Subsurface lateral flow generation in aspen and conifer-dominated hillslopes of a first order catchment in northern Utah

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1407-1417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy R. Burke ◽  
Tamao Kasahara
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus A. Hardie ◽  
Richard B. Doyle ◽  
William E. Cotching ◽  
Shaun Lisson

Development-perched watertables and subsurface lateral flows in texture-contrast soils (duplex) are commonly believed to occur as a consequence of the hydraulic discontinuity between the A and B soil horizons. However, in catchments containing shallow bedrock, subsurface lateral flows result from a combination of preferential flow from the soil surface to the soil—bedrock interface, undulations in the bedrock topography, lateral flow through macropore networks at the soil—bedrock interface, and the influence of antecedent soil moisture on macropore connectivity. Review of literature indicates that some of these processes may also be involved in the development of subsurface lateral flow in texture contrast soils. However, the extent to which these mechanisms can be applied to texture contrast soils requires further field studies. Improved process understanding is required for modelling subsurface lateral flows in order to improve the management of waterlogging, drainage, salinity, and offsite agrochemicals movement.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 3153-3170 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Zhang ◽  
J. L. Tang ◽  
Ch. Gao ◽  
H. Zepp

Abstract. Subsurface lateral flow from agricultural hillslopes is often overlooked compared with overland flow and tile drain flow, partly due to the difficulties in monitoring and quantifying. The objectives of this study were to examine how subsurface lateral flow generated through soil pedons from cropped hillslopes and to quantify its contribution to nitrate loading in the streams through an agricultural catchment in the subtropical region of China. Profiles of soil water potential along hillslopes and stream hydro-chemographs in a trenched stream below a cropped hillslope and at the catchment outlet were simultaneously recorded during two rainstorm events. The dynamics of soil water potential showed positive matrix soil water potential over impermeable soil layer at 0.6 to 1.50 m depths during and after the storms, indicating soil water saturation and drainage processes along the hillslopes irrespective of land uses. The hydro-chemographs in the streams, one trenched below a cropped hillslope and one at the catchment outlet, showed that the concentrations of particulate nitrogen and phosphorus corresponded well to stream flow during the storm, while the nitrate concentration increased on the recession limbs of the hydrographs after the end of the storm. All the synchronous data revealed that nitrate was delivered from the cropped hillslope through subsurface lateral flow to the streams during and after the end of the rainstorms. A chemical mixing model based on electricity conductivity (EC) and H+ concentration was successfully established, particularly for the trenched stream. The results showed that the subsurface lateral flow accounted for 29% to 45% of total stream flow in the trenched stream, responsible for 86% of total NO3−-N loss (or 26% of total N loss), and for 5.7% to 7.3% of total stream flow at the catchment outlet, responsible for about 69% of total NO3−-N loss (or 28% of total N loss). The results suggest that subsurface lateral flow through hydraulically stratified soil pedons have to be paid more attention for controlling non-point source surface water pollution from intensive agricultural catchment particularly in the subtropical areas with great soil infiltration.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqing Li ◽  
Zuhao Zhou ◽  
Kang Wang ◽  
Chongyu Xu

Flow and transport processes in soil and rock play a critical role in agricultural non-point source pollution (ANPS) loads. In this study, we investigated the ANPS load discharged into rivers from an irrigation district in the Tibetan Plateau and simulated ANPS load using a distributed model. Experiments were conducted for two years to measure soil water content and nitrogen concentrations in soil and the quality and quantity of subsurface lateral flow in the rock and at the drainage canal outlet during the highland barley growing period. A distributed model, in which the subsurface lateral flow in the rock was described using a stepwise method, was developed to simulate flow and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) transport processes. Sobol’s method was used to evaluate the sensitivity of simulated flow and transport processes to the model inputs. The results showed that with a 21.2% increase of rainfall and irrigation in the highland barley growing period, the average NH4+-N and NO3−-N concentrations in the soil layer decreased by 10.8% and 14.3%, respectively, due to increased deep seepage. Deep seepage of rainfall water accounted for 0–52.4% of total rainfall, whereas deep seepage of irrigation water accounted for 36.6–45.3% of total irrigation. NH4+-N and NO3−-N discharged into the drainage canal represented 19.9–30.4% and 19.4–26.7% of the deep seepage, respectively. The mean Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient value, which was close to 0.8, and the lowest values of root mean square errors, the fraction bias, and the fractional gross error indicated that the simulated flow rates and nitrogen concentrations using the proposed method were very accurate. The Sobol’s sensitivity analysis results demonstrated that subsurface lateral flow had the most important first-order and total-order effect on the simulated flow and NH4+-N and NO3−-N concentrations at the surface drainage outlet.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhan Zeng ◽  
Xing Yuan ◽  
Peng Ji

