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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Water Quality and Ecology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #201068
Title: Hyporheic and Total Transient Storage in Small Sand-Bed Streams

Author
item STOFLETH, J - PWA LTD
item Shields Jr, Fletcher
item FOX, GAREY - OKLAHOMA STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Hydrological Processes
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/5/2007
Publication Date: 6/15/2008
Citation: Stofleth, J.M., Shields Jr, F.D., Fox, G.A. 2008. Hyporheic and Total Transient Storage in Small Sand-Bed Streams. Hydrological Processes. 22:1885-1894.

Interpretive Summary: The fate of contaminants in streams is influenced by detours of surface flow through surface and subsurface storage zones, but measurements of this phenomenon are mainly from steep streams with beds of boulders, cobble or gravel. A series of measurements were conducted in two small, incised sandy streams, and the resulting data were used to compute parameters that describe the interaction between surface flow and subsurface zones. Subsurface flow storage had an insignificant impact on surface flow, but the presence of flow obstructions like beaver dams greatly increased surface storage. These results highlight basic differences between coarse-bedded mountain streams and those more typical of agricultural landscapes, and will be useful to scientists studying such streams.

Technical Abstract: Key processes in stream ecosystems are linked to hydraulic retention, which is the departure of stream flow from ideal “plug flow,” and reflects fluid movement through surface and hyporheic storage zones. Most existing information about hyporheic exchange is based on flume studies or field measurements in relatively steep streams with beds coarser than sand. Stream tracer studies may be used to quantify overall hydraulic retention, but disaggregation of surface and hyporheic retention remains difficult. A stream tracer approach was used to compute the rates at which stream water is exchanged with water in storage zones (total storage) in short reaches of two small, sand-bed streams. Tracer curves were fit to the one-dimensional transport with inflow storage (OTIS-P) model. Networks of minipiezometers were used to measure hyporheic exchange potential. In the sand bed streams studied, parameters describing total retention were in the upper 50% of data compiled from the literature, most of which represented streams with beds coarser than sand. However, hyporheic storage was an insignificant component of total hydraulic retention, representing only 0.01% to 0.49% of total exchange and this fraction did not increase after installation of flow obstructions. Total retention did not vary systematically with bed material size, but increased 50-100% following flow obstruction. Removal of roughness elements such as large wood and debris dams is detrimental to processes dependent upon transient storage in small, sand bed streams.