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The Sleepers River Research Watershed (SRRW) in Vermont, USA, has been the site of active hydrologic research since 1959 and was the setting where Dunne and Black demonstrated the importance and controls of saturation-excess overland flow (SOF) on streamflow generation. Here, we review the early studies from the SRRW and show how they guided our conceptual approach to hydrologic research at the SRRW during the most recent 25years. In so doing, we chronicle a shift in the field from early studies that relied exclusively on hydrometric measurements to today's studies that include chemical and isotopic approaches to further elucidate streamflow generation mechanisms. Highlights of this evolution in hydrologic understanding include the following: (i) confirmation of the importance of SOF to streamflow generation, and at larger scales than first imagined; (ii) stored catchment water dominates stream response, except under unusual conditions such as deep frozen ground; (iii) hydrometric, chemical and isotopic approaches to hydrograph separation yield consistent and complementary results; (iv) nitrate and sulfate isotopic compositions specific to atmospheric inputs constrain new water contributions to streamflow; and (v) convergent areas, or 'hillslope hollows', contribute disproportionately to event hydrographs. We conclude by summarizing some remaining challenges that lead us to a vision for the future of research at the SRRW to address fundamental questions in the catchment sciences.

Descriptions of runoff generation processes continue to grow, helping to reveal complexities and hydrologic behavior across a wide range of environments and scales. But to date, there has been little grouping of these process facts. Here, we discuss how the "fill‐and‐spill" concept can provide a framework to group event‐based runoff generation processes. The fill‐and‐spill concept describes where vertical and lateral additions of water to a landscape unit are placed into storage (the fill)—and only when this storage reaches a critical level (the spill), and other storages are filled and become connected, does a previously infeasible (but subsequently important) outflow pathway become activated. We show that fill‐and‐spill can be observed at a range of scales and propose that future fieldwork should first define the scale of interest and then evaluate what is filling‐and‐spilling at that scale. Such an approach may be helpful for those instrumenting and modeling new hillslopes or catchments because it provides a structured way to develop perceptual models for runoff generation and to group behaviors at different sites and scales. Key Points: Runoff is at the scale of the beholder. We need to move from a notion of uniqueness of place to uniqueness of scaleFill‐and‐spill, together with its components is common to all event runoff systemsFill‐and‐spill as a framework is perhaps a guide for field hydrologists on what to measure, in what order and why [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercomparison of soil pore water extraction methods for stable isotope analysis has been a focus of recent studies in relation to plant source waters, which found a wide isotopic variance depending on the extraction method. Few studies have yet explored extraction effects for mobile pore waters that relate to hillslope runoff. This is because it is extremely difficult in natural systems to control the boundary conditions in order to assess and compare impacts of pore water extraction on resulting hillslope flow. With our new semicontrolled experiments on outdoor mini‐hillslopes, we studied mixing and runoff processes by means of stable isotopes of water and quantified relations between pore water extraction methods. We tested the null hypothesis that nondestructive and destructive pore water sampling methods sample the same soil water pool. Three hillslopes were mounted on load cells, filled with loamy sand textured soils from the Landscape Evolution Observatoryat Biosphere 2, equipped with soil moisture and temperature sensors, a bottom outflow, and a surface runoff gauge for isotope sampling. We followed the precipitation isotopic composition over and through the soil profile. One hillslope was instrumented with suction cups, on the second we installed sampling ports for in‐situ soil water vapour measurements, and the third hillslope was sampled destructively for applying the centrifugation and vapour equilibrium methods. All hillslopes were sampled at four depths (0–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–40 cm) at three different downslope positions. 2H and 18O analyses were performed via laser spectroscopy. We found no isotopic differences between rainfall, surface runoff, and bottom outflow. The in situ vapour ports' soil isotope data showed the widest spread over all hillslope positions and depths. Centrifugation's and suction cups' isotope results plotted closest to the local meteoric water line and within the range of hillslope runoff and bottom outflow data. Hillslope position did not influence the soil isotope results. These results suggest caution be used in the field when selecting an extraction technique for matching soil waters to runoff waters. Soil suction lysimeters and centrifugation appeared to be the most appropriate tools in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long records of hillslope runoff and nutrient concentrations are rare – on seasonally frozen ground they are almost non-existent. The Swift Current hillslopes at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre on the Canadian Prairies provide such a long-term hydrological record. Runoff, runoff nutrient concentration, snowpack depth, density and water equivalent, soil moisture, and soil nutrient concentration were monitored on the three 5 ha hillslopes over a 50-year period (1962–2011). Digital elevation data are available for the three hillslopes at a 2 m horizontal resolution, and, for one of the hillslopes (Hillslope 2), at a 0.25 m horizontal resolution. Runoff from the hillslopes was generated episodically during snowmelt and occasional rainfall events. Hillslope runoff was measured with a 0.61 m H-flume. Daily runoff nutrient concentration data are available for nitrate–N (March 1971–April 2011), ammoniacal–N (February 1996–April 2011), and phosphate-P (March–April 1971; June 1991–April 2011). Snowpack data (snowpack depth, density, and water equivalent) were determined via manual snow surveys carried out several times each winter, between January and March, between 1965 and 2011. Gravimetric soil moisture content was measured in October and April each year between 1971 and 2011 at five depth intervals (0–15, 15–30, 30–60, 60–90, and 90–120 cm) at nine points on each hillslope. We provide these hillslope data in two publicly available repositories: (1) 1962–2011 data on runoff, runoff nutrients, snowpack, soil moisture, soil nutrients, and crop and tillage practices at 10.23684/hhn5-rz52 (McConkey and Thiagarajan, 2018); and (2) digital elevation data at 10.20383/101.0117 (Coles et al., 2018). Complete climate data recorded at a Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorological station located 390 m from the three hillslopes are publicly available at http://climate.weather.gc.ca/ (last access: 30 August 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thresholds and hydrologic connectivity associated with runoff processes are a critical concept for understanding catchment hydrologic response at the event timescale. To date, most attention has focused on single runoff response types, and the role of multiple thresholds and flow path connectivities has not been made explicit. Here we first summarise existing knowledge on the interplay between thresholds, connectivity and runoff processes at the hillslope-small catchment scale into a single figure and use it in examining how runoff response and the catchment threshold response to rainfall affect a suite of runoff generation mechanisms in a small agricultural catchment. A 1.37 ha catchment in the Lang Lang River catchment, Victoria, Australia, was instrumented and hourly data of rainfall, runoff, shallow groundwater level and isotope water samples were collected. The rainfall, runoff and antecedent soil moisture data together with water levels at several shallow piezometers are used to identify runoff processes in the study site. We use isotope and major ion results to further support the findings of the hydrometric data. We analyse 60 rainfall events that produced 38 runoff events over two runoff seasons. Our results show that the catchment hydrologic response was typically controlled by the Antecedent Soil Moisture Index and rainfall characteristics. There was a strong seasonal effect in the antecedent moisture conditions that led to marked seasonalscale changes in runoff response. Analysis of shallow well data revealed that streamflows early in the runoff season were dominated primarily by saturation excess overland flow from the riparian area. As the runoff season progressed, the catchment soil water storage increased and the hillslopes connected to the riparian area. The hillslopes transferred a significant amount of water to the riparian zone during and following events. Then, during a particularly wet period, this connectivity to the riparian zone, and ultimately to the stream, persisted between events for a period of 1 month. These findings are supported by isotope results which showed the dominance of pre-event water, together with significant contributions of event water early (rising limb and peak) in the event hydrograph. Based on a combination of various hydrometric analyses and some isotope and major ion data, we conclude that event runoff at this site is typically a combination of subsurface event flow and saturation excess overland flow. However, during high intensity rainfall events, flashy catchment flow was observed even though the soil moisture threshold for activation of subsurface flow was not exceeded. We hypothesise that this was due to the activation of infiltration excess overland flow and/or fast lateral flow through preferential pathways on the hillslope and saturation overland flow from the riparian zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Runoff generation at the hillslope scale is an important component of the hydrological cycle. Recent work has shown that a common hillslope runoff response mechanism is driven by connectivity of saturated patches in the subsurface (via filling and spilling) to a threshold initiation of lateral flow at the hillslope base. Here, we show that directed percolation theory is able to represent this key runoff process including the details of dynamical flowpath development and filling and spilling processes at the soil-bedrock interface. We then use the directed percolation model to investigate how changes in slope angle, soil depth, and subsurface microtopography influence stormflow response. We map the evolving subsurface flow network under different hillslope classes and compare them to the natural system response. Our results suggest that the natural system sheds water more efficiently than randomly generated systems providing some insights into key hydrogeomorphic controls on water shedding in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue the fundamental issue for enhancing the knowledge about hydrological processes and the ability to model the processes in model development and testing. Topics include the differences between celerity and velocity of the headwater hydrograph, the use of tracer data in identification, evaluation and hypothesis testing of the models, and various factors to consider in routine and good quality data sets.

