Collaborative Research: Determining the eco-hydrogeologic response of tropical glacierized watersheds to climate change: An integrated data-model approach

合作研究：确定热带冰川流域对气候变化的生态水文地质响应：综合数据模型方法

• 批准号: 1758854
• 负责人: Jeff La Frenierre
• 金额: $ 19.24万
• 依托单位: Gustavus Adolphus College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-03-15 至 2023-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1758854&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Determining; eco; hydrogeologic

Recent rapid glacier retreat, especially in tropical regions such as the Ecuadorian Andes, raises important questions about water resources. Understanding the current effects of glacier retreat on water supply in these regions can shed light on future water security threats in snow and ice-covered mountainous watersheds worldwide. Glaciers are the "water towers" of the mountains: they store ice during wet periods and gradually release meltwater during dry periods. However, whether groundwater aquifers serve as extended reservoirs and whether plants also take up significant glacial meltwater remain unresolved questions. These uncertainties make it difficult to predict the future reliability of water supply in mountainous watersheds, as glacier melt first accelerates and then eventually disappears, and as plants move to higher elevations in response to warming temperatures. This project will develop a new and general computational watershed model that will incorporate chemical and isotopic data for tracing water flow source regions, as well as measurements from innovative low-cost, open-source environmental monitoring technologies. Results from the model can inform communities that rely on stream discharge from ice and snow-covered mountainous watersheds about present with regard to future water resources vulnerabilities, and can facilitate adaptation strategies as glacier retreat accelerates. The recession of glaciers will curtail their ability to modulate river discharge and its variability. Studies of this hydrologic consequence typically classify meltwater and groundwater as distinct contributors to streamflow, but this oversimplifies the potentially complex relationships among glaciers, their underlying groundwater systems, and ecohydrologic pathways. The investigators propose to assess these relationships using an integrated data-model approach in four rapidly changing, glacierized Ecuadorian watersheds, two each at Volcán Chimborazo and Volcán Cayambe. This work will produce a new isotope-enabled watershed model with reactive transport, to which data assimilation will be introduced in order to condition uncertain simulations in data-sparse watersheds with robust environmental tracers. Open-source data loggers and sensors for measuring model input data will further advance critical-zone process understanding beyond data-intensive sites to remote settings that are undergoing some of the most rapid environmental change in the world. This work will shed light on less-studied volcanic ranges that potentially facilitate greater infiltration of meltwater through their fractured bedrock, as well as expand the established water-resources focus on glacier retreat to also consider vegetation shift when examining the hydrologic response of glacierized mountainous watersheds to glacier retreat.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最近冰川迅速消退，特别是在热带地区，如厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉，引发了关于水资源的重要问题。了解目前冰川退缩对这些地区供水的影响，有助于了解全球冰雪覆盖山区流域未来的水安全威胁。冰川是山脉的“水塔”：它们在潮湿时期储存冰，在干燥时期逐渐释放融水。然而，地下水含水层是否作为延伸的水库，以及植物是否也吸收大量的冰川融水，这些问题仍未得到解决。这些不确定性使得预测山区流域未来供水的可靠性变得困难，因为冰川融化首先会加速，然后最终会消失，因为植物为了应对变暖而迁移到更高的海拔。该项目将开发一种新的通用计算流域模型，该模型将纳入用于追踪水流源区的化学和同位素数据，以及来自创新的低成本、开源环境监测技术的测量结果。该模型的结果可以让依赖冰雪覆盖的山区流域的水流排放的社区了解目前和未来水资源脆弱性的情况，并有助于在冰川退缩加速时制定适应战略。冰川的退缩将削弱它们调节河流流量及其变化的能力。对这一水文结果的研究通常将融水和地下水划分为不同的径流贡献者，但这过于简化了冰川、其地下地下水系统和生态水文途径之间潜在的复杂关系。研究人员建议在四个快速变化的厄瓜多尔冰川流域（分别位于Volcán Chimborazo和Volcán Cayambe）中使用综合数据模型方法来评估这些关系。这项工作将产生一个新的具有反应性输运的同位素流域模型，其中将引入数据同化，以便在数据稀疏的流域中使用强大的环境示踪剂进行不确定的模拟。用于测量模型输入数据的开源数据记录器和传感器将进一步推进对关键区域过程的理解，使其超越数据密集型站点，扩展到正在经历世界上一些最迅速环境变化的远程设置。这项工作将为研究较少的火山范围提供线索，这些火山范围可能促进融水通过断裂的基岩更大程度的渗透，并扩大对冰川退缩的既定水资源关注，在检查冰川化山地流域对冰川退缩的水文响应时也考虑植被转移。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Multi-scale temporal variability in meltwater contributions in a tropical glacierized watershed

• DOI: 10.5194/hess-23-405-2019
• 发表时间: 2019-01
• 期刊: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
• 影响因子: 6.3
• 作者: L. Saberi;R. McLaughlin;G. Ng;Jeff La Frenierre;A. Wickert;M. Baraer;W. Zhi;Li Li-Li;B. Mark

Spatiotemporal Drivers of Hydrochemical Variability in a Tropical Glacierized Watershed in the Andes

安第斯山脉热带冰川流域水化学变化的时空驱动因素

• DOI: 10.1029/2020wr028722
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Water Resources Research
• 影响因子: 5.4
• 作者: Saberi, Leila;Crystal Ng, G. ‐H.;Nelson, Leah;Zhi, Wei;Li, Li;La Frenierre, Jeff;Johnstone, Morgan
• 通讯作者: Johnstone, Morgan