‘Teflon Basin’ or Not? A High-Elevation Catchment Transit Time Modeling Approach

Schmieder, Jan; Seeger, Stefan; Weiler, Markus; Strasser, Ulrich

doi:10.3390/hydrology6040092

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 72 publications

(155 reference statements)

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“…Young water fractions varied both in space and time being higher during the 2015 snow drought when on average 49% of the water in the investigated watershed outlets was received 2–3 months prior. The mean young water fractions in 2015 in this study were higher than mean values reported for many small streams in Europe (Ceperley et al, 2020; Dimitrova‐Petrova et al, 2020; Lutz et al, 2018; von Freyberg et al, 2018) and similar to young water fractions reported for cold prairie watersheds (Bansah & Ali, 2019) and high elevation watersheds in the Alps (Schmieder et al, 2019). The fractions of young water between 2016 and 2018 were significantly smaller than in 2015 and closer in magnitude to those reported in the mentioned European sites, indicating that 4%–29% of the water in the streams was 2–3 months old.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Snow drought reduces water transit times in headwater streams

Segura

2021

Hydrological Processes

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Knowledge of water transit times through watersheds is fundamental to understand hydrological and biogeochemical processes. However, its prediction is still elusive, particularly in mountainous terrain where physiography and precipitation change over short distances. In addition, much remains to be studied about the impact of climate change on transit time as it continues to change precipitation form in mountainous terrain. Water isotopic ratios were used to evaluate mean transit time (MTT) and young water fractions (Fyw*) in seven small mountainous watersheds in western Oregon over the 2014–2018 period that included a major regional snow drought in 2015. The MTT was shorter in 2015 across all watersheds compared to any other year while the Fyw* was larger in 2015 than in any other year. The short transit times observed in 2015 could be related to low connectivity between surface water and older ground water which resulted in a homogenous hydrologic response across all the investigated watersheds despite their physiographical differences. The 2016–2018 MTT vary widely across all watersheds but especially within the smaller high elevation watersheds indicating that the impact of the 2015 snow drought was stronger for systems that depend heavily on snowmelt inputs. During relatively wet/cold years intrinsic watershed characteristics such as drainage area and terrain roughness explained some of the variability in transit time metrics across all watersheds. Shorter transit times during the drought have implications for water quality and solute concentrations as biogeochemical processes are controlled in part by the time water resides and interacts within the subsurface. Although the impact of the 2015 snow drought appears short‐lived these results are particularly critical considering the expected regional snowpack decline as the climate warms in the western United States.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Snow drought reduces water transit times in headwater streams

Segura

2021

Hydrological Processes

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“…However, the uncertainty brought by melt water should be further explored in other mountainous catchments with different size and elevations, as well as with different contributions of melt water to stream runoff. In addition, previous research (i.e., Ceperley et al, 2020;Gentile et al, 2022) showed that there is a lack of studies providing Fyw, as well as transit times estimations in glacierized catchments; in these catchments Fyw can be larger than Fyw determined for snowmelt-dominated catchments due to fast flow paths and a less permeable bedrock (Schmieder et al, 2019;Zuecco et al, 2019).…”

Section: Uncertainty In the Complexity Of Isotopic Composition Of Pre...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The estimation of young water fraction based on isotopic signals: challenges and recommendations

et al. 2023

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Young water fraction (Fyw) is defined as the fraction of water in a stream with a transit time of less than 2–3 months. Fyw is a metric used to quantify the proportion of precipitation input converted into the runoff in the form of fast flow, which provides new insights for characterizing the mechanisms of water storage and release, understanding the time-scale of ecohydrological processes and indicating water-related risks. However, Fyw has been advanced for a relatively short time, and the research on its applicability conditions and main drivers is still ongoing. Studies estimating Fyw are still very few and this index has not been reported in many landscapes and climate backgrounds, limiting its further application in hydrological studies. On the basis of summarizing the progresses of Fyw in previous studies, this paper provides a preliminary analysis of the potential uncertainties in the Fyw estimation, which can be due to temporal trends in the isotopic composition of precipitation, uneven sampling interval of stream water, and complex hydrological systems. Finally, this paper provides some recommendations for the optimization of the sampling design and the methods used for the Fyw estimation.

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“…A 60 d "seasonal" period has also been reported as an appropriate window size to characterize the variability of streamflow regimes in respect to environmental flow and ecohydrology (Lytle and Poff, 2004;Poff, 1996). Schmieder et al (2019) reported that "streamflow is dominated by the release of water younger than 56 days" for a glacierized highelevation catchment. Accordingly, we found 60 d a suitable block size to capture virtually all the variability in the annual minimum flows (Figs.…”

Section: Paradigm Shift From Quick-and Baseflow To Delayed Flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, subsurface storages (e.g. groundwater) are responsible for sustaining flow during winter (Schmieder et al, 2019) and debris cover and weathered rock might be important groundwater storages (Floriancic et al, 2018).…”

Section: Attribution Of Delayed Flows To Catchments' Dynamic Storagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During dry weather, sustained streamflow modulates aquatic ecosystem functioning and is important for groundwatersurface-water interactions (Sophocleous, 2002), the variability of water temperature (Constantz, 1998) or the dilution of contaminants (Schuetz et al, 2016). Estimates of the amount or timing of baseflow or of the baseflow index (BFI) quantify catchments' freshwater availability during dry weather.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond binary baseflow separation: a delayed-flow index for multiple streamflow contributions

Stoelzle

Schuetz

Weiler

et al. 2020

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Understanding components of the total streamflow is important to assess the ecological functioning of rivers. Binary or two-component separation of streamflow into a quick and a slow (often referred to as baseflow) component are often based on arbitrary choices of separation parameters and also merge different delayed components into one baseflow component and one baseflow index (BFI). As streamflow generation during dry weather often results from drainage of multiple sources, we propose to extend the BFI by a delayed-flow index (DFI) considering the dynamics of multiple delayed contributions to streamflow. The DFI is based on characteristic delay curves (CDCs) where the identification of breakpoint (BP) estimates helps to avoid rather subjective separation parameters and allows for distinguishing four types of delayed streamflow contributions. The methodology is demonstrated using streamflow records from a set of 60 mesoscale catchments in Germany and Switzerland covering a pronounced elevation gradient of roughly 3000 m. We found that the quickflow signal often diminishes earlier than assumed by two-component BFI analyses and distinguished a variety of additional flow contributions with delays shorter than 60 d. For streamflow contributions with delays longer than 60 d, we show that the method can be used to assess catchments' water sustainability during dry spells. Colwell's predictability (PT), a measure of streamflow periodicity and sustainability, was applied to attribute the identified delay patterns to dynamic catchment storage. The smallest dynamic storages were consistently found for catchments between approx. 800 and 1800 m a.s.l. Above an elevation of 1800 m the DFI suggests that seasonal snowpack provides the primary contribution, whereas below 800 m groundwater resources are most likely the major streamflow contributions. Our analysis also indicates that dynamic storage in high alpine catchments might be large and is overall not smaller than in lowland catchments. We conclude that the DFI can be used to assess the range of sources forming catchments' storages and to judge the long-term sustainability of streamflow.

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‘Teflon Basin’ or Not? A High-Elevation Catchment Transit Time Modeling Approach

Cited by 7 publications

References 72 publications

Snow drought reduces water transit times in headwater streams

Snow drought reduces water transit times in headwater streams

The estimation of young water fraction based on isotopic signals: challenges and recommendations

Beyond binary baseflow separation: a delayed-flow index for multiple streamflow contributions

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