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Simultaneous short-pulse injections of two tracers (sodium bromide [Br–] and fluorescein dye) were made in a losing reach of Snake Creek in Great Basin National Park, Nevada, USA, to evaluate the quantity of stream loss through permeable carbonates that resurfaces at a spring approximately 10 km down drainage. A revised hydrogeologic cross section for a possible flow path of the infiltrated Snake Creek water is presented, and the results may inform water management in the region. First arrival and peak concentration of the two tracers occurred at 9.5 and 12.7 days after injection, respectively. Fracture transport simulations indicate that Br– preferentially diffuses into immobile regions of the aquifer, and this diffusive flux is likely responsible for the major differences in the breakthrough curves. When considering the diffusive tracer flux, total apparent Br– and fluorescein dye recoveries were 16.9–22.1% and 21.7–24.3%, respectively. These findings imply that consideration of diffusive flux and long-term monitoring in fracture-dominated flow may support accurate quantification of tracer recovery. In addition, the apparent power law slopes of the breakthrough tails for both tracers were steeper at early times than have been attributed to heterogeneous advection or channeling in meter-scale tests, but the late-time Br– power law slope becomes less steep than has been attributed to diffusive exchange. These deviations may reflect fracture transport patterns that occur at larger scales.

Understanding how key stream ecosystem functions respond to wastewater treatment plant effluent is critical for assessing the ability of stream ecosystems to ameliorate anthropogenic nutrie...

Wastewater treatment plants are major point‐sources of nutrients to streams globally, but the impact on receiving streams is not always clear. Previous research has shown mixed responses in receiving streams, with some showing no net retention through in‐stream processing for large distances below plants and some showing high rates of processing and retention. This study focuses on Sandy Run, a small, suburban stream in Montgomery County, PA, that receives effluent from two plants, where effluent makes up an estimated 50% of outlet discharge at baseflow. Two sites were monitored in late summer baseflow using high‐temporal loggers to evaluate nitrate and phosphate retention with distance below the plants. Effluent quantity was monitored immediately below the effluent outfalls using specific conductivity as a conservative signal of solute fluctuations throughout the day. A site 1 km downstream showed diel nitrate changes, but despite moderate gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration rates, there was little net retention of nutrients and the diel nitrate signal can be attributed to advection and dispersion of variable upstream effluent. A site 5.4 km below the plant showed a diel nitrate signal as well, but baseflow daily hysteresis plots of nitrate and specific conductivity showed the effluent and nitrate peaks did not coincide. Instead, the effluent input signal was seen overnight, but there was in‐stream removal and release processes during the day. Over the distance to this site, the stream was metabolizing some of the high nutrient loads, although gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration rates were lower. It is important to understand subdaily changes in nutrient processing to fully quantify the impacts of effluent on small streams at different scales. Furthermore, looking at the diel signal without considering conservative transport would overestimate in‐stream processing.

Studies of Earth’s critical zone have largely focused on areas underlain by silicate bedrock, leaving gaps in our understanding of widespread and vital carbonate-dominated landscapes.

Internal water storage (IWS), a below-grade saturated layer, is a bioretention design component created by adjusting the underdrain outlet elevation. Anaerobic conditions and the presence of a carbon source in IWS facilitates denitrification. Yet it remains unclear how underdrain height within the IWS impacts nitrate (NO

Infrastructure systems have direct implications for how health and well-being evolve across urban–rural systems. Scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers use domain-specific methods and tools to characterize sectors of infrastructure, but these approaches do not capture the cascading effects across interrelated infrastructure and governance domains. We argue that the development and management of sustainable urban infrastructure must focus on interactions across urban and rural places to advance equitable health and well-being. We call for a research agenda that focuses on urban–rural infrastructure systems, addressing trade-offs and synergies, decision-making, institutional arrangements, and effective co-production of knowledge across the diverse places connected by infrastructure.

