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Variability of streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity with depth along the Elkhorn River, Nebraska, USA

  • Articles
  • Environmental Science & Technology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Determination of streambed hydraulic conductivity is of great importance in the analysis of stream-aquifer interactions and stream ecosystems. In this paper, in situ falling-head standpipe permeameter tests were conducted to determine streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity (K v ) of two connected layers of sediments at 60 test locations from eight sites in the Elkhorn River, Nebraska. Our results show that the K v values for the upper layer of sediments are generally larger than those in their respective lower layer of sediments. The individual K v value for the upper layer of sediments from all test locations of the eight sites range from 2.7 to 104.9 m/d, and the average value is 26.6 m/d. The individual K v value ranges from 0.4 to 73.4 m/d and the average value is 16.1 m/d for the lower layer of sediments. We believe that hyporheic processes can enhance larger streambed K v in the upper layer of sediments. Inflow and outflow through hyporheic zone produce more porous and permeable sediments and further result in an increasing of streambed K v . Moreover, we observe that bioturbation activities can destroy the clogging layer of the exposed sediments and create pore spaces in the sediments, which also further increases streambed K v .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710127, China

    JinXi Song

  2. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0996, USA

    JinXi Song, XunHong Chen, Cheng Cheng & DeMing Wang

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    XunHong Chen & WenKe Wang

Authors
  1. JinXi Song
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  2. XunHong Chen
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  3. Cheng Cheng
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  4. DeMing Wang
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  5. WenKe Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to JinXi Song.

Additional information

This work was supported by Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, the Lower and Upper Elkhorn Natural Resources Districts of Nebraska, and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team of China Ministry of Education (Grant No. IRT0811).

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Song, J., Chen, X., Cheng, C. et al. Variability of streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity with depth along the Elkhorn River, Nebraska, USA. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 992–999 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0640-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0640-2

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