Suwannee River Basin Hydrologic Observatory Hypothesis Development and Core Data Requirements Januar

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Suwannee River BasinHydrologic Observatory
Hypothesis Development and Core Data
RequirementsJanuary 10, 2005
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Suwannee Relevance

• Largely undeveloped
• Can study and experiment with ongoing development
• Biological, physical, climatalogical and chemical
  end-member
• Good place to start for national benchmarking
• Three distinct hydrologic zones
• Some poorly studied (karstic aquifers) and some
  strongly vulnerable (headwater wetalnds and
  streams)
• Substantial existing data, institutional
  resources to leverage and ongoing extramural
  research focus
• Exemplar of problems typical elsewhere

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Outline

• Science Questions
• Core Data Needed
• Resources Needed
• Subcommittees

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Development of Hypotheses

• Based on questionnaires from
• Yeh, George (UCF)
• Raines, Mark (USF)
• Mitsch, Bill (OSU)
• Annable, Mike (EES UF)
• Triplett, Eric (Microbiology UF)
• Welsh, Pat (UNF)
• Grunwald, Sabine (SWS UF)
• Sheng, Y. Peter (Coastal UF)
• Jawitz, Jim (SWS UF)
• James, Andy (SWS UF)
• Sickman, Jim (SWS UF)
• Lindberg, Bill (Fisheries UF)
• Chanton, Jeff (FSU)
• Graham, Wendy (ABE UF)

• Delfino, Joe (3) (EES UF)
• Cruz, Sarah (USF)
• Zimmerman, Andy (Geol. UF)
• Martin, Jon (Geol. UF)
• Judge, Jasmeet (ABE UF)
• Screaton, Liz (Geol. UF)
• Fuelberg, Henry (Meteor. FSU)
• Mahon, Gary (USGS)
• Bosch, David (USDA ARS)
• Lanier, Joel (NWS Tallahassee)
• Katz, Brian (USGS)
• Cherrier, Jennifer (FAMU)
• Chasar, Lia (USGS)
• Cohen, Matt (SWS UF)

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Major Themes

• 5 Science Topics
• Linking Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Cycles
• Hydrologic Extremes
• Sustainability of Water Resources
• Transport and Fate of Chemical and Biological
  Contaminants
• Hydrological Influence on Ecosystem Function
• Modeling
• Integrate scientific information into predictive
  simulations
• No benchmark for patterns in unregulated rivers
  exists

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Theme 1 Linking Hydrologic and Biogeochemical
Cycles

• Summary
• In this watershed, the role of a karst
  environment on lengthening water flow paths and
  increasing the biogeochemical connectivity
  between surface waters and the subsurface
  substrate may modulate/delay the effects of land
  use change.
• Questions range from the influence of hydrologic
  variability on water chemistry, OM cycling at
  various scales, the role of headwater systems and
  riparian wetlands on basin biogeochemistry,
  mapping and monitoring of terrestrial and aquatic
  soils/sediments for indicators of watershed
  change, and examining thresholds to change.

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Theme 1 Linking Hydrologic and Biogeochemical
Cycles (contd)

• Detailed Questions
• diffs in surface and groundwater chem as natural
  source tracer
• water-rock interaction affects water chemistry
• variability in submarine groundwater discharge
  (SGD) and the two-part delivery system on
  nutrient chemistry in near-shore ecosystems
• human-induced effects on fast and slow processes
  predict sensitivity
• natural stable and radio-isotope studies (DOC, N,
  P)
• role of vulnerable waters on quantity/quality/ec
  ology
• role of headwater and midwater wetlands
• riparian soils and river sediments to indicate
  watershed condition
• relative role of surface / subsurface processes
  for attenuation of N and P
• hydrologic regimes affect the vulnerability to
  human-induced change
• loading source position in the basin affect
  basin-scale export
• rate and scale of auto-purification processes in
  the basin
• thresholds in LU intensity that lead to changes
  in ecosystem behavior
• major sources of DOC in basin and variability due
  to flow changes
• LU and C cycling, major C pools, affects of
  hydrologic regimes on fluxes
• improve large river monitoring programs
• perched aquifers control hydrological and
  biogeochemical processes in wetlands and rivers

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Theme 2 Hydrologic Extremes

• Summary
• What is the role of these events on
  hydrogeochemical processes (transport, aquifer
  recharge freshwater discharge to Gulf ecosystems)
  and the variability of these effects in different
  regions of the basin. How influential are these
  events?
• Can improved hydrologic monitoring/modeling make
  predictions of flood stage/duration/timing more
  accurate?

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Theme 2 Hydrologic Extremes (contd)

• Detailed Questions
• influence of are large events on chemical
  transport, aquifer recharge, and ecosystem
  organization
• influence of flood/drought cycles on DOC export ?
  water qual
• real-time, high-resolution flood and drought
  prediction
• level of groundwater abstraction humans affect
  drought
• climate-change weather affect on extreme events
  and hydrologic carrying capacity
• role of pulsing in riparian ecosystem function
  and stability of water quantity and quality
• effects of pulse timing on the influence that
  pulse has on ecosystem processes and ecosystem
  feedbacks

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Theme 3 Sustainability of Water Resources

• Summary
• Quantify the hydrologic carrying capacity (water
  resources chemical/biological carrying
  capacity) of the basin, and understand patterns
  of vulnerability across the basin.
• Establish baseline information about how water
  moves in a karst carbonate aquifer.
• Assess actual water use, especially by
  agriculture, and develop linkages with
  demographic data to aid forecasting efforts.
• HCC Hydrologic Carrying Capacity
• SRB Suwannee River Basin

