Runoff generation processes in headwater catchments: the role of storage and release

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River systems in Canada are fed by streams draining headwater catchments. These headwaters are responsible for more than half of the flow in our large rivers. They are rarely gauged and little information exists on how they store and transmit rainfall and snowmelt. Since headwaters are connected intrinsically to landscape processes and downstream waters they influence the supply, transport, and fate of water and solutes in watersheds. Our current models of precipitation-runoff lack process realism for the way that headwaters are represented. Therefore large uncertainties exist on how watershed systems will respond to landuse- and climate-change. As a result, prediction of future changes in water quality and quantity in Canada and elsewhere is fraught with uncertainty. The long term objective of my work is to develop new understanding of runoff generation processes in headwater catchments, focused especially on how these store and release water at different time and space scales. The proposed work focuses on four inter-related work packages that address the most important and fundamental impediments for moving forward in this research area—for measurement, understanding, modeling and theory. The anticipated significance of this work is that it will aid the development of watershed runoff models that work for the right reason and reduce uncertainty in projections of watershed response to changing climate and landuse.