Groundwater - Stream Water Interactions

Groundwater sustains stream baseflow through periods of no precipitation. Groundwater plays a critical role in watershed hydrologic, thermal and chemical budgets. We use and develop environmental tracer techniques to quantify where, when and how much groundwater discharges into streams. We seek to use the stream as an integrated signal to identify the amount, age distribution and source of groundwater discharging to streams big and small from the alpine to the tropics.

Synoptic stream sampling
Wading the mighty Little Wind. Synoptic stream sampling.
equipment in back of vehicle
Looking for groundwater - analyzing Radon in field. Little Wind River Wyoming.

vehicle and paeople on river bank
Fall comes early up north. Sampling the Simonette River in central Alberta.

equipment in Daly River, Northern Territories
Sampling a mid-river groundwater spring – Daly River, Northern Territories.

discharge data graphs
Putting our sampling to work. Showing the evidence of >10ka old discharge into a river for the first time ever – Fitrzroy River Western Australia. We use our data to calculate the total volume of groundwater discharge and the fraction coming from old water.