Hydrology of autogenic percolation systems in some tropical karst outcrops, West Malaysia, 1983, Crowther J,

This paper reports on the flow regimes of underground seepages in three tower-karst outcrops and in the Setul Boundary Range, West Malaysia. Groundwater movement in the tower-karst hills, which comprise very pure, massive marbles, is confined to vertical and subvertical joints. Although flow is primarily diffuse and the discharges of the majority of seepages correlate most closely with rainfall in antecedent periods of 1-16 days or more, some stormflow occurs along conduits in the upper parts of these aquifers. Many of these conduits appear to peter out at depth into tight rock fractures, thereby forming funnel-shaped underground reservoirs which serve to moderate discharge variations. In contrast, the limestones of the Setul Boundary Range are less pure and retain much of their original bedding. The presence of near-horizontal bedding plane fractures favours lateral groundwater movement and the development of integrated drainage networks within the rock. Compared with the tower-karst caves, seepage rates are generally higher and more responsive to short-term variations in rainfall. The marked difference in topography between the tower-karst hills and the Setul Boundary Range is largely attributable to the contrasted geohydrological properties of the limestones

Estimation of denitrification potential in a karst aquifer using the N-15 and O-18 isotopes of NO3-, 2005, Einsiedl F, Maloszewski P, Stichler W,

A confined aquifer in the Malm Karst of the Franconian Alb, South Germany was investigated in order to understand the role of the vadose zone in denitrifiaction processes. The concentrations of chemical tracers Sr2 and Cl- and concentrations of stable isotope O-18 were measured in spring water and precipitation during storm events. Based on these measurements a conceptual model for runoff was constructed. The results indicate that pre-event water, already stored in the system at the beginning of the event, flows downslope on vertical and lateral preferential flow paths. Chemical tracers used in a mixing model for hydrograph separation have shown that the pre-event water contribution is up to 30%. Applying this information to a conceptual runoff generation model, the values of delta(15)N and delta(18)O in nitrate could be calculated. Field observations showed the occurence of significant microbial denitrification processes above the soil/ bedrock interface before nitrate percolates through to the deeper horizon of the vadose zone. The source of nitrate could be determined and denitrification processes were calculated. Assuming that the nitrate reduction follows a Rayleigh process one could approximate a nitrate input concentration of about 170 mg/l and a residual nitrate concentration of only about 15%. The results of the chemical and isotopic tracers postulate fertilizers as nitrate source with some influence of atmospheric nitrate. The combined application of hydrograph separation and determination of isotope values in delta(15)N and delta(18)O of nitrate lead to an improved understanding of microbial processes (nitrification, denitrification) in dynamic systems

Do woody plants affect streamflow on semiarid karst rangelands?, 2005, Wilcox B. P. , Owens M. K. , Knight R. W. , Lyons R. K. ,

There is considerable public and political pressure to reduce woody plant cover on rangelands as a means of increasing water yield, despite the lack of studies documenting that such a strategy is effective. In the Texas Hill Country, runoff from the Edwards Plateau recharges the highly productive and regionally vital Edwards Aquifer. The dominant woody plant on the Plateau is Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei Buchholz). To understand how woody plant cover may affect the amount and timing of runoff in this region, we monitored streamflow from nine small (3- to 6-ha) watersheds over a 13-year period. After the first two years (initial observations), 100% of the shrub cover was removed from three of the watersheds and similar to70% from another three. Following these treatments we continued to monitor runoff for four years, suspended monitoring for four and a half years, and then resumed monitoring for an additional three years. Runoff from these nine first-order watersheds generally accounted for <5% of the total precipitation and occurred entirely as stormflow (there was no baseflow before or after treatment). Some runoff was generated as subsurface flow, as indicated by hydrographs showing prolonged runoff (typically lasting hours longer than the rainfall). We evaluated the influence of woody plant cover on streamflow by comparing streamflow during the four-year treatment period with that during the posttreatment period (when considerable recovery of woody plants had taken place). Our findings indicate that changes in woody plant cover had little influence on the amount, timing, or magnitude of streamflow from these watersheds. On the basis of this work and other observations in the region, we hypothesize that, for small watersheds, changes in shrub cover will have little or no effect on streamflow except where springs are present

Test of a distributed modelling approach to predict flood flows in the karst Suoimuoi catchment in Vietnam, 2005, Liu Y. B. , Batelaan O. , De Smedt F. , Huong N. T. , Tam V. T. ,

The major obstacles for modelling flood processes in karst areas are a lack of understanding and model representations of the distinctive features and processes associated with runoff generation and often a paucity of field data. In this study, a distributed flood-modelling approach, WetSpa, is modified and applied to simulate the hydrological features and processes in the karst Suoimuoi catchment in northwest Vietnam. With input of topography, land use and soil types in a GIS format, the model is calibrated based on 15 months of hourly meteorological and hydrological data, and is used to Simulate both fast surface and conduit flows, and groundwater discharges from karst and non-karst aquifers. Considerable variability in the simulation accuracy is found among storm events and within the catchment. The simulation results show that the model is able to represent reasonably well the stormflows generated by rainfall events in the study catchment