| 1. |
- Amvrosiadi, Nino, et al.
(author)
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Water storage dynamics in a till hillslope : the foundation for modeling flows and turnover times
- 2017
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In: Hydrological Processes. - : John Wiley and Sons Ltd. - 0885-6087 .- 1099-1085. ; 31:1, s. 4-14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies on hydrology, biogeochemistry, or mineral weathering often rely on assumptions about flow paths, water storage dynamics, and transit times. Testing these assumptions requires detailed hydrometric data that are usually unavailable at the catchment scale. Hillslope studies provide an alternative for obtaining a better understanding, but even on such well-defined and delimited scales, it is rare to have a comprehensive set of hydrometric observations from the water divide down to the stream that can constrain efforts to quantify water storage, movement, and turnover time. Here, we quantified water storage with daily resolution in a hillslope during the course of almost an entire year using hydrological measurements at the study site and an extended version of the vertical equilibrium model. We used an exponential function to simulate the relationship between hillslope discharge and water table; this was used to derive transmissivity profiles along the hillslope and map mean pore water velocities in the saturated zone. Based on the transmissivity profiles, the soil layer transmitting 99% of lateral flow to the stream had a depth that ranged from 8.9 m at the water divide to under 1 m closer to the stream. During the study period, the total storage of this layer varied from 1189 to 1485 mm, resulting in a turnover time of 2172 days. From the pore water velocities, we mapped the time it would take a water particle situated at any point of the saturated zone anywhere along the hillslope to exit as runoff. Our calculations point to the strengths as well as limitations of simple hydrometric data for inferring hydrological properties and water travel times in the subsurface.
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| 2. |
- Ehnvall, Betty, et al.
(author)
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Landscape constraints on mire lateral expansion
- 2023
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In: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 302
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Little is known about the long-term expansion of mire ecosystems, despite their importance in the global carbon and hydrogeochemical cycles. It has been firmly established that mires do not expand linearly over time. Despite this, mires are often assumed to have expanded at a constant rate after initiation simply for lack of a better understanding. There has not yet been a serious attempt to determine the rate and drivers of mire expansion at the regional, or larger spatial scales. Here we make use of a natural chronosequence, spanning the Holocene, which is provided by the retreating coastline of Northern Sweden. By studying an isostatic rebound area we can infer mire expansion dynamics by looking at the portion of the landscape where mires become progressively scarce as the land becomes younger. Our results confirms that mires expanded non-linearly across the landscape and that their expansion is related to the availability of suitably wet areas, which, in our case, depends primarily on the hydro-edaphic properties of the landscape. Importantly, we found that mires occupied the wettest locations in the landscape within only one to two thousand years, while it took mires three to four thousand years to expand into slightly drier areas. Our results imply that the lateral expansion of mires, and thus peat accumulation is a non-linear process, occurring at different rates depending, above all else, on the wetness of the landscape.
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| 3. |
- Ehnvall, B., et al.
(author)
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Topography and time shape mire morphometry and large-scale mire distribution patterns in the northern boreal landscape
- 2024
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In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-9003 .- 2169-9011. ; 129:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Peatlands are major terrestrial soil carbon stores, and open mires in boreal landscapes hold a considerable fraction of the global peat carbon. Despite decades of study, large-scale spatiotemporal analyses of mire arrangement have been scarce, which has limited our ability to scale-up mire properties, such as carbon accumulation to the landscape level. Here, we use a land-uplift mire chronosequence in northern Sweden spanning 9,000 years to quantify controls on mire distribution patterns. Our objectives include assessing changes in the spatial arrangement of mires with land surface age, and understanding modifications by upland hydrotopography. Characterizing over 3,000 mires along a 30 km transect, we found that the time since land emergence from the sea was the dominant control over mire coverage, especially for the establishment of large mire complexes. Mires at the youngest end of the chronosequence were small with heterogenous morphometry (shape, slope, and catchment-to-mire areal ratios), while mires on the oldest surfaces were variable in size, but included larger mires with more complex shapes and smaller catchment-to-mire ratios. In general, complex topography fragmented mires by constraining the lateral expansion, resulting in a greater number of mires, but reduced total mire area regardless of landscape age. Mires in this study area occurred on slopes up to 4%, indicating a hydrological boundary to peatland expansion under local climatic conditions. The consistency in mire responses to spatiotemporal controls illustrates how temporal limitation in peat initiation and accumulation, and topographic constraints to mire expansion together have shaped present day mire distribution patterns.
