Use of Continuous Specific Conductance to Differentiate the Sources of Water to an Agricultural Stream With Subsurface Drainage Networks
Abstract
The sources of water to natural streams include direct precipitation, overland flow, and ground-water inflow. In glaciated areas, the presence of artificial surface and subsurface drainage networks, a common practice for removing excess water from agricultural fields, provides additional pathways of water movement to the stream. The artificial drainage of agricultural fields allows rainfall to move quickly through the catchment to the stream transporting nutrients, pesticides and other agricultural-related constituents. A largely agricultural (about 90%), 31 km2 subcatchment of the South Fork of the Iowa River in north-central Iowa was studied for two years. Discharge and specific conductance (SC) were measured continuously and discreet water samples were obtained for analyses of nutrients and other constituents. SC is an electrical measurement of the total ion content in the water. The SC of the rain and ground-water is about 10 microS/cm and 800-1,200 microS/cm, respectively. The typical, base-flow SC of the stream is 700-800 microS/cm. Within minutes after a substantial rain event, the stream discharge increases and the SC decreases (often times below 200"nmicroS/cm). The rain water is processed through the catchment before it reaches the stream via direct overland flow, preferential flow to subsurface drains, vertical drains attached to subsurface drains in ponded areas, and/or soil infiltration to ground-water. Water moving through each of these pathways has different characteristic time scales and different degrees of interactions with the soil yielding different ionic content, thus different SC. Both the discharge and SC concurrently return to the typical base-flow values over the following days and weeks. This strong relation between rainfall, discharge and SC is used to calculate the relative importance and time scale of the various hydrologic pathways. In addition to the two-year stream record, complementary discharge and SC data were collected in two subsurface drains and continuous ground-water levels collected from nearby observation wells. These data compared to the stream record demonstrate the quick response of subsurface drains and shallow ground-water to rainfall.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFM.H11B0762S
- Keywords:
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- 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- 1832 Groundwater transport;
- 1838 Infiltration;
- 1850 Overland flow