Open AccessFreshwater floods drive salt into arid region aquifers
Author(s) -
Schultz Colin
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2011eo510011
Subject(s) - water table , aquifer , groundwater , arid , hydrology (agriculture) , flooding (psychology) , vadose zone , environmental science , salinity , soil salinity , surface water , geology , oceanography , environmental engineering , psychology , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , psychotherapist
For people living in arid ecosystems, groundwater replenished during seasonal flooding is typically their most important source of freshwater. Yet these same floods may also be responsible for temporarily increasing the salinity of the vital freshwater stores, a relationship shown for the austral summer flooding of the Kuiseb River in Namibia. Between 2006 and 2008, Amiaz et al. recorded the effect of 12 floods on soil water storage, groundwater electrical conductivity (a measure of salinity), and solute movement throughout various layers of the subsurface along the river. The researchers' primary concern was understanding how soluble salts residing in the vadose zone, the subsurface layer that lies between the groundwater table and the surface, make their way into the aquifer.