Volume 39, Issue 3 e70085
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Hidden Features: How Subsurface and Landscape Heterogeneity Govern Hydrologic Connectivity and Stream Chemistry in a Montane Watershed

Keira Johnson

Corresponding Author

Keira Johnson

College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Correspondence:

Keira Johnson ([email protected])

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Kenneth H. Williams

Kenneth H. Williams

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Colorado, USA

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John N. Christensen

John N. Christensen

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

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Rosemary W. H. Carroll

Rosemary W. H. Carroll

Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada, USA

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Li Li

Li Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA

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Curtis Beutler

Curtis Beutler

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

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Kenneth Swift Bird

Kenneth Swift Bird

Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA

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Wenming Dong

Wenming Dong

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

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Pamela L. Sullivan

Pamela L. Sullivan

College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

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First published: 13 March 2025

Funding: supported by the National Science Foundation (2012796, 2121694), and as part of the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

ABSTRACT

Hydrologic connectivity is defined as the connection among stores of water within a watershed and controls the flux of water and solutes from the subsurface to the stream. Hydrologic connectivity is difficult to quantify because it is goverened by heterogeniety in subsurface storage and permeability and responds to seasonal changes in precipitation inputs and subsurface moisture conditions. How interannual climate variability impacts hydrologic connectivity, and thus stream flow generation and chemistry, remains unclear. Using a rare, four-year synoptic stream chemistry dataset, we evaluated shifts in stream chemistry and stream flow source of Coal Creek, a montane, headwater tributary of the Upper Colorado River. We leveraged compositional principal component analysis and end-member mixing to evaluate how seasonal and interannual variation in subsurface moisture conditions impacts stream chemistry. Overall, three main findings emerged from this work. First, three geochemically distinct end members were identified that constrained stream flow chemistry: reach inflows, and quick and slow flow groundwater contributions. Reach inflows were impacted by historic base and precious metal mine inputs. Bedrock fractures facilitated much of the transport of quick flow groundwater and higher-storage subsurface features (e.g., alluvial fans) facilitated the transport of slow flow groundwater. Second, the contributions of different end members to the stream changed over the summer. In early summer, stream flow was composed of all three end members, while in late summer, it was composed predominantly of reach inflows and slow flow groundwater. Finally, we observed minimal differences in proportional composition in stream chemistry across all four years, indicating seasonal variability in subsurface moisture and spatial heterogeneity in landscape and geologic features had a greater influence than interannual climate fluctuation on hydrologic connectivity and stream water chemistry. These findings indicate that mechanisms controlling solute transport (e.g., hydrologic connectivity and flow path activation) may be resilient (i.e., able to rebound after perturbations) to predicted increases in climate variability. By establishing a framework for assessing compositional stream chemistry across variable hydrologic and subsurface moisture conditions, our study offers a method to evaluate watershed biogeochemical resilience to variations in hydrometeorological conditions.

Data Availability Statement

Stream geochemical data are available on ESS-DIVE at Johnson et al. (2025). Code for analysis is available on Zenodo at Johnson (2025).

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