The role of preferential flow through unsaturated saprock (fractured bedrock with weathering restricted to fracture margins) in hillslope hydrology remains inadequately described. To address this issue, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), controlled infiltration, and high-frequency subsurface moisture monitoring were integrated to characterize saprock preferential flow (SPF) in the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In a planar hillslope with shallow fractured shale bedrock (starting at 0.1–0.3 m below ground), two pulses of water (79.5 L in total) were released followed by time-lapse GPR surveys. Differentiating GPR images collected before and after infiltration revealed lateral SPF in the direction of bedding plane fractures near the infiltration trench but with limited development of SPF down gradient along the hillslope. This was confirmed by soil and saprock moisture monitoring at a soil pit (0.2 m downslope of the GPR grid) where only one out of fifteen probes responded to the controlled infiltration. Lateral SPF frequently occurred at the GPR grid during a 24-day period with ten rainfall events, especially under the wet initial conditions. Additional infiltration experiments in a convex hillslope and a nearby bare slope with exposed saprock demonstrated the impact of fracture patterns on the routing of SPF. Three types of SPF in hillslope hydrology were identified, including (1) vertical percolation, (2) exfiltration from saprock to soil, and (3) stormwater transported downslope from planar and convex hillslopes to concave hillslopes. A 3D fill-and-spill model is proposed for the study site and similar areas that recognizes the importance of subsurface flow networks, with shallow saprock and concave hillslopes as essential controls of hillslope subsurface flow.

Karst aquifers are dynamic hydrologic systems which can be sensitive to short-term recharge events (storms) and heterogeneous recharge characteristics (point recharge at sinks, irregular soil thicknesses). In this study, two adjacent karst springs, Tippery Spring and Near Tippery Spring, were monitored to better understand flow and source mixing characteristics in response to two storms in May and June 2017. Monitoring techniques included high-resolution discharge and temperature logging and collection of spring water using automatic samplers to analyze chemical parameters such as stable water isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios along with Ca/Zr ratios and rare earth elements (REEs) which have had limited testing in karst systems. The two springs exhibited behaviors which were both unique to each spring and shared depending on which parameter is considered. Spring-specific behaviors included discharge and isotopic response, with Tippery Spring having a flashier and faster conduit flow behavior relative to Near Tippery Spring’s delayed storm response. Absolute Mg/Ca values were spring-specific, owing to the relative fraction of limestone and dolostone in their respective recharge areas, although both springs showed similar Mg/Ca ratio shifts after storms. While Ca/Zr ratios changed in timing and intensity with storm intensity, both springs exhibited a decline in Ca/Zr ratios as calcium-rich carbonate matrix water was displaced by zirconium-rich storm recharge water from sinking streams off the clastic upland ridges. Flushing of recharged storm water resulted in an increase in total REE concentrations at both springs (from 1.0 ppb), with the timing and magnitude of concentration increases determined by the degree of surface connectivity intrinsic to each spring and the intensity of the recharge event. REEs and Ca/Zr ratios provided additional and complementary tracer techniques to better understand transient recharge and flow behaviors in karst springs.

Stream temperature is a critical water quality parameter that is not fully understood, particularly in urban areas. This study explores drivers contributing to stream temperature variability within an urban system, at 21 sites within the Philadelphia region, Pennsylvania, USA. A comprehensive set of temperature metrics were evaluated, including temperature sensitivity, daily maximum temperatures, time >20°C, and temperature surges during storms. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were the strongest driver of downstream temperature variability along 32 km in Wissahickon Creek. WWTP effluent temperature controlled local (1–3 km downstream) temperatures year‐round, but the impacts varied seasonally: during winter, local warming of 2–7°C was consistently observed, while local cooling up to 1°C occurred during summer. Summer cooling and winter warming were detected up to 12 km downstream of a WWTP. Comparing effects from different WWTPs provided guidelines for mitigating their thermal impact; WWTPs that discharged into larger streams, had cooler effluent, or had lower discharge had less effect on stream temperatures. Comparing thermal regimes in four urban headwater streams, sites with more local riparian canopy had cooler maximum temperatures by up to 1.5°C, had lower temperature sensitivity, and spent less time at high temperatures, although mean temperatures were unaffected. Watershed‐scale impervious area was associated with increased surge frequency and magnitude at headwater sites, but most storms did not result in a surge and most surges had a low magnitude. These results suggest that maintaining or restoring riparian canopy in urban settings will have a larger impact on stream temperatures than stormwater management that treats impervious area. Mitigation efforts may be most impactful at urban headwater sites, which are particularly vulnerable to stream temperature disruptions. It is vital that stream temperature impacts are considered when planning stormwater management or stream restoration projects, and the appropriate metrics need to be considered when assessing impacts.

