TY - JOUR A1 - Loritz, Ralf A1 - Hassler, Sibylle K. A1 - Jackisch, Conrad A1 - Allroggen, Niklas A1 - van Schaik, Loes A1 - Wienhöfer, Jan A1 - Zehe, Erwin T1 - Picturing and modeling catchments by representative hillslopes JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - This study explores the suitability of a single hillslope as a parsimonious representation of a catchment in a physically based model. We test this hypothesis by picturing two distinctly different catchments in perceptual models and translating these pictures into parametric setups of 2-D physically based hillslope models. The model parametrizations are based on a comprehensive field data set, expert knowledge and process-based reasoning. Evaluation against streamflow data highlights that both models predicted the annual pattern of streamflow generation as well as the hydrographs acceptably. However, a look beyond performance measures revealed deficiencies in streamflow simulations during the summer season and during individual rainfall-runoff events as well as a mismatch between observed and simulated soil water dynamics. Some of these shortcomings can be related to our perception of the systems and to the chosen hydrological model, while others point to limitations of the representative hillslope concept itself. Nevertheless, our results confirm that representative hillslope models are a suitable tool to assess the importance of different data sources as well as to challenge our perception of the dominant hydrological processes we want to represent therein. Consequently, these models are a promising step forward in the search for the optimal representation of catchments in physically based models. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1225-2017 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 21 IS - 2 SP - 1225 EP - 1249 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jackisch, Conrad A1 - Angermann, Lisa A1 - Allroggen, Niklas A1 - Sprenger, Matthias A1 - Blume, Theresa A1 - Tronicke, Jens A1 - Zehe, Erwin T1 - Form and function in hillslope hydrology: in situ imaging and characterization of flow-relevant structures JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - The study deals with the identification and characterization of rapid subsurface flow structures through pedo- and geo-physical measurements and irrigation experiments at the point, plot and hillslope scale. Our investigation of flow-relevant structures and hydrological responses refers to the general interplay of form and function, respectively. To obtain a holistic picture of the subsurface, a large set of different laboratory, exploratory and experimental methods was used at the different scales. For exploration these methods included drilled soil core profiles, in situ measurements of infiltration capacity and saturated hydraulic conductivity, and laboratory analyses of soil water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The irrigation experiments at the plot scale were monitored through a combination of dye tracer, salt tracer, soil moisture dynamics, and 3-D time-lapse ground penetrating radar (GPR) methods. At the hillslope scale the subsurface was explored by a 3-D GPR survey. A natural storm event and an irrigation experiment were monitored by a dense network of soil moisture observations and a cascade of 2-D time-lapse GPR "trenches". We show that the shift between activated and non-activated state of the flow paths is needed to distinguish structures from overall heterogeneity. Pedo-physical analyses of point-scale samples are the basis for sub-scale structure inference. At the plot and hillslope scale 3-D and 2-D time-lapse GPR applications are successfully employed as non-invasive means to image subsurface response patterns and to identify flow-relevant paths. Tracer recovery and soil water responses from irrigation experiments deliver a consistent estimate of response velocities. The combined observation of form and function under active conditions provides the means to localize and characterize the structures (this study) and the hydrological processes (companion study Angermann et al., 2017, this issue). Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3749-2017 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 21 SP - 3749 EP - 3775 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Angermann, Lisa A1 - Jackisch, Conrad A1 - Allroggen, Niklas A1 - Sprenger, Matthias A1 - Zehe, Erwin A1 - Tronicke, Jens A1 - Weiler, Markus A1 - Blume, Theresa T1 - Form and function in hillslope hydrology: characterization of subsurface flow based on response observations JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - The phrase form and function was established in architecture and biology and refers to the idea that form and functionality are closely correlated, influence each other, and co-evolve. We suggest transferring this idea to hydrological systems to separate and analyze their two main characteristics: their form, which is equivalent to the spatial structure and static properties, and their function, equivalent to internal responses and hydrological behavior. While this approach is not particularly new to hydrological field research, we want to employ this concept to explicitly pursue the question of what information is most advantageous to understand a hydrological system. We applied this concept to subsurface flow within a hillslope, with a methodological focus on function: we conducted observations during a natural storm event and followed this with a hillslope-scale irrigation experiment. The results are used to infer hydrological processes of the monitored system. Based on these findings, the explanatory power and conclusiveness of the data