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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Active Layer Groundwater Flow: The Interrelated Effects Of Stratigraphy, Thaw, And Topography, Michael T. O'Connor, M. Bayani Cardenas, Bethany T. Neilson, Kindra D. Nicholaides, George W. Kling
Active Layer Groundwater Flow: The Interrelated Effects Of Stratigraphy, Thaw, And Topography, Michael T. O'Connor, M. Bayani Cardenas, Bethany T. Neilson, Kindra D. Nicholaides, George W. Kling
Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications
The external drivers and internal controls of groundwater flow in the thawed “active layer” above permafrost are poorly constrained because they are dynamic and spatially variable. Understanding these controls is critical because groundwater can supply solutes such as dissolved organic matter to surface water bodies. We calculated steady‐state three‐dimensional suprapermafrost groundwater flow through the active layer using measurements of aquifer geometry, saturated thickness, and hydraulic properties collected from two major landscape types over time within a first‐order Arctic watershed. The depth position and thickness of the saturated zone is the dominant control of groundwater flow variability between sites and during …
Groundwater Flow And Exchange Across The Land Surface Explain Carbon Export Patterns In Continuous Permafrost Watersheds, Bethany T. Neilson, M. Bayani Cardenas, Michael T. O'Connor, Mitchell T. Rasmussen, Tyler V. King, George W. Kling
Groundwater Flow And Exchange Across The Land Surface Explain Carbon Export Patterns In Continuous Permafrost Watersheds, Bethany T. Neilson, M. Bayani Cardenas, Michael T. O'Connor, Mitchell T. Rasmussen, Tyler V. King, George W. Kling
Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications
Groundwater flow regimes in the seasonally thawed soils in areas of continuous permafrost are relatively unknown despite their potential role in delivering water, carbon, and nutrients to streams. Using numerical groundwater flow models informed by observations from a headwater catchment in arctic Alaska, United States, we identify several mechanisms that result in substantial surface‐subsurface water exchanges across the land surface during downslope transport and create a primary control on dissolved organic carbon loading to streams and rivers. The models indicate that surface water flowing downslope has a substantial groundwater component due to rapid surface‐subsurface exchanges across a range of hydrologic …