Hillslope response to sprinkling and natural rainfall using velocity and celerity estimates in a slate-bedrock catchment

Scaini, Anna; Hissler, Christophe; Fenicia, Fabrizio; Juilleret, Jérôme; Iffly, Jean François; Pfister, Laurent; Beven, Keith

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.12.011

Cited by 29 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Figure 4c). Spring location and the delivery of water from the hillslopes to the streams are likely substantially controlled by bedrock characteristics as schists/slate weathering degree, fractures' size and orientation within the catchment (Gourdol et al, 2018;Scaini et al, 2018), and/or presence of faults (Shaw, 2016;Whiting & Godsey, 2016). The aforementioned bedrock characteristics have been shown to be variable within the Weierbach catchment (Gourdol et al, 2018), representing a substantial source of variability that can be hardly disentangled.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our findings will be discussed in light of the current perceptual model of the Weierbach catchment (Martínez‐Carreras et al, ; Scaini et al, ; Wrede et al, ) and compared with previous research in a broader context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…We employ these datasets to 1 investigate the spatial distribution of streamflow generation in the Our findings will be discussed in light of the current perceptual model of the Weierbach catchment (Martínez-Carreras et al, 2016;Scaini et al, 2018;Wrede et al, 2014) and compared with previous research in a broader context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Saturated areas through the lens: 2. Spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow generation and its relationship with surface saturation

Antonelli

Glaser

Teuling

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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Investigating the spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow generation is fundamental to interpret the hydrological and biochemical functioning of catchments. In humid temperate environments, streamflow generation is often linked to the occurrence of near stream surface saturated areas, which mediate hydrological connectivity between hillslopes and streams. In this second contribution of a series of two papers, we used salt dilution gauging to investigate the spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow in different subcatchments and for different reaches in the Weierbach catchment (0.42 km2) and explored the topographical controls on streamflow variability. Moreover, we mapped stream network expansion and contraction dynamics. Finally, we combined the information on the spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow with the characterization of riparian surface saturation dynamics of seven different areas within the catchment (mapped with thermal infrared imagery, as presented in our first manuscript). We found heterogeneities in the streamflow contribution from different portions of the catchment. Although the size of the contributing area could explain differences in subcatchments' and reaches' net discharge, no clear topographic controls could be found when considering the area‐normalized discharge. This suggests that some local conditions exert control on the variability of specific discharge (e.g., local bedrock characteristics and occurrence of perennial springs). Stream network dynamics were found not to be very responsive to changes in catchment's discharge (i.e., total active stream length vs. stream outlet discharge relationship could be described through a power law function with exponent = 0.0195). On the contrary, surface saturation dynamics were found to be in agreement with the level of streamflow contribution from the correspondent reach in some of the investigated riparian areas. This study represents an example of how the combination of different techniques can be used to characterize the internal heterogeneity of the catchment and thus improve our understanding of how hydrological connectivity is established and streamflow is generated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Saturated areas through the lens: 2. Spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow generation and its relationship with surface saturation

Antonelli

Glaser

Teuling

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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“…This study is carried out in the Weierbach catchment, which has been the focus of an increasing number of investigations in the last few years about streamflow generation (Glaser et al, 2016(Glaser et al, , 2019bScaini et al, 2017Scaini et al, , 2018Carrer et al, 2019;Rodriguez and Klaus, in review), biogeochemistry (Moragues-Quiroga et al, 2017;Schwab et al, 2018), and pedology and geology (Juilleret et al, 2011;Gourdol et al, 2018). https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-501 Preprint.…”

Section: Study Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the truncation of travel times with StorAge Selection functions using deuterium and tritium as tracers

