Land cover and topographic controls on groundwater recharge on the Oak Ridges Moraine

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Land use and climate changes have major implications for hydrologic processes and water resources. I will study how such changes impact groundwater recharge and streamflow on the environmentally-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine in southern Ontario - a key regional hydrogeologic resource. The Moraine is undergoing both land use and climate change, the hydrologic implications of which are unclear. This is partly due to uncertainty in the ability of drainage basins to store and release water to streams. Adjacent streams on the Moraine discharge greatly different amounts of groundwater, and it is not known whether this results from differences in recharge, subsurface storage and release properties, or both. This variability also suggests differences in residence time of water in the basin before it leaves as streamflow. Data on water residence times is critical when predicting if and when surface hydrologic changes (due to land use and/or climate change) may induce a streamflow response.