Landscape Hydrology Laboratory

HYDROLOGY + HUMANS

what’s next? coming attractions… [March 2017]

What work have we recently completed, but is not yet published? I was inspired to develop this list when in March 2017 we set an internal group record for papers actively in review at peer-reviewed journals: 12. So here I list all of our papers in review (and in press) that hopefully will be published soon. The information for each paper includes a brief description of the main points.

humans + hydrology

1. Okraku TK, Vacca R, Jawitz JW, and McCarty C, 2017. Identity and publication in non-university settings: Academic co-authorship and collaboration, Scientometrics, In press [submitted September 2016]

‘Identify’ was the 2015 Dictionary.com word of the year. How do scientists working in non-academic settings identify? How are scientific innovations transferred from academia to practitioners? Based on surveys of published authors as well as bibliometric analyses, we concluded that authors of scientific publications, regardless of what type of organization they are employed in, identify as academics. Thus, our perception of ‘academic’ vs ‘non-academic’ should be broadened and re-defined.

2. McCurley KL, and Jawitz JW, 2017. Hyphenated hydrology: Multidisciplinary evolution of water resource science, Water Resources Research, In press [submitted September 2016].

Modern water resource related questions have forced adaptation from exclusively physical or engineering science viewpoints toward a deliberate interdisciplinary context. We analyzed the frequency of word usage in 16,591 water resources journal article titles from 1965-2015. Our results revealed the dynamic timing of the lateral movement of hydrology across multiple disciplines as well as the deepening of scientific discourse with respect to traditional hydrologic questions. Formerly exotic disciplines can potentially modify hydrology, prompting new insights and inspiring unconventional perspectives on old questions that may have otherwise become obsolete.

3. Fang Y, and Jawitz JW, 2017. Human population distribution in the conterminous United States: High resolution reconstruction 1790-2010, Palgrave Communications, In review [submitted November 2016].

Where do people live, and how has this changed over timescales of centuries? This study generated 1-km population maps for the conterminous US from 1790 to 2010, using a parsimonious model based on natural suitability, socioeconomic desirability, and inhabitability. This work demonstrated the feasibility of historical population reconstruction and downscaling using urban and rural population data together with area-population scaling relationships.

water quality [catchments + aquifers]

4. Yang M, Annable MD, and Jawitz JW, 2017. Forward and back diffusion through argillaceous formations, Water Resources Research, In review [submitted October 2016].

The exchange of solutes between aquifers and lower-permeability formations is of considerable interest for solute and contaminant fate and transport. We present a synthesis of analytical solutions for solute diffusion between aquifers and single aquitard systems, validated in well-controlled experiments, and applied to several datasets from laboratory and field-scale problems. Dimensionless diffusion length scales were used to illustrate the transferability of these relatively simple models to physical systems with dimensions that spanned 10 orders of magnitude.

5. Klammler H, Jawitz JW, Annable, MD, Yaquian JA, Hatfield K, and Burger P, 2017. Large aquifer storage changes due to saltwater interaction affect groundwater balances over decades, Geophysical Research Letters, in review [submitted November 2016].

We present the hypothesis that the dynamic interaction between fresh groundwater and underlying saltwater represents a large hidden aquifer storage mechanism, which may cause significant time lags in long-term trends between recharge, storage and discharge. We demonstrate the presence of such a time lag and its effect on water budget calculations with data from a major karst spring in Florida. Long-term trends in precipitation are known to occur in many regions of the world, and we expect our findings to have direct relevance for coastal aquifers at a global scale.

6. Musolff A, Fleckenstein J, Rao PSC, and Jawitz JW, 2017. Emergent archetype patterns of coupled hydrologic and biogeochemical responses in catchments, Geophysical Research Letters, In review [submitted January 2017].

We combine a synthesis of observational records with a stochastic modeling approach to test whether observed concentration-discharge patterns arise from spatial heterogeneity in solute sources within the catchments. We found solute source heterogeneity to be the dominant driver of emergent archetypical C-Q patterns (dilution, enrichment, and constant). However, regardless of the C-Q pattern, the predominant solute export regime was chemostatic, implying that the variance in exported loads is determined primarily by variance of Q rather than that of C. Our findings suggest that strategies to improve water quality and to recover ecological integrity in streams should lead away from source homogenization in intensely managed catchments.

7. Yang M, Annable MD, Jawitz JW, 2017. Field-scale forward and back diffusion through low-permeability zones, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, In review [submitted February 2017].