The author discusses runoff processes. He mentions about three types of waterflow including infiltration excess overland flow, saturation excess overland flow, and subsurface stormflow. He also mentions about the relation between overland and subsurface flow, along with their emergent behavior, such as, flow time series, connectivity threshold, and patches of saturation.

Most studies to date in the humid tropics have described a similar pattern of rapid translation of rainfall to runoff via overland flow and shallow subsurface stormflow. However, study sites have been few overall, and one particular system has received very little attention so far: tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) on volcanic substrate. While TMCFs provide critical ecosystem services, our understanding of runoff generation processes in these environments is limited. Here, we present a study aimed at identifying the dominant water sources and pathways and mean residence times of soil water and streamflow for a first-order, TMCF catchment on volcanic substrate in central eastern Mexico. During a 6-week wetting-up cycle in the 2009 wet season, total rainfall was 1200 mm and storm event runoff ratios increased progressively from 11 to 54%. With the increasing antecedent wetness conditions, our isotope and chemical-based hydrograph separation analysis showed increases of pre-event water contributions to the storm hydrograph, from 35 to 99%. Stable isotope-based mean residence times estimates showed that soil water aged only vertically through the soil profile from 5 weeks at 30 cm depth to 6 months at 120 cm depth. A preliminary estimate of 3 years was obtained for base flow residence time. These findings all suggest that shallow lateral pathways are not the controlling processes in this tropical forest catchment; rather, the high permeability of soils and substrate lead to vertical rainfall percolation and recharge of deeper layers, and rainfall-runoff responses appeared to be dominated by groundwater discharge from within the hillslope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsurface runoff dominates the hydrology of many steep humid regions, and yet the basic elements of water collection, storage, and discharge are still poorly understood at the watershed scale. Here, we use exceptionally dense rainfall and runoff records from two Northern California watersheds (~100 km2) with distinct wet and dry seasons to ask the simple question: how much water can a watershed store? Stream hydrographs from 17 sub-watersheds through the wet season are used to answer this question where we use a simple water balance analysis to estimate watershed storage changes during a rainy season ( dV). Our findings suggest a pronounced storage limit and then 'storage excess' pattern; i.e. the watersheds store significant amounts of rainfall with little corresponding runoff in the beginning of the wet season and then release considerably more water to the streams after they reach and exceed their storage capacities. The amount of rainfall required to fill the storages at our study watersheds is the order of a few hundred millimeters (200-500 mm). For each sub-watershed, we calculated a variety of topographic indices and regressed these against maximum dV. Among various indices, median gradient showed the strongest control on dV where watershed median slope angle was positively related to the maximum volume of storage change. We explain this using a hydrologically active bedrock hypothesis whereby the amount of water a watershed can store is influenced by filling of unrequited storage in bedrock. The amount of water required to activate rapid rainfall-runoff response is larger for steeper watersheds where the more restricted expansion of seepage from bedrock to the soil limits the connectivity between stored water and stream runoff. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors discuss the study on the possibility of using diatoms as a water source and hydrological connectivity tracer. They explain that diatoms are one of the most common algal groups in freshwater and marine ecosystems which are unicellular and eukaryotic. The study has shown that diatoms can aid in the detection of onset/cessation of surface runoff. Moreover, they cite that it can help hydrologists reject or confirm runoff existence based on hydrograph separations.

