ISSN:
1573-8590
Keywords:
hyporheic cone
;
saline stream water
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Geography
Notes:
Abstract Many streams in Westrn Australia are naturally saline. In others, especially in the south-western corner, land-clearance and other human activities in the catchment have accelerated rates of salinisation of surface and groundwater. Trends in surface water salinity are well-documented but the extent of penetration of saline stream water into the sediments has been little studied. As many of these streams have porous sandy beds and their flows may derive from groundwater, hydrologic exchange patterns between surface water and subsurface hyporheic water were hypothesised to govern the water chemistry of such rivers. We predicted high rates of hydraulic conductivity, leading to a close relationship between surface and subsurface (to a depth of 50 cm) salinity, and to a lesser extent, pH and dissolved oxygen. Where surface and hyporheic water differed in salinity, other chemical differences were hypothesised to be similarly marked, perhaps resulting from disjunct shallow subsurface aquifers. Triplicate wells were sampled from upwelling and downwelling zones of thirteen streams ranging in salinity from ca. 0.2 to 18 g L−1. Despite the seemingly-porous sandy beds at many sites, subsurface water chemistry only 20–40 cm below the bed sometimes differed markedly from surface water. For example, hyporheic water was only one-fifth the salinity of surface water at some saline sites (e.g., the Tone River) or 20 per cent more saline in streams with fresh surface water (e.g., the Weld River). At some sites of intermediate salinity (e.g., the Warren River), subsurface water was up to three times fresher than surface or downwelling water. Percentage saturation of dissolved oxygen in the hyporheic water was consistently low (〈40%) whereas pH was more acidic than surface water, presumably due to microbial activity. Vertical hydraulic conductivity may be limited by layers of fine sediments and clays, implying that the meso-scale (1–100 cm) hydrological dynamics within the hyporheic zones of these rivers are more complex than their sandy beds would indicate. Assumptions of ecosystem dynamics in saline streams must be tempered by an understanding of hyporheic salinities as subsurface fresher water may support microbial and faunal assemblages excluded from the surface benthos by high salinity. In saline streams, as in fresh ones, the hyporheic zone is an important component of the stream ecosystem and equally prone to disruption by human activities.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02442121
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