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| 4. |
- Girons Lopez, Marc, 1986-
(author)
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Information Needs for Water Resource and Risk Management : Hydro-Meteorological Data Value and Non-Traditional Information
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Data availability is extremely important for water management. Without data it would not be possible to know how much water is available or how often extreme events are likely to occur. The usually available hydro-meteorological data often have a limited representativeness and are affected by errors and uncertainties. Additionally, their collection is resource-intensive and, thus, many areas of the world are severely under-monitored. Other areas are seeing an unprecedented – yet local – wealth of data in the last decades. Additionally, the spread of new technologies together with the integration of different approaches to water management science and practice have uncovered a large amount of soft information that can potentially complement and expand the possibilities of water management.This thesis presents a series of studies that address data opportunities for water management. Firstly, the hydro-meteorological data needs for correctly estimating key processes for water resource management such as precipitation and discharge were evaluated. Secondly, the use of non-traditional sources of information such as social media and human behaviour to improve the efficiency of flood mitigation actions were explored. The results obtained provide guidelines for determining basic hydro-meteorological data needs. For instance, an upper density of 24 rain gauges per 1000 km2 for spatial precipitation estimation beyond which improvements are negligible was found. Additionally, a larger relative value of discharge data respect to precipitation data for calibrating hydrological models was observed. Regarding non-traditional sources of information, social memory of past flooding events was found to be a relevant factor determining the efficiency of flood early warning systems and therefore their damage mitigation potential. Finally, a new methodology to use social media data for probabilistic estimates of flood extent was put forward and shown to achieve results comparable to traditional approaches.This thesis significantly contributes to integrated water management by improving the understanding of data needs and opportunities of new sources of information thus making water management more efficient and useful for society.
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| 5. |
- Grabs, Thomas, 1980-, et al.
(author)
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Calculating terrain indices along streams - a new method for separating stream sides
- 2010
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In: Water resources research. - : American Geophysical Union. - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 46:12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There is increasing interest in assessing riparian zones and their hydrological and biogeochemical buffering capacity with indices derived from hydrologic landscape analysis of digital elevation data. Upslope contributing area is a common surrogate for lateral water flows and can be used to assess the variability of local water inflows to riparian zones and streams. However, current GIS algorithms do not provide a method for easily separating riparian zone and adjacent upland lateral contributions on each side of the stream. Here we propose a new algorithm to compute side-separated contributions along stream networks. We describe the new algorithm and illustrate the importance of distinguishing between lateral inflows on each side of streams with hillslope – riparian zone – stream hydrologic connectivity results from high frequency water table data collected in the 22km 2 Tenderfoot Creek catchment, Montana.
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| 6. |
- Grabs, Thomas, 1980-, et al.
(author)
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Modeling spatial patterns of saturated areas: A comparison of the topographic wetness index and a dynamic distributed model
- 2009
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In: Journal of Hydrology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-1694 .- 1879-2707. ; 373:1-2, s. 15-23
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Topography is often one of the major controls on the spatial pattern of saturated areas, which in turn is akey to understanding much of the variability in soils, hydrological processes, and stream water quality.The topographic wetness index (TWI) has become a widely used tool to describe wetness conditions atthe catchment scale. With this index, however, it is assumed that groundwater gradients always equalsurface gradients. To overcome this limitation, we suggest deriving wetness indices based on simulationsof distributed catchment models. We compared these new indices with the TWI and evaluated the differ-ent indices by their capacity to predict spatial patterns of saturated areas. Results showed that the model-derived wetness indices predicted the spatial distribution of wetlands significantly better than the TWI.These results encourage the use of a dynamic distributed hydrological model to derive wetness indexmaps for hydrological landscape analysis in catchments with topographically driven groundwater tables.
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| 7. |
- Grabs, Thomas, et al.
(author)
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Modelling spatial patterns of saturated areas: a comparison of the topographic wetness index and a distributed model
- 2007
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In: Geophysical Research Abstracts. - : European Geoscience Union. ; , s. vol 9-
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The spatial distribution of saturated areas within a catchment is a key factor to understanding and predicting hydrological response and stream water quality at the catchment scale. The topographic wetness index (TWI, ln(a/tan(beta))) is a widely used measure for assessing the spatial distribution of wetness conditions and only requires distributed elevation data as input. The predicted pattern is constant in time because the index is a static representation of the landscape. In this study we examined the predictions of saturated areas using this static topographic wetness index and compared the spatial predictions with temporally aggregated simulations of a distributed hydrological model. The model was calibrated against discharge measured at the outlet and at two internal points of a small forested catchment in northern Sweden. After calibration the model was applied to a larger 68 km2 catchment which included the subcatchment used for calibration. The dynamic groundwater level simulations of this model were temporally aggregated into dynamic indices. These indices were compared to the static topographic wetness index (TWI). We used the ability to spatially predict the occurrence of wetlands as a validation of the static and dynamic indices. First results indicate that the dynamic approach is superior to the static TWI.
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| 8. |
- Grabs, Thomas, et al.
