Riparian Trees and Flow Paths between the Hyporheic Zone and Groundwater in the Oberer Seebach, Austria

✍ Scribed by Franz Helmut Wagner; Gernot Bretschko

• Book ID: 102870228
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 656 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.200390009

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We investigated lateral subsurface water exchange in a 2^nd^ order mountain stream with a piezometer method. At both banks the stream hyporheic zone lost water to the riparian groundwater zone. Independently, the hydraulic heads at three sites in the streambed and in the riparian zone exhibited periodic, diurnal fluctuations. We attributed them to water consumption by the riparian trees, as solar radiation explained part of this additional variation.

Our results demonstrate that subsurface water exchanges take place between the hyporheic zone and lateral riparian groundwater in spatially defined small‐scale flow paths. These small‐scale interactions occur within the context of large‐scale patterns of loss and gain of channel water.