Combining Biological, Isotope and Geochemical Tracers to Improve Streamflow Generation Understanding - BIGSTREAM
Coordinating Institution:
CRP Gabriel Lippmann
Contracting Partner(s):
UNESCO-IHE, Delft (NL) ,
Oregon State University (USA)
From: 01/05/2010
To: 30/04/2012
Budget: 318,000.00€
Contact(s):
Pfister Laurent
Summary
Despite recent encouraging advances in geophysical and fiber optic approaches, the characterisation of fluxes and storages at hillslope and catchment scale remains considerably limited by lacking adequate measurement techniques. Progress is still constrained by tracer types (geochemical and isotopic) for determining the geographic source of water and the connectedness from certain parts of the catchment to the stream.
The BIGSTREAM project will address the fundamental research objective to investigate the potential of drift diatoms for streamflow generation studies. The project will also investigate the uncertainties in end member based estimates of water sources and quantify the potential of drift diatoms for identifying the on/off setting of surface runoff. In particular, the focus will be set on the application of drift diatoms for determining the connectivity between the aquatic, riparian and upland zones across different spatial and temporal scales.
If successful on the event scale, the project will have potential positive implications for applied issues related to both the European Water Framework and the European Flood directives. Besides its potential for gaining new knowledge on streamflow generation processes, eventually paving the way for advances in hydrological modelling, the project has major water quality assessment implications relative to eutrophication and organic pollution with diatoms as bioindicators within the study sites at the Attert watershed (Luxembourg) and HJ Andrews watershed in Oregon (USA).
The addition of the USA-based site offers a unique framework to greatly leverage exciting resources at this world-class long-term ecological research site and provide important opportunities for intercomparison exercises, data, technology and human resources exchanges, as well as increased international visibility. Experiments will focus at streamflow generation processes with similar innovative protocols in two contrasting climatic (humid temperate in Luxembourg and mediterranean in Oregon) and physiographic (mesozoic geology in Luxembourg and volcanic deposits in Oregon) environments.
With this intercomparison set-up, the BIGSTREAM project is a true contribution to a repeatedly advocated paradigm shift in recent literature. Hydrological science is to change its key questions from studying the idiosyncracies of ‘yet another catchment’ and reproducing individual responses of individual catchments (i.e. hydrograph mimicking) to the characterisation, interpretation and understanding of similarities and differences between catchments in different places. For tackling this challenge, the BIGSTREAM project is designed around a multidisciplinary and international consortium that collaborates at the interface between hydrological and ecological sciences and investigates how hydrological systems control and how they are controlled by ecological systems.
Refereed Scientific Publications
- L. Pfister, J.J. McDonnell, S. Wrede, D. Hlúbiková, P. Matgen, F. Fenicia, L. Ector, L. Hoffmann, 2009. The rivers are alive: on the potential for diatoms as a tracer of water source and hydrological connectivity. Hydrological Processes 23, 2841-2845
Other Publications
- L. Pfister, J. J. McDonnell, S. Wrede, D. Hlúbiková, P. Matgen, F. Fenicia, L. Ector, L. Hoffmann, 2009. Diatom tracing at the watershed scale: A new approach for assessing the geographic sources of water, Eos Trans. AGU, 90(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., H34E-07
Figure - Weilbach Streamgauge