Back to Search
Start Over
Hyporheic hydraulic geometry: Conceptualizing relationships among hyporheic exchange, storage, and water age
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, Vol 17, Iss 1, p e0262080 (2022), PLoS ONE
- Publication Year :
- 2022
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2022.
-
Abstract
- Hyporheic exchange is now widely acknowledged as a key driver of ecosystem processes in many streams. Yet stream ecologists have been slow to adopt nuanced hydrologic frameworks developed and applied by engineers and hydrologists to describe the relationship between water storage, water age, and water balance in finite hydrosystems such as hyporheic zones. Here, in the context of hyporheic hydrology, we summarize a well-established mathematical framework useful for describing hyporheic hydrology, while also applying the framework heuristically to visualize the relationships between water age, rates of hyporheic exchange, and water volume within hyporheic zones. Building on this heuristic application, we discuss how improved accuracy in the conceptualization of hyporheic exchange can yield a deeper understanding of the role of the hyporheic zone in stream ecosystems. Although the equations presented here have been well-described for decades, our aim is to make the mathematical basis as accessible as possible and to encourage broader understanding among aquatic ecologists of the implications of tailed age distributions commonly observed in water discharged from and stored within hyporheic zones. Our quantitative description of “hyporheic hydraulic geometry,” associated visualizations, and discussion offer a nuanced and realistic understanding of hyporheic hydrology to aid in considering hyporheic exchange in the context of river and stream ecosystem science and management.
- Subjects :
- Science
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
Fluid Mechanics
Continuum Mechanics
Ecosystems
Rivers
Surface Water
Flooding
Limnology
Ecosystem
Flow Rate
Petrology
Freshwater Ecology
Sedimentary Geology
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Physics
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Biology and Life Sciences
Classical Mechanics
Aquatic Environments
Fluid Dynamics
Geology
Bodies of Water
Physical Sciences
Earth Sciences
Medicine
Sediment
Hydrology
Research Article
Freshwater Environments
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1bbcded9c71efc5e0fec08aa3b51f584