Hydrologic Connectivity Between Landscapes And Streams
McGlynn, Brian 1
1 Montana State University
The relationships between landscape characteristics, water redistribution, and catchment runoff dynamics remain poorly understood. Hydrologic connectivity between catchment upland and near stream areas is essential for the transmission of water and solutes to streams and controls both the magnitude and signature of catchment runoff. Here, we utilize data from a highly instrumented set of 11 headwater catchments (Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest) located in the Little Belt Mountains of Montana to illustrate the linkages between landscape characteristics and 1) upland hydrologic connectivity, 2) hierarchical controls on runoff generation, 3) catchment hydraulic transit time variability, 4) riparian buffering, 5) spatial sources of water expressed in streamflow, and 6) the snowmelt driven export of DOC. Our results suggest strongly organized heterogeneity of hydrologic processes and fluxes mediated by landscape structure. We suggest that synthesis of these results provides insight into fundamental linkages between catchment form and function transferrable across diverse systems.