Modeling flow and transport using both temperature and dye tracing provides constraints that can improve understanding of karst networks. A laminar flow and transport model using the finite element subsurface flow model simulated the conduit connection between a sinking stream and spring in central Pennsylvania to evaluate how conduit morphology might affect dye transport. Single and overly tortuous conduit models resulted in high concentrations as dye flowed back into the conduit from the matrix after dye injections ceased. A forked conduit model diverted flow from the main conduit, reducing falling limb dye concentration. Latin hypercube sampling was performed to evaluate the sensitivity of 52 parameter combinations (conduit hydraulic conductivity, conduit cross-sectional area, matrix transmissivity, matrix porosity, and dispersivity) for four conduit geometry scenarios. Sensitivity of arrival time for 50% of the dye indicated no parameter combinations which simulate falling limb dye concentrations for tortuous geometries, confirming the importance of the forked geometry regardless of other parameters. Temperature data from high-resolution loggers were then incorporated into the forked conduit model to reproduce seasonal spring temperature using variable sink inflow. Unlike the dye trace models, the thermal models were sensitive to other model parameters, such as conduit cross-sectional area and matrix transmissivity. These results showed this dual approach (dye and temperature) to karst network modeling is useful for (1) exploring the role of conduit and matrix interaction for contaminant storage, (2) constraining karst conduit geometries, which are often poorly understood, and (3) quantifying the effect of seasonal trends on karst aquifers.

Urbanization, in particular, the culverting and burying of streams in sewer infrastructure, has affected both surface and subsurface flow regimes. While researchers have examined the impact of stream burial on groundwater budgets, field studies examining the influence of urbanization on groundwater dynamics are relatively scarce. This study analyzes tidal patterns in water-level data from shallow groundwater monitoring wells located next to a legacy sewer line within the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The coupling of historic records, sewer network maps, and well bore hydrogeology explains spatial patterns in groundwater elevations. Furthermore, a synthesis of early twentieth century United States census data, and continental scale GIS data demonstrates the potential for groundwater inundation in coastal United States cities that are served by aging sewer infrastructure. Altered groundwater flow dynamics caused by sea level rise, coupled with climatic shifts will likely stress aging sewer infrastructure, and can lead to increased discharge of combined sewer overflow systems and flooding.

