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Riparian Trees and Flow Paths between the Hyporheic Zone and Groundwater in the Oberer Seebach, Austria
Author(s) -
Wagner Franz Helmut,
Bretschko Gernot
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international review of hydrobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 1434-2944
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.200390009
Subject(s) - riparian zone , hyporheic zone , groundwater , hydrology (agriculture) , piezometer , environmental science , streams , context (archaeology) , bank , riparian forest , aquifer , geology , geomorphology , ecology , geotechnical engineering , computer network , paleontology , habitat , computer science , biology
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.