are discussed. The measurements included basic hydrological monitoring methods, like piezometers, soil moisture, and discharge measurements. These were accompanied by isotope sampling and a novel application of 2-D time-lapse GPR (ground-penetrating radar). The main finding regarding the processes in the hillslope was that preferential flow paths were established quickly, despite unsaturated conditions. These flow paths also caused a detectable signal in the catchment response following a natural rainfall event, showing that these processes are relevant also at the catchment scale. Thus, we conclude that response observations (dynamics and patterns, i.e., indicators of function) were well suited to describing processes at the observational scale. Especially the use of 2-D time-lapse GPR measurements, providing detailed subsurface response patterns, as well as the combination of stream-centered and hillslope-centered approaches, allowed us to link processes and put them in a larger context. Transfer to other scales beyond observational scale and generalizations, however, rely on the knowledge of structures (form) and remain speculative. The complementary approach with a methodological focus on form (i.e., structure exploration) is presented and discussed in the companion paper by Jackisch et al. (2017). Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3727-2017 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 21 SP - 3727 EP - 3748 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Schaik, Loes A1 - Palm, Juliane A1 - Klaus, Julian A1 - Zehe, Erwin A1 - Schroeder, Boris T1 - Potential effects of tillage and field borders on within-field spatial distribution patterns of earthworms JF - Biological chemistry N2 - Earthworms play a key role in regulating soil ecosystem functions and services. The small scale variability in earthworm abundance is often found to be very high, which is a problem for representative sampling of earthworm abundance at larger scales. In agricultural fields, soil tillage may influence both the average earthworm abundance as well as the spatial distribution of earthworms. Therefore we studied the abundance and spatial pattern of the different ecological earthworm types, i.e. endogeic, epigeic and anecic earthworms, in four agricultural fields differing in soil tillage (two fields with regular tillage and two fields with conservation tillage) and surrounding land use (other cropped fields or apple orchard and forest). To this aim we sampled earthworms on a total number of 430 plots (50 x 50 cm(2)) using a combination of extraction with mustard solution and hand sorting. The results exhibit large differences in average earthworm abundance between the four fields. Only one of the two fields with conservation tillage had a comparatively very high overall abundance of earthworms. Furthermore, we found a high spatial variability of earthworms within the field scale often exhibiting a patchy distribution. We detected a trend of decreasing earthworm abundances from the field border into the field for different earthworm groups on each of the fields. In three fields with low total earthworm abundance (and only very few epigeic earthworms) there was a short scale autocorrelation with ranges varying strongly for the endogeic earthworms (37.9 m, 62.6 m, and 85.2 m) compared to anecic earthworms (19.8 m, 22.8 m, and 27.4 m). In the field with high abundance, after trend removal, the variogram models for anecic and endogeic earthworms were rejected based on their negative explained variances. On this field, we found only a short scale autocorrelation for the epigeic earthworms with a range of 143 m. Based on these results it seems that ploughing alone cannot explain the differences in abundance and range of autocorrelation found on the four fields. The trend of strongly decreasing earthworm abundance from the field border into the field in the one field with high abundance does indicate that the field border or surrounding land use may also influence the recolonization of fields, but more research is required to provide further evidence for this hypothesis. Due to the very different patterns of earthworm distributions in the fields it remains difficult to recommend an optimal number and distance of samples to obtain a representative earthworm abundance for the field scale. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Earthworms KW - Spatial distribution KW - Autocorrelation KW - Agricultural fields KW - Soil tillage Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.05.015 SN - 0167-8809 SN - 1873-2305 VL - 228 SP - 82 EP - 90 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Schaik, Loes A1 - Palm, Juliane A1 - Klaus, Julian A1 - Zehe, Erwin A1 - Schroeder, Boris T1 - Linking spatial earthworm distribution to macropore numbers and hydrological effectiveness JF - Ecohydrology : ecosystems, land and water process interactions, ecohydrogeomorphology N2 - Due to its high spatial and temporal variability, preferential flow is difficult to measure and quantify. Earthworms create macropores that provide common pathways for preferential flow. Therefore in this article, we link earthworm abundance to macropore numbers and hydrological effectiveness, with the future aim to use species distribution models of earthworms for the spatial parameterization of preferential flow. Earthworms are generally categorized into three ecological types with varying burrowing behaviour, resulting in a different impact on soil hydrological processes. Therefore, we studied the relationships between the abundance of the earthworm ecological types and macropores of different size classes and in different soil depths. The abundance and biomass of