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Rivers and streams are a primary transport vector for microplastics (MPs), connecting terrestrial sources to marine environments. While previous studies indicated that pore-scale MPs can accumulate in streambed sediments, the specific MPs transport and retention mechanisms in fluvial systems remain poorly understood. As part of this technical note, we present a novel method for a quantitative analysis of the spatiotemporal transport and retention of pore-scale MPs in an experimental flume. A continuous mass balance for MPs in surface water was achieved using two online fluorometers, while a laser-induced Fluorescence-Imaging-System was developed to track and quantify the spatial migration of MPs through the streambed sediments. The detection limit was < 1 µg/L for 1 µm polystyrene microbeads with the fluorometers and 3 µg/L for the Fluorescence-Imaging-System. The system was able to quantitatively track the advective transfer of MPs into the streambed sediments: a process that has yet not been observed experimentally. Results showed that MPs infiltrated into the streambed sediments up to a depth twice the bedform amplitude. This work provides a novel experimental method to quantitatively monitor MP transport through porous media and advective exchange of MP across the streambed interface.

International audience; Key Points: Lumped parameter modeling of hyporheic nitrate removal by applying the exposure time concept.  Exposure time distributions are derived from analytical residence time distributions and reaction kinetics for hyporheic oxygen consumption.  Using exposure times rather than residence times is likely to lead to more realistic estimates for nutrient removal in the hyporheic zone Abstract The rate of biogeochemical processing associated with natural degradation and transformation processes in the hyporheic zone (HZ) is one of the largest uncertainties in predicting nutrient fluxes. We present a lumped parameter (LPM) model that can be used to quantify the mass loss for nitrate in the HZ operating at the scale of river reaches to entire catchments. The model is based on using exposure times (ET) to account for the effective timescales of reactive transport in the HZ. Reach scale ET distributions are derived by removing the portion of hyporheic residence times (RT) associated with flow through the oxic zone. The model was used to quantify nitrate removal for two scenarios: 1) a 100 m generic river reach and 2) a small agricultural catchment in Brittany (France). For the field site hyporheic RT are derived from measured in-stream 222 Rn activities and mass balance modelling. Simulations were carried out using different types of RT distributions (exponential, power-law and gamma type) for which ET were derived. Mass loss of nitrate in the HZ for the field site ranged from 0-0.45 kg d-1 depending on the RT distribution and the availability of oxygen in the streambed sediments. Simulations with power law ET distribution models only show very little removal of nitrate due to the heavy weighting towards shorter flow paths that are confined to the oxic sediments. Based on the simulation results, we suggest that ET likely lead to more realistic estimates for nutrient removal.

Quantifying and upscaling chemical turnover in the hyporheic zone (HZ) is difficult due to limited reaction rate data, unknown carbon quality, and few methods for upscaling local measurements to river networks. Here we develop a method for quantifying reaction kinetics in situ in the HZ and upscaling biogeochemical turnover to catchment scales. Radon-222 was used to quantify water residence times in the HZ of the Roter Main River (RM), Germany. Residence times were then combined with O2, NO3−, CO2, DOC, and carbon quality (EEMs, SUVA) data to estimate Monod and first-order reaction rates. Monod parameters µmax and ksat for NO3− reduction were 11 µmol l−1 h−1 and 52 µmol l−1, respectively, while the first-order rate was 0.04 h−1. Carbon quality was highly bioavailable in the HZ and is unlikely to be limiting. Reaction kinetics was incorporated into the FINIFLUX model to upscale NO3− mass loss over a 32 km reach of the RM. The aims were to (1) to estimate hyporheic efficiency using Damkohler numbers (Da), and (2) calculate NO3− mass loss in the HZ over the reach. The Da analysis suggests that the hyporheic zone is inefficient for NO3− processing, however, this is somewhat misleading as the largest NO3− mass loss occurs at the shortest residence times where Da ≪ 1. This is due to the largest water flux occurring in the uppermost part of the sediment profile. Nitrate processing in the HZ accounted for 24 kg NO3− h−1 over the reach, which was 20% of the NO3− flux from the catchment.

