatures attributed to climate change affect the groundwater that sustains these systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability Assessment of Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Snyder,

Loftin,

Reeve

2024

Water

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Recent advances in vertical temperature profiler instrumentation and flux estimation methods facilitate groundwater – Surface water exchange studies in environments with strong discharge zones

Sohn,

Briggs,

Rey

2024

Journal of Hydrology

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Where the past meets the present: connecting nitrogen from watersheds to streams through groundwater flowpaths

Moore,

Barclay,

Haynes

et al. 2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Groundwater discharge to streams is a nonpoint source of nitrogen (N) that confounds N mitigation efforts and represents a significant portion of the annual N loading to watersheds. However, we lack an understanding of where and how much groundwater N enters streams and watersheds. Nitrogen concentrations at the end of groundwater flowpaths are the culmination of biogeochemical and physical processes from the contributing land area where groundwater recharges, within the aquifer system, and in the near-stream riparian area where groundwater discharges to streams. Our research objectives were to quantify the spatial distribution of groundwater N concentrations at groundwater discharges throughout a mixed land-use watershed and to evaluate how relationships among contributing and riparian land cover, modeled aquifer characteristics, and groundwater discharge biogeochemistry explain the spatial variation in groundwater discharge N concentrations. We accomplished this by integrating high-resolution thermal infrared surveys to locate groundwater discharge, biogeochemical sampling of groundwater, and a particle tracking model that links groundwater discharge locations to their contributing area land cover. Groundwater N loading from preferential discharges within the watershed varies substantially between and within streambank groundwater discharge features. Groundwater nitrate concentrations were spatially heterogeneous ranging from below 0.03 to 11.45 mg-N/L, varying up to 20-fold within meters. When combined with the particle tracking model results and land cover metrics, we found that groundwater discharge nitrate concentrations were best predicted by a linear mixed-effect model that explained over 60% of the variation in nitrate concentrations, including aquifer chemistry (DO, Cl-, SO4 2-), riparian area forested land cover, and modeled physical aquifer characteristics (discharge, Euclidean distance). Our work highlights the significant spatial variability in groundwater discharge nitrate concentrations within mixed land-use watersheds and the need to understand groundwater N processing across the many spatiotemporal scales within groundwater cycling.

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Shallow and local or deep and regional? Inferring source groundwater characteristics across mainstem riverbank discharge faces

Cited by 3 publications

References 63 publications

Vulnerability Assessment of Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Vulnerability Assessment of Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Recent advances in vertical temperature profiler instrumentation and flux estimation methods facilitate groundwater – Surface water exchange studies in environments with strong discharge zones

Where the past meets the present: connecting nitrogen from watersheds to streams through groundwater flowpaths

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