Scales and magnitude of hyporheic,river–aquifer and bank storage exchange fluxes

Many studies have investigated the exchange processes that occur between rivers and groundwater systems and have successfully quantified the water fluxes involved. Specifically, these exchange processes include hyporheic exchange, river–aquifer exchange (groundwater discharge and river loss) and bank storage exchange. Remarkably, there are relatively few examples of field studies where more than one exchange process is quantified, and as a consequence, the relationships between them are not well understood. To compare the relative magnitudes of these common exchange processes, we have collected data from 54 studies that have quantified one or more of these exchange flux types. Each flux value is plotted against river discharge at the time of measurement to allow the different exchange flux types to be compared. We show that there are positive relationships between the magnitude of each exchange flux type and increasing river discharge across the different studies. For every one order of magnitude increase in river discharge, the hyporheic, river–aquifer and bank storage exchange fluxes increase by factors of 2.7, 2.9 and 2.5, respectively. On average, hyporheic exchange fluxes are almost an order of magnitude greater than river–aquifer exchange fluxes, which are, in turn, approximately four times greater than bank storage exchange fluxes for the same river discharge. Unless measurement approaches that can distinguish between different types of exchange flux are used, there is potential for hyporheic exchange fluxes to be misinterpreted as river–aquifer exchange fluxes, with possible implications for water resource management decisions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges as complementary sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of Holocene relative sea‐level changes

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges are genetically independent, though non‐continuous, sedimentary archives. We here combine the results from two recently published studies in order to produce an 8000‐year‐long record of Holocene relative sea‐level changes on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat, Denmark. The reconstruction of the initial mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise is based on the sedimentary infill from topography‐confined coastal lagoons (Sander et al., Boreas, 2015b). Sea‐level index points over the mid‐ to late Holocene period of sea‐level stability and fall are retrieved from the internal structures of a wide beach‐ridge system (Hede et al., The Holocene, 2015). Data from sediment coring, georadar and absolute dating are thus combined in an inter‐disciplinary approach that is highly reproducible in micro‐tidal environments characterised by high sediment supply. We show here that the commonly proximate occurrence of coastal lagoons and beach ridges allows us to produce seamless time series of relative sea‐level changes from field sites in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments.     

Analytical solutions for advective–dispersive solute transport in double‐layered finite porous media

Analytical solutions for advection and dispersion of a conservative solute in a one‐dimensional double‐layered finite porous media are presented. The solutions are applicable to five scenarios that have various combinations of fixed concentration, fixed flux and zero concentration gradient conditions at the inlet and outlet boundaries that provide a wide number of options. Arbitrary initial solute concentration distributions throughout the media can be considered via explicit formulations or numerical integration. The analytical solutions presented have been verified against numerical solutions from a finite‐element‐based approach and an existing closed‐form solution for double‐layered media with an excellent correlation being found in both cases. A practical application pertaining to advective transport induced by consolidation of underlying sediment layers on contaminant movement within a capped contaminated sediment system is presented. Comparison of the calculated concentrations and fluxes with alternative approaches clearly illustrates the need to consider advection processes. Consideration of the different features of contaminant transport due to varying pore‐water velocity fields in primary consolidation and secondary consolidation stages is achieved via the use of non‐uniform initial concentration distributions within the proposed analytical solutions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Oxygen‐18 dynamics in precipitation and streamflow in a semi‐arid agricultural watershed,Eastern Washington,USA

Understanding flow pathways and mechanisms that generate streamflow is important to understanding agrochemical contamination in surface waters in agricultural watersheds. Two environmental tracers, δ¹⁸O and electrical conductivity (EC), were monitored in tile drainage (draining 12 ha) and stream water (draining nested catchments of 6‐5700 ha) from 2000 to 2008 in the semi‐arid agricultural Missouri Flat Creek (MFC) watershed, near Pullman Washington, USA. Tile drainage and streamflow generated in the watershed were found to have baseline δ¹⁸O value of ?14·7‰ (VSMOW) year round. Winter precipitation accounted for 67% of total annual precipitation and was found to dominate streamflow, tile drainage, and groundwater recharge. ‘Old’ and ‘new’ water partitioning in streamflow were not identifiable using δ¹⁸O, but seasonal shifts of nitrate‐corrected EC suggest that deep soil pathways primarily generated summer streamflow (mean EC 250 µS/cm) while shallow soil pathways dominated streamflow generation during winter (EC declining as low as 100 µS/cm). Using summer isotopic and EC excursions from tile drainage in larger catchment (4700‐5700 ha) stream waters, summer in‐stream evaporation fractions were estimated to be from 20% to 40%, with the greatest evaporation occurring from August to October. Seasonal watershed and environmental tracer dynamics in the MFC watershed appeared to be similar to those at larger watershed scales in the Palouse River basin. A 0·9‰ enrichment, in shallow groundwater drained to streams (tile drainage and soil seepage), of δ¹⁸O values from 2000 to 2008 may be evidence of altered precipitation conditions due to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) in the Inland Northwest. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Early‐middle Holocene land snail shell stable isotope record from Grotta di Latronico 3 (southern Italy)

This paper compares stable isotope (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) records of early–middle Holocene land snail shells from the archaeological deposits of Grotta di Latronico 3 (LTR3; southern Italy) with modern shell isotopic data. No substantial interspecific variability was observed in shell δ¹⁸O (δ¹⁸Os) of modern specimens (Pomatias elegans, Cornu aspersum, Eobania vermiculata, Helix ligata and Marmorana fuscolabiata). In contrast, interspecific shell δ¹³C (δ¹³Cs) variability was significant, probably due to different feeding behaviour among species. The δ¹⁸Os values of living land snails suggest that species hibernate for a long period during colder months, so that the signal of ¹⁸O‐depleted winter rainfall in their δ¹⁸Os is lost. This suggests that δ¹⁸Os and δ¹³Cs values of Pomatias elegans from this archaeological succession provide valuable clues for seasonal (spring–autumn) climatic conditions during the early–middle Holocene. The δ¹⁸Os values of fossil specimens are significantly lower than in modern shells and in agreement with other palaeoclimatic records, suggesting a substantial increase of precipitation and/or persistent changes in air mass source trajectories over this region between ca. 8.8 cal ka BP and 6.2–6.7 ka ago. The δ¹³Cs trend suggests a transition from a slightly ¹³C‐enriched to a ¹³C‐depleted diet between early and middle Holocene compared to present conditions. We postulate that this δ¹³Cs trend might reflect changes in the C3 vegetation community, potentially combined with other environmental factors such as regional moisture increase and the progressive decrease of atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.