It has been widely documented that municipal wastewater treatment plant effluents are a major source of artificial sweeteners to surface waters. However, in rural areas, the extent to which septic systems contribute these same compounds to groundwater aquifers is largely unknown. We examined the occurrence of four commonly used artificial sweeteners in an unconfined sand aquifer that serves as ...

A qualitative and quantitative monitoring of groundwater discharge was conducted based on an airborne thermal campaign undertaken along the north-western coast of the Dead Sea in January 2011 to contribute to the relatively scarce information on groundwater discharge to date in the region. The application of airborne thermal data exploits thermal contrasts that exist between discharging groundw...

A good quantitative understanding of phosphorus (P) delivery is essential in the design of management strategies to prevent eutrophication of terrestrial freshwaters. Most research to date has focussed on surface and near-surface hydrological pathways, under the common assumption that little P leaches to groundwater. Here we present an analysis of national patterns of groundwater phosphate conc...

Due to its high activities in groundwater, the radionuclide 222Rn is a sensitive natural tracer to detect and quantify groundwater inflow into lakes, provided the comparatively low activities in the lakes can be measured accurately. Here we present a simple method for radon measurements in the low-level range down to 3 Bq m−3, appropriate for groundwater-influenced lakes, together with a concep...

We present a new method to characterize and quantify groundwater discharge to estuaries and the coastal ocean. Using data from the Pages Creek estuary in the Cape Fear region of southeastern North Carolina, we show that the concentration and carbon isotopic composition (D14C and d13C values) of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) can provide a tracer of a single, well-defined component of the surf...

The Pearl River Delta (PRD), located in the coastal area of South China, contains a large confined Quaternary aquifer. This aquifer has been identified to have high concentrations of total dissolved solids–ranging from 1 g/l in the inland area to 26.8 g/l near the southeast shoreline. This work aims to investigate the origin of groundwater salinity and the major hydrogeochemical processes contr...

Groundwater plays an important role in coastal regions by delivering freshwater and nutrients to near shore and salt marsh environments. To quantify groundwater flow, salinity, temperature and pressure, sensors were installed in shallow piezometers along a transect behind Blackbeard Island, GA. Located approximately 90 m from the nearest tidal creek, the transect reaches from a back barrier isl...

In the present study, the stable isotopes υ18O and υ2H were used for assessment of the water balance in a heterogeneously structured catchment area in the Lusatian Lignite Mining District, in particular, for estimation of the annual groundwater inflow and outflow (IGW and OGW) of Mining Lake Plessa 117. The application of stable isotopes was possible since the water exchange in the catchment ar...

One of the largest karst springs in North China, the Jinci Springs, dried up and has remained dry since 1994. We develop a correlation analysis with time-lag and a regression analysis with time-lag to study the relation between spring flow and precipitation. This allows us to obtain a better understanding of karst hydrological processes by differentiating the contribution of variation in precip...