<p>Due to the land surface complexity, soil moisture immensely varies both spatially and temporally. However, the combined effects of land surface complexity and key hydrological processes (e.g., subsurface lateral flow) on fine-scale soil moisture heterogeneity remain elusive due to the scarcity of observations. Benefit from improvements in hyper-resolution land surface modeling, it provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the fine-scale soil moisture heterogeneity over a large region. Here, we use the Conjunctive Surface-Subsurface Process model version 2 (CSSPv2), which considers subsurface lateral flow, to perform hyperresolution (100-m) simulations over ten selected regions with different climate. We find that the heterogeneities of vegetation, soil texture, precipitation or their combinations increase soil moisture heterogeneity significantly (p<0.01). If only the topography heterogeneity presents, subsurface lateral flow increases the soil moisture heterogeneity significantly (p<0.01). However, the effect of subsurface lateral flow has been reduced by combining topography heterogeneity with other surface heterogeneities, with a few regions showing decreased soil moisture heterogeneity mainly because of the combined effect of subsurface lateral flow and soil texture heterogeneity. This study suggests that soil texture heterogeneity does not necessarily interact synergistically with physical processes (e.g., subsurface lateral flow) for increasing soil moisture heterogeneity, although they can increase the heterogeneity separately.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 4151-4193 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tang ◽  
B. Zhang ◽  
C. Gao ◽  
H. Zepp

Abstract. Compared with overland flow from agricultural hillslopes, subsurface lateral flow is often overlooked partly due to monitoring difficulties and the lack of quantitative identification its role in nutrient delivery to surface water. The objectives of this study were to examine how subsurface lateral flow generates from hillslopes to streams and to quantify its contribution to nutrient loading in streams. Hillslope hydrology and stream hydrology were simultaneously monitored during two typical storms and subsurface flow was separated by chemical mixing model. Positive soil water potential at the soil depths from 0.60 to 1.50 m was observed at the middle course of the storm events, suggesting soil water was saturated following the storms and the drained after the end of the storms. The hydro-chemographs in the stream in a trench below a hillslope showed that suspended sediment, particulate N and P were dominant in the stream during the storms, while after the end of the rainstorms the nitrate concentration and electricity conductivity (EC) in the stream increased with time on the recession limbs of the hydrographs. Meanwhile, a rebound or delayed curve appeared on the recession limbs for several hours immediately after the end of rainstorms. All the synchronous data confirmed nitrate was delivered from the hillslope through subsurface lateral flow to the streams even after the end of rainstorms. A chemical mixing model based on EC and pH showed that the subsurface lateral flow during the rainstorm events accounted for 29% to 45% of the stream flow and about 86% of total NO3−-N loss (or 26% of total N loss) from the peanut hillslope and for 5.7% to 7.3% of the stream flow about 69% of total NO3−-N loss (or 28% of total N loss) from the catchment outlet. The results suggest that subsurface lateral flow generated within a shallow soil profile have to be paid more attention for controlling non-point source surface water pollution from intensive agricultural catchment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 170142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Nyquist ◽  
Laura Toran ◽  
Lacey Pitman ◽  
Li Guo ◽  
Henry Lin

Author(s):  
Yuqing Li ◽  
Zuhao Zhou ◽  
Kang Wang ◽  
Chongyu Xu

Flow and transport processes in soil and rock play a critical role in agricultural non-point source pollution (ANSP) loads. In this study, we investigated the ANPS load discharged into rivers from an irrigation district in the Tibetan Plateau, and simulated ANPS load using a distributed model involving detailed descriptions of flow and ANPS transport and transformation processes in the soil and rock. Experiments were conducted for two years to measure soil water content and nitrogen concentrations and the quality and quantity of lateral flow in the rock and at the drainage canal outlet during the highland barley growing period. A distributed model, in which the subsurface lateral flow was described using a step-wise method, was developed to simulate flow and ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen transport. Sobol’s method was used to evaluate the sensitivity of simulated flow and transport processes to model inputs. The results showed that, with a 21.2% increase of rainfall and irrigation in the highland barley growing period, the average NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations in the soil layer decreased by 10.8% and 14.3%, respectively, due to increased deep seepage. Deep seepage of rainfall water accounted for 0–52.4% of total rainfall, whereas deep seepage of irrigation water accounted for 36.6–45.3% of total irrigation. NH4+-N and NO3--N discharged into the drainage channel represented 19.9–30.4% and 19.4–26.7% of the deep seepage, respectively. The mean Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients, root mean square errors, and cumulative deviations between the measured and simulated flow rates and NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations at the surface drainage canal outlet were 0.694, 0.081, and 0.242, respectively, indicating that the proposed method can effectively describe the hydrological and ANPS pollution migration in the plateau irrigation zone. The Sobol’ sensitivity analysis results demonstrated that subsurface lateral flow had the most important first order and total effect on the simulated flow and NH4+-N and NO3--N concentrations at the surface drainage outlet.


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