earthworms were well correlated to different sizes of macropores in different soil depths. This is mainly the case for the larger, vertically oriented macropores (>6mm diameter), which are generally connected to the soil surface and hydrologically most effective. The correlation of total earthworm biomass and macropores ranges from 072 to 089 for different soil depths. Although there is quite some variation in infiltration patterns, infiltration from macropores into the matrix is profile-specific, as it varies strongly between profiles, but not within one profile. Macropore coating seems to have a larger effect on this macropore matrix interaction than the soil physical properties of the matrix. Although the amount of macropores and their effectiveness are clearly related to the earthworm distribution, the variation in infiltration from macropores to soil matrix should be further studied. KW - macropores KW - spatial parameterization KW - earthworm ecological types KW - infiltration patterns KW - preferential flow Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1358 SN - 1936-0584 SN - 1936-0592 VL - 7 IS - 2 SP - 401 EP - 408 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klaus, Julian A1 - Zehe, Erwin A1 - Elsner, Martin A1 - Palm, Juliane A1 - Schneider, Dorothee A1 - Schroeder, Boris A1 - Steinbeiss, Sibylle A1 - van Schaik, Loes A1 - West, Stephanie T1 - Controls of event-based pesticide leaching in natural soils: A systematic study based on replicated field scale irrigation experiments JF - Journal of hydrology N2 - Tile drains strongly influence the water cycle in agricultural catchment in terms of water quantity and quality. The connectivity of preferential flow to tile drains can create shortcuts for rapid transport of solutes into surface waters. The leaching of pesticides can be linked to a set of main factors including, rainfall characteristics, soil moisture, chemical properties of the pesticides, soil properties, and preferential flow paths. The connectivity of the macropore system to the tile drain is crucial for pesticide leaching. Concurring influences of the main factors, threshold responses and the role of flow paths are still poorly understood. The objective of this study is to investigate these influences by a replica series of three irrigation experiments on a tile drain field site using natural and artificial tracers together with applied pesticides. We found a clear threshold behavior in the initialization of pesticide transport that was different between the replica experiments. Pre-event soil water contributed significantly to the tile drain flow, and creates a flow path for stored pesticides from the soil matrix to the tile drain. This threshold is controlled by antecedent soil moisture and precipitation characteristics, and the interaction between the soil matrix and preferential flow system. Fast transport of pesticides without retardation and the remobilization could be attributed to this threshold and the interaction between the soil matrix and the preferential flow system. Thus, understanding of the detailed preferential flow processes clearly enhances the understanding of pesticide leaching on event and long term scale, and can further improve risk assessment and modeling approaches. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Irrigation experiment KW - Preferential flow KW - Threshold KW - Pesticide transport Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.03.020 SN - 0022-1694 SN - 1879-2707 VL - 512 SP - 528 EP - 539 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jackisch, Conrad A1 - Zehe, Erwin A1 - Samaniego, Luis A1 - Singh, Anupam K. T1 - An experiment to gauge an ungauged catchment: rapid data assessment and eco-hydrological modelling in a data-scarce rural catchment JF - Hydrological sciences journal = Journal des sciences hydrologiques N2 - We conducted a PUB (predictions in ungauged basins) experiment looking at hydrology and crop dynamics in the semi-arid rural Mod catchment in India. The experiment was motivated by the aims (a) to develop a coupled eco-hydrological model capable of analysing land-use strategies concerning crop water need, erosion protection, crop yield and resistivity against droughts and floods, and (b) to assess the feasibility of a strategy for collecting the necessary data in a data-scarce region. Our experiment combines parsimonious data assessment and eco-hydrological model coupling at the lower mesoscale. Linking bottom-up sampling of functionally representative soil classes and top-down regionalization based on spectral properties of the same resulted in a comprehensive distributed data basis for the model. A clear focus on the dominating processes and the catena as the organizing landscape element in the given environmental setting enabled this. We employed the WASA (Water Availability in Semi-Arid environments) model for uncalibrated process-based water balance modelling and integrated a crop simulation subroutine based on the SWAP (Soil Water Atmosphere Plant) model to account for crop dynamics, feedbacks and yield estimation. While we found the data assessment strategy and the hydrological model application largely feasible, in terms of its accounting for scale, processes and model concepts, the simulation of feedbacks with crops was problematic. Contributing to the PUB issue, more general conclusions are drawn concerning spatially-distributed structural information and uncalibrated modelling. [GRAPHICS] Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor F. Hattermann KW - rural KW - model coupling KW - eco-hydrological modelling KW - semi-arid KW - Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB) Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.870662 