Collaborative Research: RUI: The Pulse-Shunt Concept: A Conceptual Framework for Quantifying and Forecasting Watershed DOM Fluxes and Transformations at the MacroSystem Scale

碳、营养物和污染物从陆地转移到溪流，以及它们在流经河流网络时的变化，是激励环境科学家和水资源管理人员的问题。 溶解有机物（DOM）是溪流和河流中的主要化学物质，影响污染物的形式和运动，光线透过水，溪流中生命的新陈代谢，pH值以及市政当局的水处理效率。 这项研究的目的是提高DOM的形成和运动的预测，从小源头流和我们的理解，改变DOM的数量和形式的因素，因为它向下游移动。 这项研究的一个目标是大大提高DOM传输和转换的计算机模型，因为它通过流域移动到源头流。 该模型将产生径流的降雨和径流与导致DOM数量和形式变化的生物和化学过程联系起来。 该模型将进行测试，对实际测量的DOM在几个源头流的康涅狄格河沿着其长度。 然后还将在康涅狄格河下游的更大部分地区进行测量，这将有助于解释DOM如何沿着整个排水网络变化。 这个项目挑战了长期以来关于溪流和河流如何运作的观点，称为河流连续体概念，提出可能需要一个更新的观点，称为脉冲分流概念。 这个项目将涉及研究生和博士后助理在实验室，现场和建模结束的研究。 它还将与康涅狄格科学博物馆建立伙伴关系，为公众举办与流域生态和管理有关的教育活动和展览。

The transfers of carbon, nutrients and pollutants from the land to streams and their changes as they move through river networks are issues that motivate environmental scientists and water resource managers. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a central chemical in streams and rivers that affects the forms and movements of contaminants, light penetration through the water, metabolism of life in the streams, pH, and the efficiency of water treatments by municipalities. This study aims to improve predictions of DOM formation and movement from small headwater streams and our understanding of the factors that change the amount and forms of DOM during as it moves downstream. One goal of this research is to greatly improve a computer model of DOM transport and transformation as it moves through a watershed and into the headwater streams. This model links rainfall and runoff that generate streamflow to the biological and chemical processes that lead to changes in the amount and forms of DOM. The model will be tested against actual measurements of DOM made in several headwater streams of the Connecticut River along its length. Measurements will then also be made in larger parts of the Connecticut River downriver that will help explain how DOM changes along the entire drainage network. This project challenges a long standing picture of how streams and rivers work, called the River Continuum Concept, proposing that a newer view may be required, referred to as the Pulse-Shunt Concept. This project will involve graduate students and a post-doctoral associate in the laboratory, field, and modeling ends of the research. It will also build on a partnership with the Connecticut Science Museum to construct educational activities and displays related to watershed ecology and management for the general public.