Groundwater in the Boreal Plains: How Climate and Geology Interact to Control Water Table Configurations in a Sub-Humid, Low-Relief Region
Abstract
The Boreal Plain (BP) region of Canada, a landscape characterized by low-relief, a sub-humid climate and heterogeneous glacial landforms, is experiencing unprecedented anthropogenic and natural disturbance, including climate change and oil & gas operations. Understanding the controls on and the natural variability of water table position, and subsequently predicting changes in water table position under varying physical and climatic scenarios will become important as water security becomes increasingly threatened. The BP is composed of a mosaic of forestland, wetland, and aquatic land covers that contrast in dominant vegetation cover, evapotranspiration, and soil storage that, in turn, influence water table configurations. Additionally, these land-covers overlie heterogeneous glacial landforms with large contrasts in storage and hydraulic properties which, when coupled with wet-dry climate cycles, result in complex water table distributions in time and space. Several forestland-wetland-pond complexes were selected at the Utikuma Research Study Area (URSA) over three distinct surficial geologic materials (glacial fluvial outwash, stagnant ice moraine, lacustrine clay plain) to explore the roles of climate (cumulative departure from the long term yearly mean precipitation), geology, topographic position, and land cover on water table configurations over 15 years (2002 - 2016). In the absence of large groundwater flow systems, local relief and shallow low conductivity substrates promote the formation of near-surface water tables that are less susceptible to climate variation, regardless of topography. Furthermore, in areas of increased storage, wet and dry climate conditions can result in appreciably different water table configurations over time, ranging from mounds to hydraulic depressions, depending on the arrangement of land-covers, dominant surficial geology, and substrate layering.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.H13G1467H
- Keywords:
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- 1807 Climate impacts;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1875 Vadose zone;
- HYDROLOGY