Spatially integrated water transport dynamics at the hillslope scale have rarely been observed directly, and underlying physical mechanisms of those dynamics are poorly understood. We present time‐variable transit time distributions and StorAge Selection (SAS) functions for a 28 days tracer experiment conducted at the Landscape Evolution Observatory, Biosphere 2, the University of Arizona, AZ, USA. The observed form of the SAS functions is concave, meaning that older water in the hillslope was preferentially discharged than younger water. The concavity is, in part, explained by the relative importance of advective and diffusive water dynamics and by the geomorphologic structure of the hillslopes. A simple numerical examination illustrates that, for straight plan‐shaped hillslopes, the saturated zone SAS function is concave when the hillslope Péclet (Pe) number is large (and thus when the advective water dynamics are more pronounced). We also investigated the effect of hillslope planform geometry on the saturated zone SAS function using a model and found that the more convergent the plan shape is, the more concave the SAS function is. A numerical examination indicates that the unsaturated zone SAS function is concave for straight and convergent hillslopes when the soil thickness is uniform. The concavity of those subcomponent SAS functions signifies that the hillslope scale SAS function is concave for straight or convergent plan shape hillslopes when the hillslope Pe number is high.
Spatially integrated transport models have been applied widely to model hydrologic transport. However, we lack simple and process‐based theoretical tools to predict the transport closures—transit time distributions (TTDs) and StorAge Selection (SAS) functions. This limits our ability to infer characteristics of hydrologic systems from tracer observations and to make first‐order estimates of SAS functions in catchments where no tracer data is available. Here we present a theoretical framework linking TTDs and SAS functions to hydraulic groundwater theory at the hillslope scale. For hillslopes where the saturated hydraulic conductivity declines exponentially with depth, analytical solutions for the closures are derived that can be used as hypotheses to test against data. In the simplest form, the hillslope SAS function resembles a uniform or exponential distribution (corresponding to flow pathways in the saturated zone) offset from zero by the storage in the unsaturated zone that does not contribute to discharge. The framework is validated against nine idealized virtual hillslopes constructed using a 2‐D Richards equation‐based model, and against data from tracer experiments in two artificial hillslopes. Modeled internal age, life expectancy, and transit time structures reproduce theoretical predictions. The experimental data also support the theory, though further work is needed to account for the effects of time‐variability. The shape and tailing of TTDs and their power spectra are discussed. The theoretical framework yields several dimensionless numbers that can be used to classify hillslope scale flow and transport dynamics and suggests distinct water age structures for high or low Hillslope number.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10445051
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Water Resources Research
- Volume:
- 58
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0043-1397
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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