The hydrologic and biogeochemical processes that control nutrient export in urban streams are not well understood. Attenuation can occur by tributary dilution, groundwater discharge, and biological processing both in the water column and the hyporheic zone. A wastewater treatment plant on Pennypack Creek, an urban stream near Philadelphia, PA, provided high nitrate concentrations for analysis of downstream attenuation processes. Longitudinal sampling for an 8‐km reach revealed decreases in nitrate concentration of 2 mg l⁻¹ at high flow and 4.5 mg l⁻¹ during low flow. During high flow, δ¹⁵N‐NO₃ increased from 9.5 to 10.5‰ and during low flow increased from 10.1 to 11.1‰. Two reaches were sampled at fine spatial intervals (approximately 200 m) to better identify attenuation processes. Mixing analysis indicated that groundwater discharge and biological processing both control nitrate concentration and isotope signatures. However, fine‐scaled sampling did not reveal spatially discrete zones; instead, these processes were occurring simultaneously. While both processes attenuate nitrate, they have opposite isotope signatures, which may have muted changes in δ¹⁵N‐NO₃. At high flow, a decrease in Cl/NO₃ ratios helped distinguish groundwater discharge occurring along both finely sampled reaches. At low flow, biological processing seemed to be occurring more extensively, but the δ¹⁵N‐NO₃ signature was not consistent with either a single process or a sequential combination of groundwater dilution and biological nitrate attenuation. The collocation of processes makes it more difficult to assess biological processing hot spots and predict how urbanization and subsequent stream restoration influence nitrate attenuation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We revisited seven karst springs studied in 1971 to examine how advances in monitoring techniques influence our understanding of spring flow paths and recharge. These springs in the Valley and Ridge of Pennsylvania offer a variety of spring discharge volumes and physical appearance (visible conduits at the discharge site versus fracture networks). We focused on temperature for a comparison between historic and recent trends because it is the least likely to differ in value due to updated measurement techniques. High-resolution temperature data showed variations in storm responses (not observed with historic data) which distinguish among springs. We also used automatic samplers to track geochemical changes during storm events. Variations in CO2 concentrations and Mg/Ca ratios provided indicators of fast and slow recharge and changes in flow paths over time. Some springs showed similar response from storm to storm and some varied. Rare earth elements (REEs) were analyzed in baseflow samples to evaluate their potential for distinguishing spring source rock along flow pathways. The REE grouped springs differently than their temperature and storm response geochemistry. This study showed that classification of karst springs varied depending on the parameter monitored. This variation further points out the complexity of karst flow paths and recharge. Multiple methods and long-term monitoring are needed to interpret karst spring discharge and provide sampling schemes for source water protection.

Changing land-use associated with urbanization has resulted in shifts in riparian assemblages, stream hydraulics, and sediment dynamics leading to the degradation of waterways. To combat degradation, restoration and management of riparian zones is becoming increasingly common. However, the relationship between flora, especially the influence of invasive species, on sediment dynamics is poorly understood. Bank erosion and turbidity were monitored in the Tookany Creek and its tributary Mill Run in the greater Philadelphia, PA region. To evaluate the influence of the invasive species Reynoutria japonica (Japanese knotweed) on erosion, reaches were chosen based on their riparian vegetation and degree of incision. Bank pins and turbidity loggers were used to estimate sediment erosion. Erosion calculations based on bank pins suggest greater erosion in reaches dominated by knotweed than those dominated by trees. For a 9.5-month monitoring period, there was 29 cm more erosion on banks that were also incised, and 9 cm more erosion in banks with little incision. Turbidity responses to storm events were also higher (77 vs. 54 NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit)) in reaches with knotweed, although this increase was found when the reach dominated by knotweed was also incised. Thus, this study linked knotweed to increased erosion using multiple methods.

Through a combined approach using analytical chemistry, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and targeted amplicon sequencing, we studied the impact of wastewater treatment plant effluent sources at six sites on two sampling dates on the chemical and microbial population regimes within the Wissahickon Creek, and its tributary, Sandy Run, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA. These water bodies contribute flow to the Schuylkill River, one of the major drinking water sources for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Effluent was observed to be a significant source of nutrients, human and non-specific fecal associated taxa. There was an observed increase in the alpha diversity at locations immediately below effluent outflows, which contributed many taxa involved in wastewater treatment processes and nutrient cycling to the stream's microbial community. Unexpectedly, modeling of microbial community shifts along the stream was not controlled by concentrations of measured nutrients. Furthermore, partial recovery, in the form of decreasing abundances of bacteria and nutrients associated with wastewater treatment plant processes, nutrient cycling bacteria, and taxa associated with fecal and sewage sources, was observed between effluent sources, which we hypothesize is controlled by distance from effluent source. Antecedent moisture conditions were observed to impact overall microbial community diversity, with higher diversity occurring after rainfall. Finally, the efficacy of using a subset of the microbial community including the orders of Bifidobacteriales, Bacteroidales, and Clostridiales to estimate the degree of influence due to sewage and fecal sources was explored and verified.

