Update on Hydrology Research at Scotty Creek, NWT (Bill Quinton)

Canadian Excellence
Update on Hydrology Research at Scotty Creek, NWT
Changing Cold Regions Network, 2nd Annual General Meeting,
Wilfrid Laurier University, 20-22 October, 2014.
M. Braverman, J. Baltzer, A. Berg, R. Connon, J. Craig, L. Freeman, J. Gordon, E. Haugton, M.
Hayashi, M. Helbig, A. McManus, A. Mohammed, B. Persaud, R. Schincario,
O. Sonnentag, L. Stone, S. VanOpstal, P. Rahimzadeh, T. Veness, A. Verma
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Canada
annual runoff (mm)
400
300
200
??
Birch
Jean-Marie
Blackstone
Scotty
100
0
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Lower Liard River
Valley
Mackenzie
Basin
Continuous (> 90%)
Discontinuous (50-90%)
Discontinuous (10-50%)
Isolated patches (< 10%)
No permafrost
What is
driving the
rise in basin
runoff ?
Expanding runoff contributing areas
300 m
Primary Areas
always
300 m
never
always
300 m
never
sometimes
always
300 m
Routing of Precipitation Inputs
Cross-sectional view of a bog cascade
-
Primary runoff areas route moisture directly to
the channel fen
-
Each bog has it’s own ‘bogshed’
(i.e. runoff contributing area)
-
Ephemeral channels connect flat bogs and drain into the channel fen, creating a “bog cascade”
Flow through the bog cascade is dependent on the depression storage capacity in each bog. If the
storage capacity of a bog is not satisfied this bog will not transmit moisture further down the cascade
-
Isolated bogsheds never contribute to flow
Gauging Discharge: Secondary Source Areas
b)
a)
c)
Gauging
at one
of three
channels
that drainthat
out drain
of the peatGaugingdischarge
discharge
at one
of three
channels
out
plateau
and into
the channel
of the complex
peat-plateau
complex
andfen
into the channel fen
a) Rating curve calculated with instantaneous measurements
a) Rating curve calculated with instantaneous
b) Hydrograph for snowmelt period (May)
measurements
c) Flume
box used to channel flow
b)
c)
Hydrograph for snowmelt period (May)
Flume box used to channel flow
Three channels drain the plateau-bog
Three
channels
the plateaucomplex
into thedrain
channel
fen. Total
bog
complex
intocomplex
the channel
fen.
runoff
from this
in May
Total
complex
2013 runoff
was 52from
mm.this
Basin
runoffinfor
May
52 mm,
mm. indicating
Basin runoff
May 2013
2013 was
was 44
for
was are
44 mm,
indicating
thatMay
bog 2013
cascades
capable
of
that
bog
cascades
are
capable
transmitting sufficient moistureof
transmitting
appreciable
moisture
during periods
of high connectivity.
during periods of high connectivity.
Other insights on cascades:
Wetland Ecotone:
Seasonal thaw &
permafrost thaw
processes:
Channel
Fen
Permafrost
Plateau
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
elevation above fen (m)
Flat Bog
distance along shore (m)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
1
2
3
4
distance into plateau (m)
5
Seasonal thaw &
permafrost thaw
processes:
Channel
Fen
Permafrost
Plateau
Flat Bog
Climate chamber experiments:
no mulch
mulch
Department of Earth Sciences
Seismic Lines:
Short circuiting
1969
1943
5 km
Thermal
Channels
0m
Bog
200
100
Fen
5m
7.5 m
Fen
Bog
m
0
2.4
Depth to frost table along seismic line: May – July
Thermosyphons:
?
Spatio-temporal variability of GHG fluxes
Footprint of eddy covariance measurements
Footprint model:Kljun et al. 2004
Land cover & LIDAR: Chasmer et al. 2014
50 km
Flux contribution during
the growing season 2013
How widely does the
permafrost thawinduced land cover
change observed at
Scotty occur over the
region?
e.g. NDVI trends. Top image shows
the distribution of positive and
negative trend pixels over the
southern part of the Taiga Plains; the
lower image shows those pixels that
exhibit statistically significant trends.
2014 Field Season - Never a dull moment…
Interdisciplinary fire studies:
Not Burned
Burned
Runoff processes and pathways