Geophysical Measurements to Determine the Hydrologic Partitioning of Snowmelt on a Snow-Dominated Subalpine Hillslope

Drew Thayer; Andrew D. Parsekian; Kevin Hyde; Heather Speckman; Dan Beverly; Brent Ewers; Matt Covalt; Nadia Fantello; Thijs Kelleners; Noriaki Ohara; Trent Rogers; W. Steven Holbrook

doi:10.1029/2017WR021324

Geophysical Measurements to Determine the Hydrologic Partitioning of Snowmelt on a Snow-Dominated Subalpine Hillslope

Drew Thayer
, Andrew D. Parsekian
, Kevin Hyde
, Heather Speckman
, Dan Beverly
, Brent Ewers
, Matt Covalt
, Nadia Fantello
, Thijs Kelleners
, Noriaki Ohara
, Trent Rogers
, W. Steven Holbrook

Montana Climate Office

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

In subalpine watersheds of the intermountain western United States, snowpack melt is the dominant water input to the hydrologic system. The primary focus of this work is to understand the partitioning of water from the snowpack during the snowmelt period and through the remainder of the growing season. We conducted a time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) study in conjunction with a water budget analysis to track water from the snow-on through snow-off season (May–August 2015). Seismic velocities provided an estimate of regolith thickness while transpiration measurements from sap flow in conifer trees provided insight into root water uptake. We observed four hydrologic process-periods and found that deep flow and tree water fluxes are the primary pathways through which water moves off of the hillslope. Overland flow and interflow were negligible. We observed temporal changes in vadose zone water content more than 3.0 m below the surface. Our results show that vertical flow through the thin soil mantle overlaying coarse colluvial regolith was the primary pathway to a local unconfined aquifer.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3788-3808
Number of pages	21
Journal	Water Resources Research
Volume	54
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR021324
State	Published - Jun 2018

Funding

We thank the Editors I. van Meervald and A. Binley, as well as J. Bradford and two anonymous reviewers for their comments that have substantially improved the quality of this manuscript. We thank the National Science Foundation for funding this research through EPSCoR Track I RII award 1208909. We are also grateful to the US Forest Service for permitting access to this research site. We thank numerous undergraduate and graduate students who assisted with field measurements. All data may be accessed on the WyCEHG data discovery tool at: http://wycehg.wygisc.org/or in the archived data set associated with this work (Parsekian et al.,). We thank the Editors I. van Meervald and A. Binley, as well as J. Bradford and two anonymous reviewers for their comments that have substantially improved the quality of this manuscript. We thank the National Science Foundation for funding this research through EPSCoR Track I RII award 1208909. We are also grateful to the US Forest Service for permitting access to this research site. We thank numerous undergraduate and graduate students who assisted with field measurements. All data may be accessed on the WyCEHG data discovery tool at: http://wycehg. wygisc.org/or in the archived data set associated with this work (Parsekian et al., 2017).

Funders	Funder number
1208909
U.S. Forest Service-Retired

Keywords

hillslope
hydrogeophysics

Access to Document

10.1029/2017WR021324

Cite this

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title = "Geophysical Measurements to Determine the Hydrologic Partitioning of Snowmelt on a Snow-Dominated Subalpine Hillslope",

abstract = "In subalpine watersheds of the intermountain western United States, snowpack melt is the dominant water input to the hydrologic system. The primary focus of this work is to understand the partitioning of water from the snowpack during the snowmelt period and through the remainder of the growing season. We conducted a time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) study in conjunction with a water budget analysis to track water from the snow-on through snow-off season (May–August 2015). Seismic velocities provided an estimate of regolith thickness while transpiration measurements from sap flow in conifer trees provided insight into root water uptake. We observed four hydrologic process-periods and found that deep flow and tree water fluxes are the primary pathways through which water moves off of the hillslope. Overland flow and interflow were negligible. We observed temporal changes in vadose zone water content more than 3.0 m below the surface. Our results show that vertical flow through the thin soil mantle overlaying coarse colluvial regolith was the primary pathway to a local unconfined aquifer.",

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AU - Thayer, Drew

AU - Parsekian, Andrew D.

AU - Hyde, Kevin

AU - Speckman, Heather

AU - Beverly, Dan

AU - Ewers, Brent

AU - Covalt, Matt

AU - Fantello, Nadia

AU - Kelleners, Thijs

AU - Ohara, Noriaki

AU - Rogers, Trent

AU - Holbrook, W. Steven

PY - 2018/6

Y1 - 2018/6

N2 - In subalpine watersheds of the intermountain western United States, snowpack melt is the dominant water input to the hydrologic system. The primary focus of this work is to understand the partitioning of water from the snowpack during the snowmelt period and through the remainder of the growing season. We conducted a time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) study in conjunction with a water budget analysis to track water from the snow-on through snow-off season (May–August 2015). Seismic velocities provided an estimate of regolith thickness while transpiration measurements from sap flow in conifer trees provided insight into root water uptake. We observed four hydrologic process-periods and found that deep flow and tree water fluxes are the primary pathways through which water moves off of the hillslope. Overland flow and interflow were negligible. We observed temporal changes in vadose zone water content more than 3.0 m below the surface. Our results show that vertical flow through the thin soil mantle overlaying coarse colluvial regolith was the primary pathway to a local unconfined aquifer.

AB - In subalpine watersheds of the intermountain western United States, snowpack melt is the dominant water input to the hydrologic system. The primary focus of this work is to understand the partitioning of water from the snowpack during the snowmelt period and through the remainder of the growing season. We conducted a time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) study in conjunction with a water budget analysis to track water from the snow-on through snow-off season (May–August 2015). Seismic velocities provided an estimate of regolith thickness while transpiration measurements from sap flow in conifer trees provided insight into root water uptake. We observed four hydrologic process-periods and found that deep flow and tree water fluxes are the primary pathways through which water moves off of the hillslope. Overland flow and interflow were negligible. We observed temporal changes in vadose zone water content more than 3.0 m below the surface. Our results show that vertical flow through the thin soil mantle overlaying coarse colluvial regolith was the primary pathway to a local unconfined aquifer.

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JF - Water Resources Research

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ER -

Geophysical Measurements to Determine the Hydrologic Partitioning of Snowmelt on a Snow-Dominated Subalpine Hillslope

Abstract

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Keywords

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