Observations and modeling of hillslope throughflow temperatures in a coastal forested catchment

A growing body of research on stream thermal regimes has highlighted the importance of heat advection associated with surface water and groundwater interactions, such as hyporheic exchange, groundwater discharge, and hillslope throughflow inputs. Existing catchment models that predict stream temperature use a variety of approaches to estimate throughflow temperatures, but none has been evaluated against field measurements of throughflow temperature. In this study, throughflow temperatures were monitored over two winters at 50 locations adjacent to a headwater stream (11 ha catchment area) located in the rain-on-snow zone of the Pacific Northwest. Existing approaches to estimate throughflow temperature under or overpredicted throughflow temperatures by up to 5°C, or were unable to represent the influence of transient snow cover. Therefore, a conceptual-parametric model that is computationally efficient was developed that simulates hillslope hydrology and throughflow temperatures. The model structure includes an upslope reservoir that drains into a downslope reservoir that, in turn, drains into the stream. Vertical and lateral energy and water fluxes are simulated using simplified process representations. The model successfully predicts throughflow temperatures and highlights the dominant role of throughflow advection and the influence of snow cover on stream thermal regimes during high flow periods and rain-on-snow events.