Identifying the contribution of regional groundwater to the baseflow of a tropical river (Daly River, Australia)

Smerdon, Brian; Gardner, W. Payton; Harrington, Glenn A.; Tickell, S. J.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.06.058

Cited by 61 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In our case, the likelihood of waters with much longer RTs seeping from the sedimentary bedrock could not be verified using 3 H only. Other tracers that can capture older water footprints, such as terrigenic helium-4 (Smerdon et al, 2012) or carbon-14 (Bourke et al, 2014), would need to be tested for that purpose.…”

Section: Limitations Of This Study and Way Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Later works by Seeger and Weiler (2014) and Kirchner (2015) reinforced the point that "stable isotopes are effectively blind to the long tails of TT distributions" (Kirchner, 2015). The effects of older groundwater contributions to streamflow have largely been ignored until recently (Smerdon et al, 2012;Frisbee et al, 2013), and according to Stewart et al (2012), new research efforts need to be focused on relating deeper groundwater flow processes to catchment response. Accounting for potential delayed contributions from deeper groundwater systems therefore requires the addition of a tracer, such as 3 H, that is capable of determining longer TTs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Duvert

Stewart

Cendón

et al. 2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract.A major limitation to the assessment of catchment transit time (TT) stems from the use of stable isotopes or chloride as hydrological tracers, because these tracers are blind to older contributions. Yet, accurately capturing the TT of the old water fraction is essential, as is the assessment of its temporal variations under non-stationary catchment dynamics. In this study we used lumped convolution models to examine time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride in rainfall, streamwater and groundwater of a catchment located in subtropical Australia. Our objectives were to determine the different contributions to streamflow and their variations over time, and to understand the relationship between catchment TT and groundwater residence time. Stable isotopes and chloride provided consistent estimates of TT in the upstream part of the catchment. A young component to streamflow was identified that was partitioned into quickflow (mean TT ≈ 2 weeks) and discharge from the fractured igneous rocks forming the headwaters (mean TT ≈ 0.3 years). The use of tritium was beneficial for determining an older contribution to streamflow in the downstream area. The best fits between measured and modelled tritium activities were obtained for a mean TT of 16-25 years for this older groundwater component. This was significantly lower than the residence time calculated for groundwater in the alluvial aquifer feeding the stream downstream (≈ 76-102 years), emphasising the fact that water exiting the catchment and water stored in it had distinctive age distributions. When simulations were run separately on each tritium streamwater sample, the TT of old water fraction varied substantially over time, with values averaging 17 ± 6 years at low flow and 38 ± 15 years after major recharge events. This counterintuitive result was interpreted as the flushing out of deeper, older waters shortly after recharge by the resulting pressure wave propagation. Overall, this study shows the usefulness of collecting tritium data in streamwater to document short-term variations in the older component of the TT distribution. Our results also shed light on the complex relationships between stored water and water in transit, which are highly non-linear and remain poorly understood.

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Section: Limitations Of This Study and Way Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Duvert

Stewart

Cendón

et al. 2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…The notion that groundwater plays an important role in streamflow generation is not new [Pinder and Jones, 1969;Sklash and Farvolden, 1979]. However, the role of old groundwater in streamflow processes has largely been ignored until very recently [Frisbee et al, 2011;Gardner et al, 2011;Smerdon et al, 2012]. Are the watershed processes in some of these studies properly characterized, while others are missing important process information because their residence times are biased short?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are we missing the tail (and the tale) of residence time distributions in watersheds?

Frisbee

Wilson

Gomez‐Velez

et al. 2013

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] Residence times provide vital information on hydrological, geochemical, and ecological processes in watersheds. The common perception is that mean residence times in watersheds are very short, on the order of days to years. However, there is growing concern that longer residence times of centuries to millennia are not being captured by traditional surface water age-dating methods. We hypothesize that if mean residence times are biased short, then weathering rates calculated from mean residence times will be forced unrealistically high to match observed solute concentrations. We test this hypothesis by calculating weathering rates from springs based upon residence times estimated using three different age-dating methods. Observed solute concentrations require unrealistically large weathering rates if typical short residence times are employed as compared to rates derived from longer residence times. Residence time distributions in watersheds have substantially longer tails than previously thought, with implications for age-dating methods and their interpretation to infer process behavior.

