Perspectives on the Hyporheic Zone: Integrating Hydrology and Biology. Concluding Remarks Author(s):

Hyporheic zone research is an area of rapidly growing interest in stream ecology. Several key points have emerged as important for consideration of future research in the hyporheic zone. Hyporheic researchers need to outline explicitly the spatial scale of their own research, from single sampling locations to entire catchments, and how research at this examined scale relates to finer or larger scaled processes. Spatial and temporal scale considerations are also important when planning sampling and experimental manipulations of hyporheic processes. Stream researchers need to examine the importance of the hyporheic zone as a boundary or ecotone that potentially controls or contributes to surface water and groundwater ecosystem dynamics. Inclusion of hydrologic considerations in the research design and analysis of hyporheic processes is a promising approach that will help elevate hyporheic research from a descriptive science to a predictive one, and may help to make future cross-system comparisons possible.