Ephemeral Hydrology

Lagged streamflow depletion due to pumping-induced stream drying: Incorporation into analytical streamflow depletion estimation methods

Water management often requires accounting for reductions in streamflow caused by groundwater pumping (‘streamflow depletion’). Since streamflow depletion cannot be quantified from observational data, it is typically modeled. Analytical depletion …

Controls on Discharge and Drying in an Intermittent Grassland Stream: Temporal and Network Variability

Intermittent streams are prevalent worldwide, yet the understanding of drivers of their changing flow patterns remains incomplete. We examined hydrological changes spanning four decades (1982–2020) in Kings Creek, an intermittent grassland stream …

Fungal communities across a surface water permanence gradient in a non-perennial prairie stream network

Over half of the world’s streams are non-perennial, drying at some point in space and time, but most research on stream-inhabiting fungi comes from perennial (continuously flowing) streams. To improve our understanding of fungal communities in …

STICr: An open-source package and workflow for stream temperature, intermittency, and conductivity (STIC) data

Non-perennial streams constitute over half the world's stream miles but are not commonly included in streamflow monitoring networks. As a result, Stream Temperature, Intermittency, and Conductivity (STIC) loggers are widely used for characterizing …

Biogeochemical and community ecology responses to the wetting of non-perennial streams

Transitions between dry and wet hydrologic states are the defining characteristic of non-perennial rivers and streams, which constitute the majority of the global river network. Although past work has focused on stream drying characteristics, there …

Nonlinear trends in signatures characterizing non-perennial US streams

Stream drying patterns – including duration, timing, and dry-down rates – affect aquatic ecosystems and nutrient exports in non-perennial streams. Because hydrologic processes are often nonlinear, changes in drying may also be nonlinear, but analyses …

Exploring drivers of groundwater recharge at Konza Prairie (Flint Hills region, Kansas, USA) using transfer function noise models

Intermittent streams, which lack continuous surface water flow throughout the year, constitute a large proportion of global waterways and influence downstream water quality and quantity. Stream intermittency has been increasing in the Great Plains …

Changes in Water Age During Dry-Down of a Non-Perennial Stream

Non-perennial streams, which lack year-round flow, are widespread globally. Identifying the sources of water that sustain flow in non-perennial streams is necessary to understand their potential impacts on downstream water resources, and guide water …

Predicting Streamflow Duration From Crowd-Sourced Flow Observations

Streamflow duration is important for aquatic ecosystems and assigning stream protection status. This study predicts streamflow duration, represented as the fraction of time with flow each year, using a combination of sensor data and crowd-sourced …

How low can you go? Widespread challenges in measuring low stream discharge and a path forward

Low flows pose unique challenges for accurately quantifying streamflow. Current field methods are not optimized to measure these conditions, which in turn, limits research and management. In this essay, we argue that the lack of methods for measuring …