River basins as groundwater exporters and importers: Implications for water cycle and climate modeling

[1] The groundwater reservoir and its interaction with surface water facilitate lateral transport of continental water and energy. Current climate models do not account for long-distance groundwater flow between model cells but route the atmospheric surplus (precipitation (P) minus evapotranspiration (ET)) directly to stream discharge within a model grid cell. We ask how much water exits a river basin without ever passing through its surface outlet? What are the climatologic and geologic factors influencing this flux? To answer these questions, a separation of groundwater flow from river flow is necessary. We use the ratio of stream discharge (Qr) to basin recharge (R = P − ET) for this purpose; where Qr:R 1, a basin is considered a groundwater importer. Here Qr is obtained from 39 years of U.S. Geological Survey Hydro-Climatic Data Network observed stream discharge from 1555 basins across the continental United States, and R (P − ET) is derived from 50 years of hydrologic simulation by the Variable Infiltration Capacity model. It was found that the Qr:R ratio deviates significantly from 1 across the continent. Detailed investigations of individual basins suggest that the deviations are primarily a function of geology, while climate and basin scale influence the magnitude of these deviations. Further, a marked incongruity between the surface and groundwater flow directions is apparent, suggesting that surface drainage is only partially indicative of subsurface flow regimes. The apparent significance of this long-distance groundwater flow component reinforces the need for inclusion of the groundwater reservoir in current water cycle and climate modeling efforts.

[1]  K. Mo,et al.  Dynamical Effect of Land Surface Processes on Summer Precipitation over the Southwestern United States , 2003 .

[2]  C. Slomp,et al.  Nutrient inputs to the coastal ocean through submarine groundwater discharge: controls and potential impact , 2004 .

[3]  Mark Person,et al.  A Coupled Land-Atmosphere Simulation Program (CLASP): Calibration and validation , 2002 .

[4]  Roger A. Pielke,et al.  A parameterization of heterogeneous land surfaces for atmospheric numerical models and its impact on regional meteorology , 1989 .

[5]  D. Lawrence,et al.  Regions of Strong Coupling Between Soil Moisture and Precipitation , 2004, Science.

[6]  J. Hewlett,et al.  Moisture and energy conditions within a sloping soil mass during drainage , 1963 .

[7]  D. Entekhabi,et al.  Ponded Infiltration into Soils Bounded by a Water Table , 1995 .

[8]  Dara Entekhabi,et al.  Equivalent steady soil moisture profile and the time compression approximation in water balance modeling , 1994 .

[9]  William C. Burnett,et al.  Estimating groundwater discharge into the northeastern Gulf of Mexico using radon-222 , 1996 .

[10]  J. Miller,et al.  Hydrogeologic framework of the Floridan aquifer system in Florida and in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama , 1986 .

[11]  Alex K. Williamson,et al.  Ground-Water Flow in the Gulf Coast Aquifer Systems, South-Central United States , 2001 .

[12]  Zong-Liang Yang,et al.  Development of a simple groundwater model for use in climate models and evaluation with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data , 2007 .

[13]  Elfatih A. B. Eltahir,et al.  A Soil Moisture–Rainfall Feedback Mechanism: 1. Theory and observations , 1998 .

[14]  Elfatih A. B. Eltahir,et al.  Representation of Water Table Dynamics in a Land Surface Scheme. Part I: Model Development , 2005 .

[15]  R. A. Barker,et al.  Regional hydrology and simulation of deep ground-water flow in the Southeastern Coastal Plain aquifer system in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina , 1994 .

[16]  R. Renken.  Hydrogeology of the Southeastern Coastal Plain Aquifer System in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina , 1996 .

[17]  J. Tóth.  A Theoretical Analysis of Groundwater Flow in Small Drainage Basins , 1963 .

[18]  Ying Fan,et al.  Incorporating water table dynamics in climate modeling: 2. Formulation, validation, and soil moisture simulation , 2007 .

[19]  D. Risser,et al.  Ground-water recharge in humid areas of the United States: A summary of Ground-Water Resources Program studies, 2003-2006 , 2007 .

[20]  D. Entekhabi,et al.  Comparison of the Eagleson statistical-dynamical water balance model with numerical simulations , 1994 .

[21]  M. Bierkens,et al.  Groundwater convergence as a possible mechanism for multi‐year persistence in rainfall , 2007 .

[22]  W. Cunningham,et al.  Ground-water depletion across the nation , 2003 .

[23]  Alan M. Lumb,et al.  Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN) Streamflow Data Set, 1874-1988 , 1993 .

[24]  A. Rinaldo,et al.  Geomorphic controls on regional base flow , 2001 .

[25]  E. D. Gutentag,et al.  Summary of the High Plains Regional Aquifer-System Analysis in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming , 1988 .

