Critical Zone Water Storage in Andean Bofedales

Humid puna grasslands of the Peruvian Andes are home to low gradient peat forming wetlands known as bofedales. Bofedales cover 11.6% of the Upper Ramuschaka Watershed (URW), a puna dominated catchment that supplies most of the water for the rural agricultural community of Zurite in the region of Cusco, yet the exact contribution of bofedales to current and future water resources in unknown. Here, we apply a hydrologic model to calculate dynamic storage using 4 years of rainfall and runoff data in the URW. We combine our model results with spatially distributed measurements of discharge and stable isotope compositions to determine the relative proportions of water generated from bedrock aquifers and the shallow aquifers in the bofedales. Our results show the connection between bedrock aquifers and wetlands aquifers and highlight the importance of bofedales in sustaining streamflow during the long dry season.