The influence of diurnal snowmelt and transpiration on hillslope throughflow and stream response

Woelber, Brett; Maneta, Marco P.; Harper, Joel T.; Jencso, K. G.; Gardner, W. Payton; Wilcox, Andrew C.; López‐Moreno, J. I.

doi:10.5194/hess-22-4295-2018

Cited by 27 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In mountain regions, streamflow and shallow groundwater levels often exhibit 24-hour cycles driven by either snow/ice melt 60 or evapotranspiration. Both snowmelt and evapotranspiration cycles result from daily variations in solar flux, but are of opposite phase (Lundquist and Cayan, 2002;Mutzner et al, 2015;Woelber et al, 2018), because melt processes contribute water to the shallow subsurface during daytime, while evapotranspiration removes it during daytime. These daily cycles have been used to investigate streamflow generation and runoff routing (Wondzell et al, 2007;Barnard et al, 2010;Woelber https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2020-77 Preprint.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few 125 studies have examined interactions between snowmelt and ET cycles, though exceptions include Lundquist and Cayan (2002), Mutzner et al (2015) and Woelber et al (2018). Likewise, few studies have linked daily cycles in groundwaters and streams, although exceptions include observations by Troxell (1936), Klinker and Hansen (Klinker and Hansen, 1964), Wondzell et al (2010), and Woelber et al (2018), and models by Czikowsky and Fitzjarrald (2004), Grobovszki et al (2008), Szilagyi et al (2008) and Loheide and Lundquist (2009). And due to the scarcity of simultaneous spatially 130 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2020-77 Preprint.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupled daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen and Independence Creeks, Sierra Nevada, USA

Kirchner¹,

Godsey²,

Osterhuber³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Water levels in streams and aquifers often exhibit daily cycles during rainless periods, reflecting diurnal extraction of shallow groundwater by evapotranspiration (ET) and, during snowmelt, diurnal additions of meltwater. These 15 cycles can potentially aid in understanding the mechanisms that couple solar forcing of ET and snowmelt to variations in streamflow. Here we analyze three years of 30-minute solar flux, sap flow, stream stage, and groundwater level measurements at Sagehen Creek and Independence Creek, two snow-dominated headwater catchments in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. During snow-free summer periods, daily cycles in solar flux are tightly correlated with variations in sap flow, and with the rates of water level rise and fall in streams and riparian aquifers. During these periods, stream stages and 20 riparian groundwater levels decline during the day and rebound during the night. During snowmelt, daily cycles in solar flux have the opposite effect, with stream stages and riparian groundwater levels rising during the day in response to snowmelt inputs, and declining at night as the riparian aquifer drains.The mid-day peak in solar flux coincides with the fastest rates of water level rise and decline (during snowmelt and ET-25 dominated periods, respectively), not with the maxima or minima in water levels themselves. A simple conceptual model explains these temporal patterns: streamflows depend on riparian aquifer water levels, which integrate snowmelt inputs and ET losses over time, and thus will be phase-shifted relative to the peaks in snowmelt and evapotranspiration rates. The highest and lowest riparian water levels (for snowmelt and ET cycles, respectively) will not occur at mid-day when the solar forcing is strongest, but rather in the late afternoon when the solar forcing declines enough that the riparian aquifer 30 transiently achieves mass balance. Thus, although the lag between solar forcing and water level cycles is often interpreted as a travel-time lag, our analysis shows that it is predominantly a dynamical phase lag, at least in small catchments.Furthermore, although daily cycles in streamflow have often been used to estimate ET fluxes, our simple conceptual model demonstrates that this is infeasible unless the time constant of the riparian aquifer can be determined. 35As the snowmelt season progresses, snowmelt forcing of groundwater and streamflow weakens and evapotranspiration forcing strengthens. Because these two forcings have opposite phases, groundwater and stream level variations reflect the balance between them. The relative dominance of snowmelt vs. ET can be quantified by the diel cycle index, the correlation coefficient between the solar flux and the rate of rise or fall in streamflow or groundwater, which will be close to +1 and -1 when water level cycles are dominated by snowmelt and ET, respectively. When the snowpack melts out at an individual 40 location, the diel cycle index in the local groundwater shifts abruptly from snowmelt-dominated cycles to ET-domina...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupled daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen and Independence Creeks, Sierra Nevada, USA

Kirchner¹,

Godsey²,

Osterhuber³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Both snowmelt and evapotranspiration cycles result from daily variations in solar flux but are of opposite phase (Lundquist and Cayan, 2002;Mutzner et al, 2015;Woelber et al, 2018), because melt processes contribute water to the shallow subsurface during daytime, while evapotranspiration removes it during daytime. These daily cycles have been used to investigate streamflow generation and runoff routing (Wondzell et al, 2007;Barnard et al, 2010;Woelber et al, 2018), to infer dominant processes affecting catchment water balances (Lundquist and Cayan, 2002;Czikowsky and Fitzjarrald, 2004), and to estimate temporal patterns of landscape-scale evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation rates (Bond et al, 2002;Kirchner, 2009;Cadol et al, 2012). The analysis of daily cycles may thus be a useful diagnostic tool in catchment hydrology, helping to characterize ecohydrological processes at the catchment scale Gribovszki et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The times of daily streamflow maxima and minima, as well as their lags relative to the daily peaks of snowmelt or ET rates, have also been widely interpreted as reflecting travel times and flow velocities through snowpacks, hillslopes, and river networks (e.g., Wicht, 1941;Jordan, 1983;Bond et al, 2002;Wondzell et al, 2007;Barnard et al, 2010;Graham et al, 2013;Fonley et al, 2016). These applications, like the missing streamflow method, invoke assumptions that are incompatible with those that underlie WTF approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupling between daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen Creek and Independence Creek, Sierra Nevada, USA