The highly dynamic processes within a hillslope-riparian-stream (HRS) continuum are known to affect streamflow generation, but are yet not fully understood. Within this study, we simulated a headwater HRS continuum in western Luxembourg with an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model (HydroGeoSphere). The model was set up with thorough consideration of catchment-specific attributes and we performed a multi criteria model evaluation (4 years) with special focus on the temporally varying spatial patterns of surface saturation. We used a portable thermal infrared (TIR) camera to map surface saturation with a high spatial resolution and collected 20 panoramic snapshots of the riparian zone (approx. 10 m x 20 m) under different hydrologic conditions. Qualitative and quantitative comparison of the processed TIR panoramas and the corresponding model output panoramas revealed a good agreement between spatiotemporal dynamic model and field surface saturation patterns. A double logarithmic linear relationship between surface saturation extent and discharge was similar for modeled and observed data. This provided confidence in the capability of an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model to represent temporal and spatial water flux dynamics at small (HRS continuum) scales. However, model scenarios with different parameterizations of the riparian zone showed that discharge and surface saturation were controlled by different parameters and hardly influenced each other. Surface saturation only affected very fast runoff responses with a small volumetric contribution to stream discharge, indicating that the dynamic surface saturation in the riparian zone does not necessarily imply a major control on runoff generation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A quantitative understanding of groundwater-surface water interactions is vital for sustainable management of water quantity and quality. The noble gas radon-222 (Rn) is becoming increasingly used as a sensitive tracer to quantify groundwater discharge to wetlands, lakes, and rivers: a development driven by technical and methodological advances in Rn measurement. However, quantitative interpretation of these data is not trivial, and the methods used to date are based on the simplest solutions to the mass balance equation (e.g., first-order finite difference and inversion). Here we present a new implicit numerical model (FINIFLUX) based on finite elements for quantifying groundwater discharge to streams and rivers using Rn surveys at the reach scale (1–50 km). The model is coupled to a state-of-the-art parameter optimization code Parallel-PEST to iteratively solve the mass balance equation for groundwater discharge and hyporheic exchange. The major benefit of this model is that it is programed to be very simple to use, reduces nonuniqueness, and provides numerically stable estimates of groundwater fluxes and hyporheic residence times from field data. FINIFLUX was tested against an analytical solution and then implemented on two German rivers of differing magnitude, the Salzach (∼112 m3 s−1) and the Rote Main (∼4 m3 s−1). We show that using previous inversion techniques numerical instability can lead to physically impossible negative values, whereas the new model provides stable positive values for all scenarios. We hope that by making FINIFLUX freely available to the community that Rn might find wider application in quantifying groundwater discharge to streams and rivers and thus assist in a combined management of surface and groundwater systems.

[1] The understanding of streamflow generation processes is vitally important in the management of water resources. In the absence of the data required to achieve this, Integrated Surface-Subsurface Hydrological Models (ISSHM) can be used to assist with the development of this understanding. However, the standard outputs from these models only enable elicitation of information about hydrological drivers and hydrological responses that occur at the same time. This generally limits the applicability of ISSHMs for the purposes of obtaining an improved understanding of streamflow generation processes to catchment areas that do not exhibit significant storage, travel times or flow depletion mechanisms. In order to overcome this limitation, a previously published Hydraulic Mixing-Cell (HMC) method is improved so that it can be used to follow surface water derived from direct rainfall and groundwater discharge to the stream and adjacent overland flow areas. The developed approach was applied to virtual experiments (based on the Lehstenbach catchment in southeastern Germany), which are composed of two ISSHMs of contrasting scales: (1) a riparian wetland of area 210 m2 and (2) a catchment of area 4.2 km2. For the two models, analysis of modeling results for a large storm event showed complex spatiotemporal variability in streamflow generation and surface water-groundwater interaction. Further analysis with the HMC method elucidated in-stream and overland flow generation mechanisms. This study showed within a modeling framework that identification and quantification of in-stream and overland flow generation better informed understanding of catchment functioning through decomposition of streamflow hydrographs, and analysis of spatiotemporal variability of flow generation mechanisms.

[1] Wetlands provide important ecohydrological services by regulating fluxes of nutrients and pollutants to receiving waters, which can in turn mitigate adverse effects on water quality. Turnover of redox-sensitive solutes in wetlands has been shown to take place in distinct spatial and temporal patterns, commonly referred to as hot spots and hot moments. Despite the importance of such patterns for solute fluxes the mechanistic understanding of their formation is still weak and their existence is often explained by variations in soil properties and diffusive transport only. Here we show that surface micro-topography in wetlands can cause the formation of biogeochemical hot spots solely by the advective redistribution of infiltrating water as a result of complex subsurface flow patterns. Surface and subsurface flows are simulated for an idealized section of a riparian wetland using a fully integrated numerical code for coupled surface-subsurface systems. Biogeochemical processes and transport along advective subsurface flow paths are simulated kinetically using the biogeochemical code PHREEQC. Distinct patterns of biogeochemical activity (expressed as reaction rates) develop in response to micro-topography induced subsurface flow patterns. Simulated vertical pore water profiles for various redox-sensitive species resemble profiles observed in the field. This mechanistic explanation of hot spot formation complements the more static explanations that relate hot spots solely to spatial variability in soil characteristics and can account for spatial as well as temporal variability of biogeochemical activity, which is needed to assess future changes in the biogeochemical turnover of wetland systems.