Rodriguez

Pfister

Zehe

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Catchment travel time distributions (TTDs) are an efficient concept to summarize the time-varying 3-dimensional transport of water and solutes to an outlet in a single function of water age and to estimate catchment storage by leveraging information contained in tracer data (e.g. 2H and 3H). It is argued that the increasing use of the stable isotopes of O and H compared to tritium as tracers has truncated our vision of streamflow TTDs, meaning that the long tails associated with old water are neglected. However, the reasons for the truncation of the TTD tails are still obscured by methodological and data limitations. In this study, we went beyond these limitations and tested the hypothesis that streamflow TTDs calculated using only deuterium (2H) or only tritium (3H) are different. We similarly tested if the mobile catchment storage (derived from the TTDs) associated with each tracer is different. For this we additionally constrained a model successfully developed to simulate high-frequency stream deuterium measurements with about 30 stream tritium measurements over the same period (2015–2017). We used data from the forested headwater Weierbach catchment (42 ha) in Luxembourg. The streamflow TTDs were estimated in unsteady conditions by using both tracers coherently within a framework based on StorAge Selection (SAS) functions. We found equal TTDs and equal mobile storage between the 2H- and 3H-derived estimates. The truncation hypothesis was thus rejected. The small differences we found could be explained by the calculation uncertainties and by a limited sampling frequency for tritium. Using both stable and radioactive isotopes of H as tracers reduced the age and storage uncertainties. Although tritium and stable isotopes had redundant information about younger water, using both tracers better exploited the more specific information about longer ages that 3H inherently contains, and it could be even better in the next decades. The two tracers thus had overall different information contents. Tritium was however slightly more informative and cost-effective than stable isotopes for travel time analysis. We thus reiterate the call of Stewart et al. (2012) to measure tritium in the streams for travel time analysis, and emphasize the need for high-frequency tritium sampling in future studies to match the resolution in stable isotopes.

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“…However, few studies have analysed in situ velocities and celerities to test the interplay between these variables (Beven & Davies, ; Mosley, ; Öztürk & Özkan, ; Scaini et al, , ). Although soil structure is expected to control subsurface flowpaths and hydraulic response, how that structure relates to velocity distributions, including preferential flows, remains poorly understood (Beven, ; Beven & Germann, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Following tracer through the unsaturated zone using a multiple interacting pathways model: Implications from laboratory experiments

Scaini

Amvrosiadi

Hissler

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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Models must effectively represent velocities and celerities if they are to address the old water paradox. Celerity information is recorded indirectly in hydrograph observations, whereas velocity information is more difficult to measure and simulate effectively, requiring additional assumptions and parameters. Velocity information can be obtained from tracer experiments, but we often lack information on the influence of soil properties on tracer mobility. This study features a combined experimental and modelling approach geared towards the evaluation of different structures in the multiple interacting pathways (MIPs) model and validates the representation of velocities with laboratory tracer experiments using an undisturbed soil column. Results indicate that the soil microstructure was modified during the experiment. Soil water velocities were represented using MIPs, testing how the (a) shape of the velocity distribution, (b) transition probability matrices (TPMs), (c) presence of immobile storage, and (d) nonstationary field capacity influence the model's performance. In MIPs, the TPM controls exhanges of water between pathways. In our experiment, MIPs were able to provide a good representation of the pattern of outflow. The results show that the connectedness of the faster pathways is important for controlling the percolation of water and tracer through the soil. The best model performance was obtained with the inclusion of immobile storage, but simulations were poor under the assumption of stationary parameters. The entire experiment was adequately simulated once a time‐variable field capacity parameter was introduced, supporting the need for including the effects of soil microstructure changes observed during the experiment.

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Hillslope response to sprinkling and natural rainfall using velocity and celerity estimates in a slate-bedrock catchment

Cited by 29 publications

References 61 publications

Saturated areas through the lens: 2. Spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow generation and its relationship with surface saturation

Saturated areas through the lens: 2. Spatio‐temporal variability of streamflow generation and its relationship with surface saturation

Testing the truncation of travel times with StorAge Selection functions using deuterium and tritium as tracers

Following tracer through the unsaturated zone using a multiple interacting pathways model: Implications from laboratory experiments

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