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Abstract Streambed biogeochemical processes strongly influence riverine water quality and gaseous emissions. These processes depend largely on flow paths through the hyporheic zone (HZ), the streambed volume saturated with stream water. Boulders and other macroroughness elements are known to induce hyporheic flows in gravel‐bed streams. However, data quantifying the impact of these elements on hyporheic chemistry are lacking. We demonstrate that, in gravel‐bed rivers, the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the bed depends chiefly on changes in bed shape, or morphology, such as the formation of scour and depositional areas, caused by the boulders, among other factors. The study was conducted by comparing DO distributions across different bed states and hydraulic conditions. Our experimental facility replicates conditions observed in natural gravel‐bed streams. We instrumented a section in the bed with DO sensors. Results generally indicate that boulder placement on planar beds has some effects, which are significant at high base flows, on increasing hyporheic oxygen amount compared to the planar case without boulders. Conversely, boulder‐induced morphological changes noticeably and significantly increase the amount of oxygen in the HZ, with the increase depending on sediment inputs during flood flows able to mobilize the sediment. Therefore, streambeds of natural, plane‐bed streams may have deeper oxic zones than previously thought because the presence of boulders and the occurrence of flood flows with varying sediment inputs induce streambed variations among these elements.
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Toward a Universal Model of Hyporheic Exchange and Nutrient Cycling in Streams
Abstract In this paper we demonstrate that several ubiquitous hyporheic exchange mechanisms can be represented simply as a one‐dimensional diffusion process, where the diffusivity decays exponentially with depth into the streambed. Based on a meta‐analysis of 106 previously published laboratory measurements of hyporheic exchange (capturing a range of bed morphologies, hydraulic conditions, streambed properties, and experimental approaches) we find that the reference diffusivity and mixing length‐scale are functions of the permeability Reynolds Number and Schmidt Number. These dimensionless numbers, in turn, can be estimated for a particular stream from the median grain size of the streambed and the stream's depth, slope, and temperature. Application of these results to a seminal study of nitrate removal in 72 headwater streams across the United States, reveals: (a) streams draining urban and agricultural landscapes have a diminished capacity for in‐stream and in‐bed mixing along with smaller subsurface storage zones compared to streams draining reference landscapes; (b) under steady‐state conditions nitrate uptake in the streambed is primarily biologically controlled; and (c) median reaction timescales for nitrate removal in the hyporheic zone are 0.5 and 20 hr for uptake by assimilation and denitrification, respectively. While further research is needed, the simplicity and extensibility of the framework described here should facilitate cross‐disciplinary discussions and inform reach‐scale studies of pollutant fate and transport and their scale‐up to watersheds and beyond.
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- PAR ID:
- 10634565
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Geophysical Union
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- AGU Advances
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 2576-604X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001373