(author)
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Riparian zone hydrology and soil water total organic carbon (TOC) : implications for spatial variability and upscaling of lateral riparian TOC exports
- 2012
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In: Biogeosciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1726-4170 .- 1726-4189. ; 9:10, s. 3901-3916
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Groundwater flowing from hillslopes through riparian (near-stream) soils often undergoes chemical transformations that can substantially influence stream water chemistry. We used landscape analysis to predict total organic carbon (TOC) concentration profiles and groundwater levels measured in the riparian zone (RZ) of a 67 km2 catchment in Sweden. TOC exported laterally from 13 riparian soil profiles was then estimated based on the riparian flow-concentration integration model (RIM). Much of the observed spatial variability of riparian TOC concentrations in this system could be predicted from groundwater levels and the topographic wetness index (TWI). Organic riparian peat soils in forested areas emerged as hotspots exporting large amounts of TOC. These TOC fluxes were subject to considerable temporal variations caused by a combination of variable flow conditions and changing soil water TOC concentrations. Mineral riparian gley soils, on the other hand, were related to rather small TOC export rates and were characterized by relatively time-invariant TOC concentration profiles. Organic and mineral soils in RZs constitute a heterogeneous landscape mosaic that potentially controls much of the spatial variability of stream water TOC. We developed an empirical regression model based on the TWI to move beyond the plot scale and to predict spatially variable riparian TOC concentration profiles for RZs underlain by glacial till.
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| 9. |
- Grabs, Thomas, 1980-, et al.
(author)
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Riparian zone processes and soil water total organic carbon (TOC) : Implications for spatial variability, upscaling and carbon exports
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Considerable amounts of groundwater inflows pass through riparian soils before discharging into stream networks. The interaction of groundwater inflows from adjacent hillslopes with riparian soils often changes the biogeochemical signature of the water. This mechanism often makes (near stream) riparian zones (RZs) key areas in the landscape that substantially influence stream water chemistry. Here we combine landscape analysis with total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations and groundwater levels measured at the riparian observatory in the boreal Krycklan catchment to investigate how terrain has shaped riparian processes and TOC characteristics. A considerable spatial variability of riparian TOC concentrations is presented in this system which can be related to variable groundwater levels and values of the topographic wetness index (TWI). Organic-rich riparian peat soils in forested areas emerged as hotspots exporting large amounts of TOC. These exports are subject to considerable temporal variations caused by variable flow conditions and changing TOC concentrations. Organic-poor riparian soils, on the other hand, exported only small and relatively time-invariant amounts of TOC. Organic-rich and organic-poor soils in RZs combine to a landscape mosaic that regulates much of spatial variability of stream water TOC. We finally present an empirical regression-model based on the TWI to predict spatially variable riparian TOC concentration profiles for areas in the Krycklan catchment that are underlain by glacial till.
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| 10. |
- Grabs, Thomas, 1980-
(author)
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Water quality modeling based on landscape analysis: importance of riparian hydrology
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Several studies in high-latitude catchments have demonstrated the importance of near-stream riparian zones as hydrogeochemical hotspots with a substantial influence on stream chemistry. An adequate representation of the spatial variability of riparian-zone processes and characteristics is the key for modeling spatio-temporal variations of stream-water quality. This thesis contributes to current knowledge by refining landscape-analysis techniques to describe riparian zones and by introducing a conceptual framework to quantify solute exports from riparian zones. The utility of the suggested concepts is evaluated based on an extensive set of hydrometric and chemical data comprising measurements of streamflow, groundwater levels, soil-water chemistry and stream chemistry. Standard routines to analyze digital elevation models that are offered by current geographical information systems have been of very limited use for deriving hydrologically meaningful terrain indices for riparian zones. A model-based approach for hydrological landscape analysis is outlined, which, by explicitly simulating groundwater levels, allows better predictions of saturated areas compared to standard routines. Moreover, a novel algorithm is presented for distinguishing between left and right stream sides, which is a fundamental prerequisite for characterizing riparian zones through landscape analysis. The new algorithm was used to derive terrain indices from a high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation model. By combining these terrain indices with detailed hydrogeochemical measurements from a riparian observatory, it was possible to upscale the measured attributes and to subsequently characterize the variation of total organic-carbon exports from riparian zones in a boreal catchment in Northern Sweden. Riparian zones were recognized as highly heterogeneous landscape elements. Organic-rich riparian zones were found to be hotspots influencing temporal trends in stream-water organic carbon while spatial variations of organic carbon in streams were attributed to the arrangement of organic-poor and organic-rich riparian zones along the streams. These insights were integrated into a parsimonious modeling approach. An analytical solution of the model equations is presented, which provides a physical basis for commonly used power-law streamflow-load relations.
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