SN - 0262-6667 SN - 2150-3435 VL - 59 IS - 12 SP - 2103 EP - 2125 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wienhöfer, Jan A1 - Lindenmaier, Falk A1 - Zehe, Erwin T1 - Challenges in understanding the hydrologic controls on the mobility of slow-moving landslides JF - Vadose zone journal N2 - Slow-moving landslides are a wide-spread type of active mass movement, can cause severe damages to infrastructure, and may be a precursor of sudden catastrophic slope failures. Pore-water pressure is commonly regarded as the most important among a number of possible factors controlling landslide velocity. We used high-resolution monitoring data to explore the relations of landslide mobility and hydrologic processes at the Heumoser landslide in Austria, which is characterized by continuous slow movement along a shear zone. Movement rates showed a seasonality that was associated with elevated pore-water pressures. Pore pressure monitoring revealed a system of confined and separated aquifers with differing dynamics. Analysis of a simple infinite slope mobility model showed that small variations in parameters, along with measured pore pressure dynamics, provided a perfect match to our observations. Modeling showed a stabilizing effect of snow cover due to the additional load. This finding was supported by a multiple regression model, which further suggested that effective pore pressures at the slip surface were partially differing from the borehole observations and were related to preferential infiltration and subsurface flow in adjacent areas. It appears that in a setting like the Heumoser landslide, hydrologic processes delicately influence slope mobility through their control on pore pressure dynamics and the weight of the landslide body, which challenges observation and modeling. Moreover, it appears that their simplicity, and especially their high sensitivity to parameter variations, limits the conclusions that can be drawn from infinite slope models. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2136/vzj2009.0182 SN - 1539-1663 VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 496 EP - 511 PB - Soil Science Society of America CY - Madison ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reusser, Dominik Edwin A1 - Zehe, Erwin T1 - Low-cost monitoring of snow height and thermal properties with inexpensive temperature sensors JF - Hydrological processes N2 - Small, self-recording temperature sensors were installed at several heights along a metal rod at five locations in a case study catchment. For each sensor, the presence or absence of snow cover was determined on the basis of its insulating effect and the resulting reduction of the diurnal temperature oscillations. Sensor coverage was then converted into a time series of snow height for each location. Additionally, cold content was calculated. Snow height and cold content provide valuable information for spring flood prediction. Good agreement of estimated snow heights with reference measurements was achieved and increased discharge in the study catchment coincided with low cold content of the snow cover. The results of the proposed distributed assessment of snow cover and snow state show great potential for (i) flood warning, (ii) assimilation of snow state data and (iii) modelling snowmelt process. KW - snow measurements KW - cold content KW - temperature index approach KW - heat diffusion KW - temperature Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7937 SN - 0885-6087 SN - 1099-1085 VL - 25 IS - 12 SP - 1841 EP - 1852 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reusser, Dominik Edwin A1 - Buytaert, W. A1 - Zehe, Erwin T1 - Temporal dynamics of model parameter sensitivity for computationally expensive models with the Fourier amplitude sensitivity test JF - Water resources research N2 - The quest for improved hydrological models is one of the big challenges in hydrology. When discrepancies are observed between simulated and measured discharge, it is essential to identify which algorithms may be responsible for poor model behavior. Particularly in complex hydrological models, different process representations may dominate at different moments and interact with each other, thus highly complicating this task. This paper investigates the analysis of the temporal dynamics of parameter sensitivity as a way to disentangle the simulation of a hydrological model and identify dominant parameterizations. Three existing methods (the Fourier amplitude sensitivity test, the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test, and Sobol's method) are compared by applying them to a TOPMODEL implementation in a small mountainous catchment in the tropics. For the major part of the simulation period, the three methods give comparable results, while the Fourier amplitude sensitivity test is much more computationally efficient. This method is also applied to the complex hydrological model WaSiM-ETH implemented in the Weisseritz catchment, Germany. A qualitative model validation was performed on the basis of the identification of relevant model components. The validation revealed that the saturation deficit parameterization of WaSiM-ETH is highly susceptible to parameter interaction and lack of identifiability. We conclude that temporal dynamics of model parameter sensitivity can be a powerful tool for hydrological model analysis, especially to identify parameter interaction as well as the dominant hydrological response modes. Finally, an open source implementation of the Fourier amplitude sensitivity test is provided. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2010WR009947 SN - 0043-1397 VL - 47 IS - 4 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -