The variations in discharge and water chemistry among and within headwater catchments are not well understood. Developing a better understanding of the processes that control these variations is crucial to determining how headwater catchments will respond to changes in climate and land use. This dissertation explores how hydrologic processes in headwater catchments may be better understood by utilizing a hydropedological framework, where similar soils are grouped together and considered to be representative of and developed by similar hydrologic and biogeochemical processes. In the first chapter, soil groups, called hydropedological units (HPUs) are found to be indicative of distinct water table regimes characterized by the interquartile range and median of shallow groundwater levels, the percent time water table exists in the soil, and the level of catchment storage at which groundwater responds. The second chapter explores the hydrological processes that may lead to the formation of HPUs in the catchment. By examining water table records and unsaturated water potential from tensiometers we found that lateral unsaturated flow regimes may be partially responsible for the patterns of lateral translocation observed in HPUs. Finally, the third chapter identifies two HPUs in the catchment as sources of streamwater dissolved organic carbon (DOC). While near-stream areas have typically been found to be DOC sources in headwater catchments, the HPUs identified as sources occur at high elevations in the catchment, near channel heads. Overall, these findings will be useful to better explain runoff generation, soil formation, and DOC export from headwater catchments. Headwater streams source water to larger bodies of water that are valuable natural resources. Therefore, explaining these processes is critical to predicting and responding to changes in climate and land use that may affect important water supplies. / Ph. D.

The aims of this theses were (i) to evaluate trends in spring yields in the Czech Republic (period 1971-2007) and trends in runoff from small forested catchments of the GEOMON network during the period 1994-2011, (ii) evaluate the impact of climate change on streamwater chemistry in acid-sensitive catchment (Lysina), and (iii) estimate the impact of anticipated climate change projected according to different CO2 emission scenarios on flow patterns forested (GEOMON) and alpine headwater (Skalnaté Lake) catchments in the periods 2021-2050 and 2071-2100. Significant negative trends on the annual level were observed at 18% of springs while positive trends at only less than 0.5% of 157 tested objects and 4 of 18 regions revealed significant decreasing trend. To these regions belonged the zones of Carpathian Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments in the southeast and northeast of the Czech Republic, the zones of tertiary and Cretaceous basins in the southeast and Proterozoic and Paleozoic crystalline rocks in the central part of the Czech Republic. Most spring yields were decreasing within the summer months June- August (on average 24%) and least between February and April (on average 15%) (Paper I). There were no general patterns found indicating either significant increases or decreases in runoff on either...