We modeled field-scale exchange of solutes between high- and low-permeability zones in aquifers. We combine aquifer and aquitard data to develop recommended site characterization strategies using a three-stage classification of plume life cycle based on the solute origins: aquifer source zone dissolution, source zone dissolution combined with back diffusion from an aquitard, and only back diffusion. We use measured aquitard concentration profile data from three field sites to identify signature shapes that are characteristic of these three stages.

8. Dupas R, Musolff A, Jawitz JW, Rao PSC, Jäger CG, Fleckenstein JH, Rode M, and Borchardt D, 2017. Carbon and nutrient export regimes from headwater catchments to downstream reaches, Biogeosciences, In review [submitted March 2017].

We evaluated the spatial and temporal variability of solute concentrations at the catchment scale in the Selke (Germany) river continuum from headwaters to downstream reaches. The observed dynamics were interpreted as the result of the interplay of hydrological and biogeochemical processes, for which riparian zones were hypothesized to play a determining role. Monitoring the river continuum from headwaters to downstream reaches proved effective to investigate jointly land-to-stream and in-stream transport and transformation processes.

wetlandscapes

9. Thorslund J, Jarsjö J, Jaramillo F, Jawitz JW, Manzoni S, Basu NB, Chalov S, Cohen MJ, Creed IF, Goldenberg R, Hylin A, Kalantari Z, Koussis A, Lyon S, Mazi K, Mård J, Persson K, Pietroń J, Prieto C, Quin A, Van Meter K, and Destouni G, 2017. Global change impacts on wetlandscape functions and services– do we know them? Science of the Total Environment, In review [submitted October 2016].

The trajectories and extent of the global change impacts across wetland ecosystems is still an open research question. We argue for an urgent research shift, from the traditional focus on the scale of individual wetlands to the large-scale functioning of entire landscape-catchment systems with multiple wetlands, hereafter referred to as wetlandscapes.

10. Creed IF, Lane CR, Serran JN, Alexander L, Basu NB, Calhoun AJK, Cohen MJ, Craft C, D’Amico E, DeKeyser E, Fowler L, Golden HE, Jawitz JW, Kalla P, Kirkman LK, Lang M, Leibowitz SG, Lewis DB, Marton J, McLaughlin DL, Raanan-Kiperwas H, Rains MC, Rains KC, and Smith L, 2017. Enhancing protection for vulnerable waters, Nature Geoscience, In review [submitted January 2017].

Governments worldwide do not adequately protect their limited freshwater systems, and therefore place at risk their functions and attendant ecosystem services. The best available science compels enhanced protections for freshwater systems, especially impermanent streams and wetlands outside of floodplains that are particularly vulnerable to alteration or removal. We provide scientific rationale for government authorities at all jurisdictional levels to meaningfully enhance protection of these vulnerable waters.

11. Bertassello LE, Rao PSC, Park J, Jawitz JW, and Botter G, 2017. Stochastic modeling of wetland-groundwater complexes, Advances in Water Resources, In review [submitted January 2017].

We derived analytical pdfs for the hydrologic dynamics of geographically isolated wetlands that interact with shallow groundwater. Our analyses show that it is crucial to account for shallow groundwater connectivity to fully understand the hydrologic dynamics in wetlands, and the findings have significant applications to ecohydrology of wetlands under different climate and geomorphologic conditions.

12. Acharya S, Kaplan DA, Jawitz JW, and Cohen MJ, 2017. Doing ecohydrology backward: Inferring historical Everglades flow from landscape patterns, Water Resources Research, In review [submitted February 2017].

In response to landscape compartmentalization and diminished flows over the last century, the ridge and slough landscape in the Everglades has changed dramatically. Using peat soil elevation data coupled with ecohydrologic modeling, we found that feedbacks between vegetation pattern, flow, and hydroperiod regulate landscape pattern formation. We find that to sustain the desired landscape characteristics, inferred from anecdotal pre-development observations, boundary flows would need to be three to four times greater than today, which are at the upper bound of plausible based on extant hydroclimatic alteration.

13. Jaramillo F, Licero L, Guittard A, Åhlen I, Rodríguez-Rodríguez JA, Bolaños J, Manzoni S, Jawitz JW, Wdowinski S, Martínez O, and Espinosa LF, 2017. Climatic and human drivers of salinity change and contribution to post-mortality mangrove recovery, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, In review [submitted February 2017].

We report on more than 23 years of post-mortality mangrove recovery in the 4280-km2 Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia. We found that El Niño/Southern Oscillation explained much of the variability in salinity by regulating freshwater input through the two main contributing rivers. However, persistent channel dredging restoration operations caused the largest changes in salinity and mangrove recovery, whereas lack of persistent dredging yielded a slow recovery in other areas. We emphasize the necessity of understanding the hydrology of the CGSM as a base for future restoration programs.

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