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“…The residence time of water within an aquifer is a key parameter in describing catchment storage and may be used to estimate historical recharge rates (Le Gal La Salle et al, 2001;Cook and Robinson, 2002;Cartwright and Morgenstern, 2012;Zhai et al, 2013), elucidate groundwater flow paths (Gardner et al, 2011;Smerdon et al, 2012), calibrate hydraulic models (Mazor and Nativ, 1992;Reilly et al, 1994;Post et al, 2013) and characterize the rate of contaminant Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. (Böhlke and Denver 1995;Tesoriero et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local groundwater flow paths in connection with rivers are often underlain by deeper regional flow paths (Tóth, 1963), but the role these flow paths play in contributing to river baseflow remains unclear (Sklash and Farvolden, 1979;McDonnell et al, 2010;Frisbee et al, 2013;Goderniaux et al, 2013). This may be elucidated from understanding residence times of near-river groundwater (Smerdon et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using <sup>14</sup>C and <sup>3</sup>H to understand groundwater flow and recharge in an aquifer window

Atkinson

Cartwright

Gilfedder

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Knowledge of groundwater residence times and recharge locations is vital to the sustainable management of groundwater resources. Here we investigate groundwater residence times and patterns of recharge in the Gellibrand Valley, southeast Australia, where outcropping aquifer sediments of the Eastern View Formation form an "aquifer window" that may receive diffuse recharge from rainfall and recharge from the Gellibrand River. To determine recharge patterns and groundwater flow paths, environmental isotopes (3H, 14C, δ13C, δ18O, δ2H) are used in conjunction with groundwater geochemistry and continuous monitoring of groundwater elevation and electrical conductivity. The water table fluctuates by 0.9 to 3.7 m annually, implying recharge rates of 90 and 372 mm yr−1. However, residence times of shallow (11 to 29 m) groundwater determined by 14C are between 100 and 10 000 years, 3H activities are negligible in most of the groundwater, and groundwater electrical conductivity remains constant over the period of study. Deeper groundwater with older 14C ages has lower δ18O values than younger, shallower groundwater, which is consistent with it being derived from greater altitudes. The combined geochemistry data indicate that local recharge from precipitation within the valley occurs through the aquifer window, however much of the groundwater in the Gellibrand Valley predominantly originates from the regional recharge zone, the Barongarook High. The Gellibrand Valley is a regional discharge zone with upward head gradients that limits local recharge to the upper 10 m of the aquifer. Additionally, the groundwater head gradients adjacent to the Gellibrand River are generally upwards, implying that it does not recharge the surrounding groundwater and has limited bank storage. 14C ages and Cl concentrations are well correlated and Cl concentrations may be used to provide a first-order estimate of groundwater residence times. Progressively lower chloride concentrations from 10 000 years BP to the present day are interpreted to indicate an increase in recharge rates on the Barongarook High.

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Identifying the contribution of regional groundwater to the baseflow of a tropical river (Daly River, Australia)

Cited by 61 publications

References 36 publications

Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Are we missing the tail (and the tale) of residence time distributions in watersheds?

Using <sup>14</sup>C and <sup>3</sup>H to understand groundwater flow and recharge in an aquifer window

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Identifying the contribution of regional groundwater to the baseflow of a tropical river (Daly River, Australia)

Cited by 61 publications

References 36 publications

Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Time series of tritium, stable isotopes and chloride reveal short-term variations in groundwater contribution to a stream

Are we missing the tail (and the tale) of residence time distributions in watersheds?

Using &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C and &lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;H to understand groundwater flow and recharge in an aquifer window

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Using <sup>14</sup>C and <sup>3</sup>H to understand groundwater flow and recharge in an aquifer window