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Theme 3 Sustainability of Water Resources
(contd)

• Detailed Questions
• HCC of the SRB and do sub-basins vary in their
  ability to support human activities
• current LU affect on springs
• forecast needs of users (ag, urban, industry,
  ecosystems)
• attributes that describe sub-basin
  resilience/vulnerability (geologic/hydrologic/ecol
  ogical/biogeochemical/edaphic/LU)
• socio-economic trade-offs of exceeding HCC
• global perturbation affects on water
  quality/quantity
• how does water flow in the unsaturated zone
• improve models of karst groundwater flow with
  surface water models
• predict ET and recharge from microwave sensor
  technology and extend to other sensors
• hydrologic rates and aggregating/disaggregating
  to other scales

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Theme 4 Transport and Fate of Chemical and
Biological Contaminants

• Summary
• Mercury and how affected by DOC transport and C
  quality
• Endocrine disruptors, Rx drugs, etc. and LU.
• Roles of hydraulic and DOC gradients, N
  transformations, soil properties, microbial
  communities, and climate affects on surface and
  subsurface degradation/attenuation of these
  contaminants.

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Theme 4 Transport and Fate of Chemical and
Biological Contaminants (contd)

• Detailed Questions
• variability in surface flow driving variability
  in Hg accumulation in fish (largemouth bass)
• sources of Hg
• affect of DOC and C quality on transport / fate /
  availability
• movement of xenobiotics parallels the flow of
  nitrates from groundwater to surface water
• changes in waste water treatment / septic tank
  design affect the flow of these compounds
• predict degradation rates of xenobiotics from
  hydrologic and biogeochemical attributes
• mobility of contaminating bacteria and how
  affected by natural and human induced disturbance

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Theme 5 Hydrologic Influence on Ecosystem
Function

• Summary
• Ecological, hydrologic, and biogeochemical role
  of isolated wetlands and headwater systems.
• Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) effects on
  nutrient cycling in the near-shore regions of the
  Gulf.
• Influence of changing water regimes in the
  estuary on pelagic productivity of tertiary
  consumers.

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Theme 5 Hydrologic Influence on Ecosystem
Function (contd)

• Detailed Questions
• carbon cycling and differences among hydrologic
  zones
• ecosystem responses to landscape changes in
  enrichment and hydrologic forcing.
• bio-assessment techniques ? integrators human
  induced change.
• algal blooms / stygobitic fauna ? integrators of
  basin-wide change.
• microbial community response DOC quality change
• seasonal / episodic variability affect on
  delivery of nutrients and contaminants to the
  estuary
• heterotrophic microbial diversity of oligotrophic
  springs
• affect of disturbance on bacterial communities
  across salt gradient
• chemical characteristics of water in the salt
  transition zone correlated with the SAR11
  population shift to the ac1 cluster population.

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Category 6 Modeling

• Summary
• Intrinsic to any hydrologic observatory following
  the primary charge of improved water resource
  management
• Importance of integrating scientific information
  into predictive simulations of basin dynamics at
  various scales
• Modeling needed for an unregulated river and for
  rivers with intact coastal marshes

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Category 6 Modeling (contd)

• Detailed applications
• Develop models for small-scale hydrologic/biogeoch
  emical processes and aggregating the results for
  large area modeling
• Mechanistic linkage of hydrologic forcing and P
  processes
• Soil-landscape modeling
• Discern the stability and vulnerability of
  sub-basins to development
• Estuary/river interactions - bathymetry, flow
  path proximity, sediment textures
• Estuary model predict the long-term consequences
  of groundwater withdrawal and abstraction on
  salinity gradients to assess carrying capacity

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Data Needs (Provisional Breakdown)

• Supplemental Data
• High resolution climate products (e.g., UNF
  grant)
• High spatial resolution gauging in local areas
  (increased temporal resolution during extreme
  events)
• Higher resolution water quality data (some
  isotope work, detailed soil performance maps,
  small spatial extent, soil spectra)
• Surface water passive flux meters
• Complexation and transport for Hg and xenobiotics
• Soil moisture mapping (RS is core)
• Food web sampling, fish sampling
• Cave mapping
• Detailed gd-water flow tracers and GPR,
  desnity-dependent mixing model parameters

• Core Data
• Climatological
• Moderate resolution flow/stage gaging stations
  (high temporal resolution)
• Chemical analysis stations (salinity, DO,
  nutrients, DOC, Hg, xenobiotics?, isoptes,
  autosamplers)
• Groundwater wells, tracer studies, surface to
  groundwater discharge
• Water use stats (acc./high density)
• Satellite imagery, spatial data
• Biological (low resolution in estuary,
  microbiological /compositional in all zones,
  indicator organisms)
• Distributed with focal points
• Springs, estuary, small streams, wetlands, middle
  reaches

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Resource needs

• Large
• (in progress)

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Proposed Subcommittees

• Subcommittee 1
• Hydrologic Carrying Capacity/Sustainability
• Subcommittee 2
• Linking biogeochemistry and hydrology Linking
  hydrology and ecosystem function
• Subcommittee 3
• Extreme events/meteorological data processes
• Subcommittee 4
• Contaminant source, transport and fate
• Subcommittee 5
• Modeling and data synthesis
• Subcommittee 6
• Data integration, mgmt. and sharing
  Instrumentation