Use of hydrochemistry as a standalone and complementary groundwater age tracer

Beyer, Monique; Jackson, Bethanna; Daughney, Christopher J.; Morgenstern, Uwe; Norton, Kevin

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.05.062

Cited by 18 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The amount of time solutes (and water) are retained within a catchment before being released to the stream, and then being collected as water samples at an established catchment outlet, represents a fundamental control on stream water chemical composition and variation. Hence, water age and solute transport are intimately linked and are often studied in a coupled manner (e.g., Beyer, Jackson, Daughney, Morgenstern, & Norton, ; Bishop, Seibert, Köhler, & Laudon, ; Böhlke & Denver, ; Hrachowitz et al, ; Peters, Burns, & Aulenbach, ; Rinaldo & Marani, ). Although water age itself cannot be tracked or measured, the analysis of tracers represents the primary means to infer water age or travel times empirically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, water age and solute transport are intimately linked and are often studied in a coupled manner (e.g., Beyer, Jackson, Daughney, Morgenstern, & Norton, 2016;Bishop, Seibert, Köhler, & Laudon, 2004;Böhlke & Denver, 1995;Hrachowitz et al, 2016;Peters, Burns, & Aulenbach, 2014;Rinaldo & Marani, 1987). Although water age itself cannot be tracked or measured, the analysis of tracers represents the primary means to infer water age or travel times empirically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Young runoff fractions control streamwater age and solute concentration dynamics

Benettin

Bailey

Rinaldo

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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We introduce a new representation of coupled solute and water age dynamics at the catchment scale, which shows how the contributions of young runoff waters can be directly referenced to observed water quality patterns. The methodology stems from recent trends in hydrologic transport that acknowledge the dynamic nature of streamflow age and explores the use of water age fractions as an alternative to the mean age. The approach uses a travel time‐based transport model to compute the fractions of streamflow that are younger than some thresholds (e.g., younger than a few weeks) and compares them to observed solute concentration patterns. The method is here validated with data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest during spring 2008, where we show that the presence of water younger than roughly 2 weeks, tracked using a hydrologic transport model and deuterium measurements, mimics the variation in dissolved silicon concentrations. Our approach suggests that an age–discharge relationship can be coupled to classic concentration–discharge relationship, to identify the links between transport timescales and solute concentration. Our results highlight that the younger streamflow components can be crucial for determining water quality variations and for characterizing the dominant hydrologic transport dynamics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young runoff fractions control streamwater age and solute concentration dynamics

Benettin

Bailey

Rinaldo

et al. 2017

Hydrological Processes

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“…The study shows that power law SAS functions prove a powerful tool to explain catchment-scale transport processes that also has potential in less intensively monitored sites.PUBLICATIONS hydrologic systems to reproduce both hydrograph and tracer information [e.g., Rinaldo et al, 2015]. Hence, it is not surprising that a variety of environmental and biological tracers [e.g., Dahlke et al, 2015;Klaus et al, 2015;Beyer et al, 2016] are used to track the movement of water, thus placing hydrologic transport at the interface between hydrology and biogeochemistry [Hrachowitz et al, 2016]. Recently, the characterization of hydrologic transport has also impacted plant physiology studies, as it has been experimentally shown that water transpired by the plants may be sampled from a pool that is different from that generating stream water in some environments [McDonnell, 2014;Evaristo et al, 2015].Since early formulations, travel time distributions have been extensively explored [see McGuire and McDonnell, 2006] and a new generation of theoretical transport models has been introduced in recent years [Botter et al, 2011;van der Velde et al, 2012;Harman, 2015], which focus on catchment-scale nonstationary transport.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PUBLICATIONS hydrologic systems to reproduce both hydrograph and tracer information [e.g., Rinaldo et al, 2015]. Hence, it is not surprising that a variety of environmental and biological tracers [e.g., Dahlke et al, 2015;Klaus et al, 2015;Beyer et al, 2016] are used to track the movement of water, thus placing hydrologic transport at the interface between hydrology and biogeochemistry [Hrachowitz et al, 2016]. Recently, the characterization of hydrologic transport has also impacted plant physiology studies, as it has been experimentally shown that water transpired by the plants may be sampled from a pool that is different from that generating stream water in some environments [McDonnell, 2014;Evaristo et al, 2015].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using SAS functions and high‐resolution isotope data to unravel travel time distributions in headwater catchments

