Topographic controls on shallow groundwater dynamics: implications of hydrologic connectivity between hillslopes and riparian zones in a till mantled catchment

Abstract

Hydrologic connectivity is regarded as one of the key controls in determining catchment rainfall–run‐off response and has been linked to the export of solutes from uplands to streams. We sought to identify the patterns of hydrologic connectivity within a small forested watershed by monitoring the shallow groundwater fluctuations of simple topographically defined landform sequences (footslope–backslope–shoulder). A spatially distributed instrument network was employed to continuously measure hydrometric responses of the shallow subsurface during seasonal wet‐up from summer through winter in a small till mantled research catchment. We demonstrate that the spatial patterns of shallow water table extent and duration, and therefore hydrologic connectivity, had a strong seasonal signature. During the low antecedent soil moisture conditions typically associated with the growing season, water tables were patchy, discontinuous, and only the wettest near‐stream footslope areas were consistently hydrologically connected with the stream network. During the dormant season, footslopes and backslopes maintained water tables that persisted between storm events and were almost continuously connected with the stream network. In the largest storm events, the typically driest landforms (shoulder slopes) established shallow transient water tables, suggesting that nearly the entire catchment was temporarily hydrologically connected with the stream network. In addition, we found significant differences (p < 0·05) in the magnitude and duration of groundwater responses to rainfall among landform groups both seasonally and during events. These results have implications for using a similarity approach in representing characteristic hydrologic responses of topographically defined watershed elements, determining hydrologic connectivity between watershed elements, as well as for understanding solute transport in catchments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.