Conductivity, water level, air temperature, and depth of snowpack were monitored during a 26-day melt period of 88-cm-deep snowpack at a karst spring to characterize internal runoff and diffuse infiltration. Chloride from road salt provided a tracer and the snowpack a recharge source during the melt period. The melt period was divided into phases based on air temperature and chemograph pattern. For the first and third phases, mean air temperatures were below freezing, but above freezing during the second and fourth phases. During the first phase when the temperature peaked above freezing, conductivity typically spiked 10–50 μS/cm, suggesting input of road salt from conduits. When the snowpack continuously melted, conductivity and water-level trends were upward with smaller daily spikes in conductivity indicating infiltration from the dilute snowpack. This pattern suggests that road salt input continued when snowmelt recharged through the epikarst, but at lower concentrations than the conduit input. Refreezing of the snowpack and shallow subsurface for a brief period interrupted the recharge, and there was no longer a sawtooth pattern of conductivity. It is apparent that frozen conditions did not cease recharge because a dual recharge process was evident. While dual recharge from internal runoff and diffuse infiltration occurred, the portions varied because of changing melting rates. Observed patterns indicated internal runoff dominated during frozen periods because recharge water moved as overland flow across a frozen surface to focused pathways. Diffuse infiltration became available during warmer periods because subsurface thawing allowed the snowmelt to penetrate the epikarst. Results of snowmelt monitoring in spring discharge indicated the transient nature of karst recharge.

Carbonate aquifers with well-developed conduit systems carry a flux of clastic sediment as an intrinsic aspect of the functioning of the aquifer. Sources of clastic sediments include sediments carried by sinking streams, soil washdown from the epikarst, plug injection by sinkhole piping failures, residual insoluble material from the dissolution of the limestone, and sediment backflooded from surface streams. The conduit system acts as a mixing chamber where the injected materials are sorted and rearranged. Information on the sediments and their transport processes can be obtained by investigating the source areas, by inspection of cave sediments, and by monitoring clastic sediment discharged from springs as a function of flow conditions. The engine that drives the sediment transport system is storm recharge in the ground water basin drained by the conduit system. Fine-grained clastics move during ordinary storms and can be captured easily at springs, but movement of coarser materials requires high-intensity, therefore infrequent, storms so that most of the sediment flux is episodic with long periods of storage interspersed with short periods of movement. Fluid mechanics provides the basis for calculations of both bedload and suspended load components. However, these calculations become complex because of the need to take into account discharge-dependent shifts from pipe flow to open channel flow and the effect of irregularities in conduit morphology and blockages due to breakdown and other barriers.

Time-lapse geophysical surveys can map lingering hyporheic storage by detecting changes in response to saline tracer. Tracer tests were conducted in Crabby Creek, an urban stream outside Philadelphia, to examine the influence of stream restoration structures and variable sediment thickness. We compared electrical resistivity surveys with extensive well sampling (57 wells) in two 13.5-m-long reaches, each with a step drop created by a J-hook. The two step drops varied in tracer behaviour, based on both the well data and the geophysical data. The well data showed more variation in arrival time where the streambed sediment was thick and was more uniform where sediment was thin. The resistivity in the reach with thin sediment showed lingering tracer in the hyporheic zone both upstream and downstream from the J-hook. In the second reach where the sediment was thicker, the lingering tracer in the hyporheic zone was more extensive downstream from the J-hook. The contrasting results between the two reaches from both methods suggested that sediments influenced hyporheic exchange more than the step at this location. Resistivity inversion differed from well data in both reaches in that it showed evidence for tracer after well samples had returned to background, mapping lingering tracer either upstream or downstream of a step. We conclude that resistivity surveys may become an important tool for hyporheic zone characterization because they provide information on the extent of slow moving fluids in the hyporheic zone, which have the potential to enhance chemical reactions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.