<p>In arid regions, springs are important in many aspects of
society due to the scarcity of surface water features. In the Great Basin of
the United States, desert springs support the majority of regional biodiversity
and are critical for supporting rare, threatened, and endangered organisms. Despite
their importance, there are numerous threats to desert springs, with the most
ubiquitous being climate change. In contrast to many studies examining
potential metrics to describe the vulnerability of streams, wetlands and other
surface water features to the effects of climate change, springs are often
overlooked. Part of the knowledge gap stems from the complexity of springflow
generation and the rarely field-tested connection between groundwater response
time and groundwater residence time.</p>
<p> This dissertation tests, in a systematic way, different metrics
that may help define criteria to evaluate whether a spring is likely to persist
or desiccate with increasing regional hydrologic stress due to climate change. Field
data was collected over a 4-year period from >80 springs across the
topographically and geologically heterogeneous terrain of the southern Great
Basin. </p>
<p>Throughout this
dissertation, I use a variety of different tools (e.g., remote sensing,
environmental tracers, geospatial analysis) to “attack” this complicated
problem from different angles. I begin by examining factors indicative of
hydrogeologic resistance to major drought. After finding a connection between
groundwater residence time and hydrogeologic resistance, I examine other
factors (e.g., geochemical, topographic, ecological, variability) that are
related to groundwater residence time and also identify where these
relationships fail. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12722000 |
| Date | 27 July 2020 |
| Creators | Zachary Meyers (9174074) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/DEVELOPING_CRITERIA_TO_ASSESS_THE_RESISTANCE_AND_HYDROLOGIC_STABILITY_OF_DESERT_SPRINGS_IN_THE_FACE_OF_A_CHANGING_CLIMATE/12722000 |
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