Event and seasonal hydrologic connectivity patterns in an agricultural headwater catchment

Abstract

Connectivity of the hillslope and the stream is a non-stationary and non-linear phenomenon dependent on many controls. The objective of this study is to identify these controls by examining the spatial and temporal patterns of the similarity between shallow groundwater and soil moisture dynamics and streamflow dynamics in the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory (HOAL), a small (66 ha) agricultural headwater catchment in Lower Austria. We investigate the responses to 53 precipitation events and the seasonal dynamics of streamflow, groundwater and soil moisture over 2 years. The similarity, in terms of Spearman correlation coefficient, hysteresis index and peak-to-peak time, of groundwater to streamflow shows a clear spatial organization, which is best correlated with topographic position index, topographic wetness index and depth to the groundwater table. The similarity is greatest in the riparian zone and diminishes further away from the stream where the groundwater table is deeper. Soil moisture dynamics show high similarity to streamflow but no clear spatial pattern. This is reflected in a low correlation of the similarity with site characteristics. However, the similarity increases with increasing catchment wetness and rainfall duration. Groundwater connectivity to the stream on the seasonal scale is higher than that on the event scale, indicating that groundwater contributes more to the baseflow than to event runoff.