[26]  Zhenghui Xie,et al.  A new parameterization for surface and groundwater interactions and its impact on water budgets with the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) land surface model , 2003 .

[27]  D. Wolock.  Estimated Mean Annual Natural Ground-Water Recharge in the Conterminous United States , 2003 .

[28]  E. D. Gutentag,et al.  Digital simulation of ground-water flow in the High Plains Aquifer in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming , 1986 .

[29]  Paolo D'Odorico,et al.  Preferential states in soil moisture and climate dynamics , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[30]  Thomas C. Winter,et al.  Where Does the Ground Water in Small Watersheds Come From? , 2003 .

[31]  Thomas C. Winter,et al.  Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-Resources and Environmental Management , 2007 .

[32]  A. Robock,et al.  Incorporating water table dynamics in climate modeling: 3. Simulated groundwater influence on coupled land‐atmosphere variability , 2008 .

[33]  Alan K. Betts,et al.  Understanding Hydrometeorology Using Global Models , 2004 .

[34]  Haibin Li,et al.  SIMULATED WATER TABLE AND SOIL MOISTURE CLIMATOLOGY OVER NORTH AMERICA , 2008 .

[35]  R. A. Barker,et al.  Geologic history and hydrogeologic setting of the Edwards-Trinity aquifer system, west-central Texas , 1994 .

[36]  R. D. Black,et al.  Partial Area Contributions to Storm Runoff in a Small New England Watershed , 1970 .

[37]  David W. Pollock,et al.  Patterns and Age Distribution of Ground‐Water Flow to Streams , 1997 .

[38]  Song-You Hong,et al.  Role of sea surface temperature and soil-moisture feedback in the 1998 Oklahoma–Texas drought , 2000, Nature.

[39]  Tadashi Tanaka,et al.  The Hachioji Experimental Basin Study — Storm runoff processes and the mechanism of its generation , 1988 .

[40]  L. N. Plummer,et al.  Evaluating the source and residence times of groundwater seepage to streams, New Jersey Coastal Plain , 1998 .

[41]  D. Genereux,et al.  A paired‐watershed budget study to quantify interbasin groundwater flow in a lowland rain forest, Costa Rica , 2005 .

[42]  E. Eltahir,et al.  On the asymmetric response of aquifer water level to floods and droughts in Illinois , 1999 .

[43]  Ying Fan,et al.  Incorporating water table dynamics in climate modeling: 1. Water table observations and equilibrium water table simulations , 2007 .

[44]  Reed M. Maxwell,et al.  Development of a Coupled Land Surface and Groundwater Model , 2005 .

[45]  R. Mandle,et al.  Simulation of regional ground-water flow in the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system in the northern Midwest, United States: in Regional aquifer-system analysis , 1992 .

[46]  D. Lettenmaier,et al.  A Long-Term Hydrologically Based Dataset of Land Surface Fluxes and States for the Conterminous United States* , 2002 .

[47]  Jeremy S. Pal,et al.  Teleconnections of soil moisture and rainfall during the 1993 midwest summer flood , 2002 .

[48]  J. J. Vries,et al.  Seasonal expansion and contraction of stream networks in shallow groundwater systems , 1995 .

[49]  H. F. Grubb.  Summary of Hydrology of the Regional Aquifer Systems, Gulf Coastal Plain, South-Central United States , 1997 .

[50]  C. Pringle,et al.  Chemical tracing of interbasin groundwater transfer in the lowland rainforest of Costa Rica , 2002 .

[51]  S. Manabe.  CLIMATE AND THE OCEAN CIRCULATION1 , 1969 .

[52]  Zhongbo Yu,et al.  On continental-scale hydrologic simulations with a coupled hydrologic model , 2006 .

[53]  D. Genereux,et al.  Interbasin groundwater flow and groundwater interaction with surface water in a lowland rainforest, Costa Rica: A review , 2006 .

[54]  E. Gutentag,et al.  Geohydrology of the High Plains Aquifer in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming , 1984 .

[55]  R. Walko,et al.  Sensitivity of model‐simulated summertime precipitation over the Mississippi River Basin to the spatial distribution of initial soil moisture , 2003 .

[56]  R. D. Black,et al.  An Experimental Investigation of Runoff Production in Permeable Soils , 1970 .

[57]  E. Small.  The influence of soil moisture anomalies on variability of the North American Monsoon System , 2001 .

[58]  J. J. Vries.  Dynamics of the interface between streams and groundwater systems in lowland areas, with reference to stream net evolution , 1994 .

[59]  I. Rodríguez‐Iturbe,et al.  Variability in Large-Scale Water Balance with Land Surface-Atmosphere Interaction , 1992 .