Kirchner

Godsey

Solomon

et al. 2020

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Water levels in streams and aquifers often exhibit daily cycles during rainless periods, reflecting daytime extraction of shallow groundwater by evapotranspiration (ET) and, during snowmelt, daytime additions of meltwater. These cycles can aid in understanding the mechanisms that couple solar forcing of ET and snowmelt to changes in streamflow. Here we analyze 3 years of 30 min solar flux, sap flow, stream stage, and groundwater level measurements at Sagehen Creek and Independence Creek, two snow-dominated headwater catchments in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Despite their sharply contrasting geological settings (most of the Independence basin is glacially scoured granodiorite, whereas Sagehen is underlain by hundreds of meters of volcanic and volcaniclastic deposits that host an extensive groundwater aquifer), both streams respond similarly to snowmelt and ET forcing. During snow-free summer periods, daily cycles in solar flux are tightly correlated with variations in sap flow, and with the rates of water level rise and fall in streams and riparian aquifers. During these periods, stream stages and riparian groundwater levels decline during the day and rebound at night. These cycles are reversed during snowmelt, with stream stages and riparian groundwater levels rising during the day in response to snowmelt inputs and falling at night as the riparian aquifer drains. Streamflow and groundwater maxima and minima (during snowmelt- and ET-dominated periods, respectively) lag the midday peak in solar flux by several hours. A simple conceptual model explains this lag: streamflows depend on riparian aquifer water levels, which integrate snowmelt inputs and ET losses over time, and thus will be phase-shifted relative to the peaks in snowmelt and evapotranspiration rates. Thus, although the lag between solar forcing and water level cycles is often interpreted as a travel-time lag, our analysis shows that it is mostly a dynamical phase lag, at least in small catchments. Furthermore, although daily cycles in streamflow have often been used to estimate ET fluxes, our simple conceptual model demonstrates that this is infeasible unless the response time of the riparian aquifer can be determined. As the snowmelt season progresses, snowmelt forcing of groundwater and streamflow weakens and evapotranspiration forcing strengthens. The relative dominance of snowmelt vs. ET can be quantified by the diel cycle index, which measures the correlation between the solar flux and the rate of rise or fall in streamflow or groundwater. When the snowpack melts out at an individual location, the local groundwater shifts abruptly from snowmelt-dominated cycles to ET-dominated cycles. Melt-out and the corresponding shift in the diel cycle index occur earlier at lower altitudes and on south-facing slopes, and streamflow integrates these transitions over the drainage network. Thus the diel cycle index in streamflow shifts gradually, beginning when the snowpack melts out near the gauging station and ending, months later, when the snowpack melts out at the top of the basin and the entire drainage network becomes dominated by ET cycles. During this long transition, snowmelt signals generated in the upper basin are gradually overprinted by ET signals generated lower down in the basin. The gradual springtime transition in the diel cycle index is mirrored in sequences of Landsat images showing the springtime retreat of the snowpack to higher elevations and the corresponding advance of photosynthetic activity across the basin. Trends in the catchment-averaged MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI2) also correlate closely with the late springtime shift from snowmelt to ET cycles and with the autumn shift back toward snowmelt cycles. Seasonal changes in streamflow cycles therefore reflect catchment-scale shifts in snowpack and vegetation activity that can be seen from Earth orbit. The data and analyses presented here illustrate how streams can act as mirrors of the landscape, integrating physical and ecohydrological signals across their contributing drainage networks.

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“…Specifically, the reconstruction of the phase space of a hydrologic system enables visualization of system attractors and state trajectories that offer qualitative insight into the stability, complexity, and nonlinearity of the system. Data-driven approximations of phase space and attractors of hydrologic systems based on streamflow time-series analysis have been extensively explored by Porporato and Ridolfi (2003); Sivakumar, Jayawardena, and Li (2007); Sivakumar and Singh (2012);and Woelber et al (2018), among many others. However, reconstructions of the phase space using modeled storage are less common (Duffy, 1996;Brandes, Duffy, & Cusumano, 1998; and more recently Beven & Davies, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing catchment storage dynamics and nonlinearities

Maneta

Soulsby

Kuppel

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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The influence of diurnal snowmelt and transpiration on hillslope throughflow and stream response

Cited by 27 publications

References 42 publications

The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupled daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen and Independence Creeks, Sierra Nevada, USA

The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupled daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen and Independence Creeks, Sierra Nevada, USA

The pulse of a montane ecosystem: coupling between daily cycles in solar flux, snowmelt, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow at Sagehen Creek and Independence Creek, Sierra Nevada, USA

Conceptualizing catchment storage dynamics and nonlinearities

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