Benettin

Soulsby

Birkel

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

140

215

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We use high‐resolution tracer data from an experimental site to test theoretical approaches that integrate catchment‐scale flow and transport processes in a unified framework centered on selective age sampling by streamflow and evapotranspiration fluxes. Transport processes operating at the catchment scale are reflected in the evolving residence time distribution of the catchment water storage and in the age selection operated by out‐fluxes. Such processes are described here through StorAge Selection (SAS) functions parameterized as power laws of the normalized rank storage. Such functions are computed through appropriate solution of the master equation defining formally the evolution of residence and travel times. By representing the way in which catchment storage generates outflows composed by water of different ages, the main mechanism regulating the tracer composition of runoff is clearly identified and detailed comparison with empirical data sets are possible. Properly calibrated numerical tools provide simulations that convincingly reproduce complex measured signals of daily deuterium content in stream waters during wet and dry periods. Results for the catchment under consideration are consistent with other recent studies indicating a tendency for natural catchments to preferentially release younger available water. The study shows that power law SAS functions prove a powerful tool to explain catchment‐scale transport processes that also has potential in less intensively monitored sites.

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“…One promising family of potential groundwater tracers is natural weathering products 71 such as Ca 2+ , Na + , and dissolved silica (DSi) (Abbott et al, 2016). DSi has been found to be 72 correlated with apparent age in several site-specific studies (Bohlke and Denver, 1995 investigated and DSi has rarely been considered a robust tracer of groundwater age, though it 78 has been used as a relative indicator of residence time (Beyer et al, 2016;Edmunds and 79 Smedley, 2000). Two specific challenges to using DSi as a widespread proxy of mean 80 residence times are: 1.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dating groundwater with dissolved silica and CFC concentrations in crystalline aquifers

Marçais

Gauvain

Labasque

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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Estimating intermediate water residence times (a few years to a century) in shallow aquifers is critical to quantifying groundwater vulnerability to nutrient loading and estimating realistic recovery timelines. While intermediate groundwater residence times are currently determined with atmospheric tracers such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), these analyses are costly and would benefit from other tracer approaches to compensate for the decreasing resolution of CFC methods in the 5-20 years range. In this context, we developed a framework to assess the capacity of dissolved silica (DSi) to inform residence times in shallow aquifers. We calibrated silicate weathering rates with CFCs from multiple wells in five crystalline aquifers in Brittany and in the Vosges Mountains (France). DSi and CFCs were complementary in determining apparent weathering reactions and residence time distributions (RTDs) in shallow aquifers. Silicate weathering rates were surprisingly similar among Brittany aquifers, varying from 0.20 to 0.23 mg L yr with a coefficient of variation of 7%, except for the aquifer where significant groundwater abstraction occurred, where we observed a weathering rate of 0.31 mg L yr. The silicate weathering rate was lower for the aquifer in the Vosges Mountains (0.12 mg L yr), potentially due to differences in climate and anthropogenic solute loading. Overall, these optimized silicate weathering rates are consistent with previously published studies with similar apparent ages range. The consistency in silicate weathering rates suggests that DSi could be a robust and cheap proxy of mean residence times for recent groundwater (5-100 years) at the regional scale. This methodology could allow quantification of seasonal groundwater contributions to streams, estimation of residence times in the unsaturated zone and improve assessment of aquifer vulnerability to anthropogenic pollution.

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Use of hydrochemistry as a standalone and complementary groundwater age tracer

Cited by 18 publications

References 55 publications

Young runoff fractions control streamwater age and solute concentration dynamics

Young runoff fractions control streamwater age and solute concentration dynamics

Using SAS functions and high‐resolution isotope data to unravel travel time distributions in headwater catchments

Dating groundwater with dissolved silica and CFC concentrations in crystalline aquifers

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