Response of an Intermountain Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystem to Water Table Drawdown

Response of vegetation and net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange at different peatland microforms following water table drawdown

[1] Northern peatlands are significant stocks of terrestrial soil carbon, and it has been predicted that warmer temperatures and lower water tables resulting from climate change will convert these ecosystems into sources for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, these predictions do not consider the potential for hydrologically induced ecological succession or the spatial variability of ca...

Ecohydrology of groundwater-dependent ecosystems: 1. Stochastic water table dynamics

[1] Areas with a relatively shallow water table are environments where the groundwater plays a key role on the ecosystem function, and important interactions exist between hydrology and ecosystem processes. We propose here an analytical model to study the interactions between rainfall, water table, and vegetation in groundwater-dependent ecosystems. The water table dynamics are studied as a ran...

Aquitard Effect on Drawdown in Water Table Aquifers

The Impact of Water Table Drawdown and Drying on Subterranean Aquatic Fauna in In-Vitro Experiments

The abstraction of groundwater is a global phenomenon that directly threatens groundwater ecosystems. Despite the global significance of this issue, the impact of groundwater abstraction and the lowering of groundwater tables on biota is poorly known. The aim of this study is to determine the impacts of groundwater drawdown in unconfined aquifers on the distribution of fauna close to the water ...

Effect of water table drawdown on northern peatland methane dynamics: Implications for climate change

[1] As natural sources of methane (CH4), peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Climate models predict that evapotranspiration will increase under a 2 CO2 scenario due to increased temperatures leading to lowered water tables at many northern latitudes. Given that the position of the water table within a peatland can have a large effect on CH4 emissions, climate change may...