Impact of hydrological alterations on river-groundwater exchange and water quality in a semi-arid area: Nueces River, Texas

Murgulet, Dorina; Murgulet, Valeriu; Spalt, Nicholas; Douglas, Audrey; Hay, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.198

Cited by 34 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…While there is an abundance of literature on (a) short-term or prevailing hydrologic conditions and water quality in the basin in the form of United States Geologic Survey [USGS] scientific reports (e.g., [13,24,25]), (b) the environmental conditions of downstream sections of the basin such as the Nueces estuary and associated ecosystem (e.g., [26][27][28]) and (c) groundwater-river water interactions in the basin (e.g., [18,29,30]), few studies have focused on hydrologic trends and their impacts on the basin, particularly on the upstream-most segments designated as ecologically-significant. Additionally, literature on the impact of variations, if any, in precipitation and land use and land cover (LULC) on streamflow in this basin is lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic Trends in the Upper Nueces River Basin of Texas—Implications for Water Resource Management and Ecological Health

et al. 2019

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Reliable water sources are central to human and environmental health. In south Texas, USA, the Nueces River Basin (NRB) directly or indirectly plays that important role for many counties. Several NRB stream segments are designated as ecologically significant because they serve crucial hydrologic, ecologic, and biologic functions. The hydrologically significant streams recharge the Edwards Aquifer, an essential water source for the region’s agricultural, industrial, and residential activities. Unfortunately, the semiarid to arid south Texas climate leads to large inter-annual precipitation variability which impacts streamflow, and as a consequence, the aquifer’s recharge. In this study, we used a suite of hydrologic metrics to evaluate the NRB’s hydroclimatic trends and assess their potential impacts on the watershed’s ecologically significant stream segments using precipitation and streamflow data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and Hydroclimatic Data Network (HCDN) respectively from 1970 to 2014. The results consistently showed statistically significant decreasing streamflow for certain low-flow indicators over various temporal scales, likely due to water rights diversions and minimal land use changes. This research could help decision-makers develop the necessary tools to manage water resources in south Texas, given the NRB’s significance as a source of water for domestic consumption and ecological health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic Trends in the Upper Nueces River Basin of Texas—Implications for Water Resource Management and Ecological Health

et al. 2019

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“…In contrast, the stream water in the Urumqi and Akesu rivers was enriched by heavy isotopes in spring but depleted in the summer (Sun, Chen, Li, & Li, ; Sun, Chen, Li, Li, & Yang, ). Meanwhile, the stream water in the Nueces River in Texas was enriched by heavy isotopes in the dry season but depleted in the wet season (Murgulet, Murgulet, Spalt, Douglas, & Hay, ), whereas the stream water in the Magazangbu River in the Tibet Plateau was enriched by heavy isotopes in winter and depleted in the summer (Guo, Tian, Wang, Yu, & Qu, ). A large proportion of snow meltwater in spring results in the more depleted springtime water.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying evaporation fractionation and streamflow components based on stable isotopes in the Kaidu River Basin with mountain–oasis system in north‐west China

Chen

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Based on stable isotopes in stream water, groundwater, and meltwater in the Kaidu River Basin, NW China, we estimated the evaporation enrichment of stable oxygen isotopes in different types of water and separated the contribution of each streamflow component in river run-off. Our results indicated that δ 18 O and δ 2 H in stream water did not vary with altitude regularly but with seasons, with low concentrations in spring and high concentrations in summer. However, the seasonal variations of δ 18 O and δ 2 H in groundwater were not as obvious. The mean evaporation enrichment was between 26% and 44% for δ 18 O. Of the various water types under investigation, we found glaciers were influenced the most, showing an evaporation enrichment of 44%, followed by oasis groundwater (37%), stream water (36%), and mountain groundwater (26%). Overall, meltwater and groundwater were the predominant streamflow components, with their contributions were governed by temperature, and varied both temporally and specially. In the oasis region, groundwater was the predominant contributor (64% in spring, 50% in summer, and 66% in autumn), whereas in the mountains, groundwater was the dominant in spring (53%) and autumn (51%), and meltwater contributed the most in summer (52%). Precipitation contributed less than 15% to the streamflow.

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“…In terms of environmental impacts, dams strongly alter river hydrological, sediment, hydrochemical, and biological connectivity and continuity (Bednarek, ; Kelly, ; Liro, ; Pestana, Azevedo, Bastos, & Magalhães de Souza, ; Vörösmarty et al, ). In terms of water chemistry, dams and the reservoirs they form are known to disturb river‐water composition (Aristi et al, ; Mantel, Hughes, & Muller, ; Palmer & Okeeffe, ; Pozo, Orive, Fraile, & Basaguren, ; Van Cappellen & Maavara, ) in the following ways: Dams modify the flow regime in downstream reaches according to their management, and water chemical composition varies with flow (Carling et al, ; Chittoor Viswanathan, Molson, & Schirmer, ; Graf, ). Dams modify the chemical weathering rates which are controlled by residence times in watersheds (Brink, Humborg, Sahlberg, Rahm, & Mörth, ; Gao et al, ). Reservoirs are physical barriers known to trap suspended materials (Carling et al, ; Eiriksdottir, Oelkers, Hardardottir, & Gislason, ) and likely to concentrate some solutes by evaporation (Kelly, ), but they are also biogeochemically reactive (Garnier, Leporcq, Sanchez, & Philippon, ; Maavara, Dürr, & Van Cappellen, ) and thus likely to affect nutrient cycles. Reservoirs are also likely to modify exchanges between groundwater and the river by changing local piezometric gradients (Murgulet, Murgulet, Spalt, Douglas, & Hay, ; Taleb et al, ) …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of dams on river water‐quality signatures at event and seasonal scales: The Sélune River (France) case study

Fovet

Ndom

Crave

et al. 2020

River Research & Apps

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Dams and reservoirs are known to disturb river‐water composition, among other impacts, with potential implications for downstream river ecosystems and water uses. Existing studies have emphasized the variable influence of dams on water composition according to the element, its speciation (dissolved vs. particulate), reservoir properties (residence times), reservoir functions (e.g., hydropower, irrigation), and management (water releases). A now common approach to analyzing hydrological, geochemical, and biological controls on element export from unregulated rivers is to study hydrochemical signatures such as concentration‐flow relationships. We investigated a case study to analyze hydrochemical signatures of a regulated river (Sélune River, western France) upstream and downstream of a chain of two hydropower dams, assuming that the dams disturbed the river's signatures, and that those disturbances would provide information about processes occurring in the reservoirs. Both seasonal and event‐scale signatures were analyzed over two contrasting hydrological years and a range of storm events. The dams induced a chemostatic downstream response to storm events whenever elements were diluted or concentrated upstream. Dams did not disturb the seasonality of major anions but did modify silica and phosphorus concentration‐flow relationships, especially during low flow. Such changes in dynamics of river‐water composition may affect downstream biological communities. This study presents an initial state of the hydrochemical signature of the downstream river, before the removal of the two dams.

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Impact of hydrological alterations on river-groundwater exchange and water quality in a semi-arid area: Nueces River, Texas

Cited by 34 publications

References 49 publications

Hydrologic Trends in the Upper Nueces River Basin of Texas—Implications for Water Resource Management and Ecological Health

Hydrologic Trends in the Upper Nueces River Basin of Texas—Implications for Water Resource Management and Ecological Health

Identifying evaporation fractionation and streamflow components based on stable isotopes in the Kaidu River Basin with mountain–oasis system in north‐west China

Influence of dams on river water‐quality signatures at event and seasonal scales: The Sélune River (France) case study

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