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.

在美国西部的干旱西部，地下水面的水相互作用历史上是由海狸的存在来塑造的，海狸水坝储存并将水重定向到洪泛区。随着海狸人群的下降，当地的市政当局，州机构和私人土地所有者一直在安装海狸大坝类似物（BDAS），这是一种溪流恢复结构，模拟了无海狸的河流河流。由于其简单性和预期的好处，尽管没有明确的科学数据来评估其对覆盖量表水文学的影响，但BDA仍在美国西部广泛关注和实施。 拟议的项目旨在解决这一知识的差距，以确定BDA改变地下水和地表水位，地下水地表水交换以及蒸散量的程度，通过监测一个研究地点，该研究地点包含位于美国怀俄明州的几个BDA。 该项目将与拥有和管理研究站点的怀俄明州自然保护协会（TNC-WY）密切合作。 拟议的工作旨在在BDA部署的背景下提高对水文过程的理解，但观察还将为与BDAS相关的几个管理目标提供信息（包括降低流速度，将流渠道重新连接到洪泛区，并支持河岸植被以供野生动植物栖息地和养牛的草料）。 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流域量表。为了解决这一目标，现场和原位观察结果以及通过无空的航空车辆（UAV）的高分辨率图像，每年将在研究地点收集，并将其与溪流 - 水平 - 大气的综合建模相结合，用于在项目长度和超越项目期间对约束行为的约束行为响应。 将利用观察结果和数值建模来确定有关BDA与蒸散量，流量和地下水水平之间相互作用的水文机制，以充分了解BDA结构如何塑造流的物理水文流量。这项研究中采用的经验分析和基于模型的方法将直接评估研究地点对BDA安装的响应。此外，基于经验和基于模型的分析都将产生有关BDA对水文过程的影响的可转让见解，以及与参考范围的比较。由于评估BDA的机制和影响的文献几乎不存在，因此这项工作将为美国西部流域提供急需的环境，在这种情况下，由于气候和人类造成的变化。最后，这项工作将通过为更广泛的科学界提供一个模板，将其用于环境数据收集的模板来大大推动数据收集的数据收集领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被视为值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来审查审查的审查标准来通过评估来获得支持。