Spatiotemporal Variability of Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Streamflows Across Diverse Hydroclimatic Regimes
Abstract
Streams and rivers are widely recognised as biologically active systems modulating the carbon export from land to the ocean. The biological activity of stream ecosystems is mainly regulated by Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) and Dissolved Oxygen (DO) availability, which is in turn strongly affected by the unsteady hydrological processes that transport water and solutes from the hillslopes to the streams. Therefore, in-stream carbon processing depends on the complex, and often obscure, interactions between climatic, landscape and biological factors. Understanding the inter-relations between discharge, DOC and other ecosystem variables goes a long way in the biochemical characterisation of stream ecosystems. Here, we present a coupled analysis of biochemical and hydrological data collected in two headwater catchments with different climates (alpine and sub-alpine). Given the high temporal variability and spatial heterogeneity of the investigated processes, for each catchment we created a high-frequency dataset of DOC, Temperature, DO and Discharge. Each variable was measured in two different sections of the stream, allowing us to i) identify the coupled dynamics of biological and hydrological processes in the catchment and ii) explore the spatial heterogeneities in the observed physical and chemical dynamics. The results evidenced the rainfall (and hence the discharge) as the major driver controlling the dynamics of DOC, DO and Temperature. Moreover, we assessed how these dynamics could be impacted by the snow melting process. Our dataset allows the comparison among catchments dominated by diverse hydroclimatic processes providing important clues for understanding the linkage between discharge and biological processes in streams.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMH056.0013V
- Keywords:
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- 1804 Catchment;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1806 Chemistry of fresh water;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1848 Monitoring networks;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1879 Watershed;
- HYDROLOGY