Appropriate conceptual simplifications and assumptions are a central issue for hydrological modeling, especially when those models serve as the foundation for more complex hydrochemical or ecological models. A common and often unexamined assumption in conceptual modeling is that the relation between groundwater levels and runoff can be described as a succession of steady state conditions. This results in a single-valued, monotonic function between the groundwater levels and runoff. Consequently, the simulated rise and fall in groundwater levels always follow the dynamics of runoff. We tested this assumption with an analysis of detailed groundwater level data along two opposing hillslopes along a stream reach in a Swedish till catchment at Svartberget. Groundwater levels in areas close to the stream followed the dynamics of the runoff. The correlation between groundwater level and runoff decreased markedly for wells farther than approximately 40 m from the stream. The levels were often independent of streamflow: Upslope area groundwater could be rising when riparian groundwater and runoff were falling, and vice versa. There was a high degree of correlation between groundwater levels at similar distances from the stream. The median Spearman rank correlation between wells within 35 m from the stream was 0.86 and for wells located more than 60 m from the stream was 0.96. This indicated that there is a common hydrological pattern even in the upslope area that can be identified and modeled. Despite the widespread acceptance of the steady state assumption previously in this and other study catchments, our study shows that it is not valid for the investigated hillslope site. If the divergence from steady state, with potential ramifications for other processes such as runoff chemistry, is common, then it will be worthwhile to reconsider the appropriate range of applicability for the steady state hypothesis, and the alternatives to that hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for estimation of mean baseflow residence time in watersheds from hydrograph runoff recession characteristics was developed. Runoff recession characteristics were computed for the period 1993-96 in the 2 km² Winnisook watershed, Catskill Mountains, southeastern New York, and were used to derive mean values of subsurface hydraulic conductivity and the storage coefficient. These values were then used to estimate the mean baseflow residence time from an expression of the soil contact time, based on watershed soil and topographic characteristics. For comparison, mean baseflow residence times were calculated for the same period of time through the traditional convolution integral approach, which relates rainfall i[sup18]O to i[sup18]O values in streamflow. Our computed mean baseflow residence time was 9 months by both methods. These results indicate that baseflow residence time can be calculated accurately using recession analysis, and the method is less expensive than using environmental and/or artificial tracers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water use by vegetation can be closely linked to streamflow patterns on a variety of time scales. However, many of the details of these linkages are poorly understood. We compared diel (24 h) patterns of transpirational water use with streamflow patterns in a small headwater basin that displays a marked diel variation during summer months. The study site was in western Oregon. Our objectives were to: (1) determine the phase shift, i.e. the time lag between maximum transpiration and minimum streamflow, and the strength of the correlation at that time lag; (2) determine the amount of streamflow that is ?missing? during each diel cycle (i.e. the difference between base flow, defined by the daily maxima, and actual flow) and use it to estimate the zone, or area, of vegetation that influences daily streamflow patterns; (3) test and refine a conceptual model of how the coupling between vegetation water use and streamflow changes over the period of summer drought in this basin. We found that vegetation water use in the summer is coupled to streamflow over time scales of 4 to 8 h, and water-use-related fluctuations accounted for 1 to 6% of summer base flow. Direct evaporation from the channel was an order of magnitude less than the diel streamflow decrease. Transpiration within only 0?1 to 0?3% of the basin area accounted for the diel variation in streamflow. As the basin drained further through the summer, the coupling between vegetation and streamflow was diminished and occurred at longer time scales, and the zone of vegetation influence became smaller. This pattern is in accordance with our conceptual model, which attributes the summer decline in the strength of the vegetation?streamflow coupling to the increasing depth of plant-available water in the soil profile. Although this study is preliminary, we believe it is an important first step in describing better the coupling of vegetation water use to streamflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]