Collaborative Research: Where does the water go: Improving understanding of stream-aquifer-atmosphere interactions around Beaver Dam Analogues

合作研究：水去了哪里：提高对河狸坝类似物周围溪流-含水层-大气相互作用的理解

• 批准号: 2208396
• 负责人: Christa Kelleher
• 金额: $ 27.83万
• 依托单位: Lafayette College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2208396&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Where; does; water

In the arid western US, groundwater-surface water interactions have been historically shaped by the presence of beavers, with beaver dams storing and redirecting water into the floodplain. As populations of beavers have declined, local municipalities, state agencies, and private landowners have been installing beaver dam analogues (BDAs), a stream restoration structure that mimics the form of natural beaver dams, in beaver-less stream reaches. Due to their simplicity and expected benefits, BDAs are gaining extensive attention and implementation across the western US, in spite of the absence of clear scientific data to assess their impacts on reach scale hydrology. The proposed project aims to address this gap in knowledge in order to determine the extent to which BDAs alter groundwater and surface water levels, groundwater- surface water exchange, and evapotranspiration by monitoring a research site containing several BDAs located in Wyoming, USA. The project will be performed in close collaboration with The Nature Conservancy of Wyoming (TNC-WY), who owns and manages the research site. While the proposed work aims to improve understanding of hydrological processes in the context of BDA deployment, observations will also inform several management goals associated with BDAs (including reducing stream velocity, reconnecting the stream channel to the floodplain, and supporting riparian vegetation for wildlife habitat and forage for cattle). Investigators will work in close collaboration with TNC-WY to evaluate these management goals, to share findings with local and regional practitioners and stakeholders, and to leverage the research site as a demonstration site for BDAs.The primary objective of this project is to disentangle the complex feedbacks between the stream, atmosphere (via evapotranspiration), and aquifer (via hyporheic exchange and water table dynamics) associated with BDA implementation at the watershed scale. To address this objective, field and in situ observations as well as high resolution imagery via unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) will be collected annually at research sites and used in combination with integrated modeling of stream-aquifer-atmosphere responses to constrain behavior during the length of the project and beyond. Observations and numerical modeling will be leveraged to determine the hydrological mechanisms governing interactions between BDAs and evapotranspiration, streamflow, and groundwater levels to achieve a full understanding of how BDA structures shape the physical hydrology of stream reaches. Empirical analyses and model-based approaches employed in this study will directly assess the responses of the research site to BDA installation. In addition, both empirical and model-based analysis will yield transferrable insight regarding the impacts of BDAs on hydrological processes and how this compares with reference reaches. As the body of literature assessing the mechanisms and impacts of BDAs is virtually nonexistent, this work will provide much-needed context for western US watersheds where changes due to climate and humans are colliding. Finally, this work will significantly advance the field of data collection via UAV for hydrological and ecological sciences by providing the broader scientific community with a template to use UAVs for environmental data collection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在美国干旱的西部地区，地下水与地表水的相互作用历来是由河狸的存在所影响的，河狸坝将水储存起来并将水重新引导到洪泛区。随着河狸数量的减少，当地市政当局、国家机构和私人土地所有者一直在安装河狸坝类似物（BDA），这是一种在没有河狸的河流河段模仿天然河狸坝形式的河流恢复结构。由于其简单性和预期效益，尽管缺乏明确的科学数据来评估 BDA 对河段水文学的影响，但 BDA 正在美国西部地区获得广泛关注和实施。 拟议项目旨在弥补这一知识空白，通过监测位于美国怀俄明州的一个包含多个 BDA 的研究地点，确定 BDA 对地下水和地表水位、地下水-地表水交换和蒸散量的影响程度。 该项目将与拥有并管理该研究地点的怀俄明州大自然保护协会 (TNC-WY) 密切合作进行。 虽然拟议的工作旨在提高对 BDA 部署背景下水文过程的了解，但观测结果还将为与 BDA 相关的几个管理目标提供信息（包括降低溪流速度、重新连接河道与洪泛区以及支持野生动物栖息地和河岸植被）牛的饲料）。 研究人员将与 TNC-WY 密切合作，评估这些管理目标，与当地和区域从业者和利益相关者分享研究结果，并利用该研究场所作为 BDA 的示范场所。该项目的主要目标是理清河流、大气（通过蒸散）和含水层（通过潜流交换和地下水位动态）之间的复杂反馈与流域尺度的 BDA 实施相关。为了实现这一目标，每年将在研究地点收集通过无人飞行器（UAV）进行的现场和原位观测以及高分辨率图像，并与河流-含水层-大气响应的综合建模相结合，以限制整个过程中的行为项目及其他。 将利用观测和数值模拟来确定控制 BDA 与蒸散量、径流和地下水位之间相互作用的水文机制，以充分了解 BDA 结构如何塑造河流河段的物理水文。本研究中采用的实证分析和基于模型的方法将直接评估研究地点对 BDA 安装的反应。此外，基于经验和基于模型的分析都将产生关于 BDA 对水文过程的影响以及与参考范围的比较的可转移的见解。由于评估 BDA 机制和影响的文献几乎不存在，这项工作将为美国西部流域提供急需的背景，那里气候和人类的变化正在发生冲突。最后，这项工作将为更广泛的科学界提供使用无人机进行环境数据收集的模板，从而显着推进水文和生态科学领域的无人机数据收集领域。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。