Identification of hyporheic extent and functional zonation during seasonal streamflow recession by unsupervised clustering of time‐lapse electrical resistivity models

Abstract

Hyporheic exchange influences hydrologic transport and water quality through transient storage, which extends solute transit time, and leads to mixing of surface water and groundwater. Despite its importance, estimating the extent and spatiotemporal variability of the hyporheic zone remains challenging due to limitations in assessing the subsurface with discrete point-scale sampling. Analysis of time-lapse electrical resistivity (ER) data from tracer studies has shown potential to ameliorate such limita-

Integrated field, model, and theoretical advances inform a predictive understanding of transport and transformation in the critical zone

“…The same anomalous tailing that is found in aquifers due to non-Fickian transport also manifests in transport within the river corridor, where transient storage is broadly understood to yield long tailing. A host of applications focus on solute transport, including developing tools for planning tracer injections (González-Pinzón et al, 2022), flume-and tank-scale studies (Foster et al, 2021;Wilhelmsen et al, 2021), interpretation of tracer data (González-Pinzón et al, 2015;Ward et al, 2014Ward et al, , 2013, modeling efforts (Ward et al, 2010b), and emerging integration of hydrogeophysical data with solute tracers to understand process dynamics (Pidlisecky et al, 2011;Singley et al, 2022). Taken together these efforts link studies of anomalous tailing across multiple scales and approaches, with scales spanning landforms and scales including pores, flowpaths, hillslopes, stream reaches, and aquifers.…”