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Identifying controls on saturated flow pathways and hillslope-riparian zone residence times using a combination of tracers, borehole monitoring and groundwater modelling

Identifying controls on saturated flow pathways and hillslope-riparian zone residence times using a combination of tracers, borehole monitoring and groundwater modelling
Identifying controls on saturated flow pathways and hillslope-riparian zone residence times using a combination of tracers, borehole monitoring and groundwater modelling
The travel time of nutrients moving through the hillslope-riparian zone continuum strongly influences the composition of stream chemistry and hence water quality. Understanding the nature of flow pathways that
influence travel and residence time distributions is of particular importance for accurate process understanding and modelling of water and chemical fluxes from hillslopes and riparian zones to streams.
By combining groundwater modelling with tracer studies to directly measure travel times through a dense network of observation bores we have identified some key controls on water and chemical fluxes from a hillslope underlain
by slate bedrock to the riparian zone in an upland wooded catchment.
Groundwater modelling results showed that observed hydraulic heads in the hillslope bores and flow pathways through the borefield depended on the initial depth of saturated antecedent water over the shallow slate bedrock,
slate bedding plane angle and local variations in depth to bedrock. Strom event transmissivity was strongly affected by the depth of saturated antecedent water on the hillslope because the saturated hydraulic conductivity
tended to decrease exponentially from the soil surface to bedrock. Chloride tracing substantiated that a small increase in initial depth of saturation led to a major decrease in mean travel time (from day to hours) but did not affect the pattern of flow pathways from the hillslope.
Harris, Nicholas
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Smettem, K.
3adb806a-4e1a-4140-9dcb-4f11ee1006eb
Klaus, Julian
578253fe-3ac0-46a6-8ac2-1c070566c0e8
Gorelick, Steve
90936fb0-8d82-46c3-9a0e-a9dfdc74153e
Harris, Nicholas
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Smettem, K.
3adb806a-4e1a-4140-9dcb-4f11ee1006eb
Klaus, Julian
578253fe-3ac0-46a6-8ac2-1c070566c0e8
Gorelick, Steve
90936fb0-8d82-46c3-9a0e-a9dfdc74153e

Harris, Nicholas, Smettem, K., Klaus, Julian and Gorelick, Steve (2018) Identifying controls on saturated flow pathways and hillslope-riparian zone residence times using a combination of tracers, borehole monitoring and groundwater modelling. EGU General Assembly 2018, Austria. (In Press)

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Other)

Abstract

The travel time of nutrients moving through the hillslope-riparian zone continuum strongly influences the composition of stream chemistry and hence water quality. Understanding the nature of flow pathways that
influence travel and residence time distributions is of particular importance for accurate process understanding and modelling of water and chemical fluxes from hillslopes and riparian zones to streams.
By combining groundwater modelling with tracer studies to directly measure travel times through a dense network of observation bores we have identified some key controls on water and chemical fluxes from a hillslope underlain
by slate bedrock to the riparian zone in an upland wooded catchment.
Groundwater modelling results showed that observed hydraulic heads in the hillslope bores and flow pathways through the borefield depended on the initial depth of saturated antecedent water over the shallow slate bedrock,
slate bedding plane angle and local variations in depth to bedrock. Strom event transmissivity was strongly affected by the depth of saturated antecedent water on the hillslope because the saturated hydraulic conductivity
tended to decrease exponentially from the soil surface to bedrock. Chloride tracing substantiated that a small increase in initial depth of saturation led to a major decrease in mean travel time (from day to hours) but did not affect the pattern of flow pathways from the hillslope.

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EGU2018-4430 - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 February 2018
Venue - Dates: EGU General Assembly 2018, Austria, 2018-05-16

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 418243
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418243
PURE UUID: 786b3072-71b0-497a-a15a-720b5e483c40
ORCID for Nicholas Harris: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4122-2219

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Date deposited: 26 Feb 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:45

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Contributors

Author: Nicholas Harris ORCID iD
Author: K. Smettem
Author: Julian Klaus
Author: Steve Gorelick

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