Whither field hydrology? the need for discovery science and outrageous hydrological hypotheses

Water Resources Research

Volumn 51, Issue 8, 2015, Pages 5919-5928

  Burt, T P ^a   McDonnell, J J ^b,c  

^a DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

hillslope hydrology; runoff generation; Water Resources Research

Indexed keywords

HYDROLOGY; KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEMS; RUNOFF; WATERSHEDS;

DATA COLLECTION; DISCOVERY SCIENCE; FIELD HYDROLOGY; HILLSLOPE HYDROLOGY; MODEL PARAMETERIZATION; RUNOFF GENERATION; RUNOFF PROCESS; WATERSHED HYDROLOGY;

WATER RESOURCES;

FIELDWORK; HEADWATER; HILLSLOPE; HYDROLOGY; PARAMETERIZATION; RUNOFF; WATER RESOURCE; WATERSHED;

EID: 84941985258     PISSN: 00431397     EISSN: 19447973     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/2014WR016839     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. Abdul, A. S., and, R. W. Gillham, (1984), Laboratory studies of the effects of the capillary fringe on streamflow generation, Water Resour. Res., 20 (6), 691-698, doi: 10.1029/WR020i006p00691.
2. Ali, G., C. J. Oswald, C. Spence, L. H. Cammeraat, K. J. McGuire, T. Meixner, and, S. M. Reaney, (2013), Towards a unified threshold-based hydrological theory: Necessary components and recurring challenges, Hydrol. Processes, 27, 313-318.
3. Alila, Y., P. K. Kuras, M. Schnorbus, and, R. Hudson, (2009), Forests and floods: A new paradigm sheds light on age-old controversies, Water Resour. Res., 45, W08416, doi: 10.1029/2008WR007207.
4. Anderson, S. P., W. E. Dietrich, D. R. Montgomery, R. Torres, M. E. Conrad, and, K. Loague, (1997), Subsurface flow paths in a steep, unchanneled catchment, Water Resour. Res., 33 (12), 2637-2653, doi: 10.1029/97WR02595.
5. Baker, V. R., and, C. R. Twidale, (1991), The re-enchantment of geomorphology, Geomorphology, 4, 73-100.
6. Band, L. E., et al., (2014), Ecohydrological flow networks in the subsurface, Ecohydrology, 7 (4), 1073-1078, doi: 10.1002/eco.1525.
7. Barthold, F. K., and, R. A. Woods, (2015), Stromflow generation: A meta-analysis of field evidence from small, forested catchments, Water Resour. Res., 51, 3730-3753, doi: 10.1002/2014WR016221.
8. Betson, R. P., (1964), What is watershed runoff?, J. Geophys. Res., 69 (8), 1541-1552.
9. Betson, R. P., and, J. B. Marius, (1969), Source areas of storm runoff, Water Resour. Res., 5 (3), 574-582, doi: 10.1029/WR005i003p00574.
10. Beven, K., and, P. Germann, (2013), Macropores and water flow in soils revisited, Water Resour. Res., 49, 3071-3092, doi: 10.1002/wrcr.20156.
11. Beven, K. J., (2006), Streamflow Generation Processes, 431 pp., IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK
12. Birkel, C., C. Soulsby, and, D. Tetzlaff, (2015), Conceptual modeling to assess how the interplay of hydrological connectivity, catchment storage and tracer dynamics controls nonstationary water age estimates, Hydrol. Processes, 29 (13), 2956-2969, doi: 10.1002/hyp.10414.
13. Bloschl, G., (2013), Runoff Prediction in Ungauged Basins: Synthesis Across Processes, Place and Scales, Cambridge Univ. Press, NY
14. Branfireun, B., and, N. Roulet, (1998), The baseflow and stormflow hydrology of a Precambrian shield peatland, Hydrol. Processes, 12, 57-72.
15. Brooks, R. J., H. R. Barnard, R. Coulombe, and, J. J. McDonnell, (2010), Two water worlds paradox: Trees and streams return different water pools to the hydrosphere, Nat. Geosci., 3, 100-104, doi: 10.1038/NGEO722.
16. Burt, T. P., (1978), Automatic fluid scanning switch tensiometer system, Tech. Bull. 21, 33 pp., Br. Geomorphol. Res. Group, GeoBooks, Norwitch, UK
17. Burt, T. P., and, D. P. Butcher, (1985), On the generation of delayed peaks in stream discharge, J. Hydrol., 78, 361-378.
18. Davis, W. M., (1926), The value of outrageous hypotheses in geology, Science, 63, 463-468.
19. Dooge, J. C. I., (1986), Looking for hydrologic law, Water Resour Res., 22 (95), 46S-58S, doi: 10.1029/WR022i09sp0046S.
20. Dunne, T., (1983), Relation of field studies and modeling in the prediction of storm runoff, J. Hydrol., 65 (1), 25-48.
21. Dunne, T., and, R. D. Black, (1970a), An experimental investigation of runoff production in permeable soils, Water Resour. Res., 6 (2), 478-490.
22. Dunne, T., and, R. D. Black, (1970b), Partial area contributions to storm runoff in a small New England watershed, Water Resour. Res., 6 (5), 1296-1311.
23. Evaristo, J., S. Jasechko, and, J. J. McDonnell, (2015), Global separation of plant transpiration from groundwater and streamflow, Nature, doi: 10.1038/nature14983, in press.
24. Famiglietti, J., (2012), Written Testimony to the US Congress, Washington, DC [Available at https://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/072512-FAMIGLIETTI.pdf.]
25. Famiglietti, J. S., M. Lo, S. L. Ho, J. Bethune, K. J. Anderson, T. H. Syed, C. R. de Linage, and, M. Rodell, (2011), Satellites measure recent rates of groundwater depletion in California's Central Valley, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L03403, doi: 10.1029/2010GL046442.
26. Freeze, A., (1972), Role of subsurface flow in generating surface runoff: 2. Upstream source areas, Water Resour. Res., 8 (5), 1272-1283, doi: 10.1029/WR008i005p01272.
27. Germann, P. F., and, K. Beven, (1981), Water flow in soil macropores I. An experimental approach, J. Soil Sci., 32, 1-13.
28. Germann, P. F., and, K. Beven, (1985), Kinematic wave approximation to infiltration into soils with sorbing macropores, Water Resour. Res., 21 (7), 990-996, doi: 10.1029/WR021i007p00990.
29. Gerwin, W., T. Raab, D. Biemelt, O. Bens, and, R. F. Hüttl, (2009), The artificial water catchment "Chicken Creek" as an observatory for critical zone processes and structures, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 6, 1769-1795, doi: 10.5194/hessd-6-1769-2009.
30. Gevaert, A. I., et al., (2014), Hillslope-scale experiment demonstrates the role of convergence during two-step saturation, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18 (9), 3681-3692.
31. Goldsmith, G., L. Munoz-Billers, F. Holwerda, J. J. McDonnell, H. Asbjornsen, and, T. E. Dawson, (2011), Stable isotopes reveal linkages among echydrological processes in a seasonally dry tropical montane cloud forest, Ecohydrology, 5 (6), 779-790, doi: 10.1002/eco.268.
32. Hale, C., and, J. J. McDonnell, (2015), Effect of bedrock permeability on mean transit time scaling relations (1) A multiscale catchment intercomparison, Water Resour. Res., in review.
33. Hawkins, R. H., (2015), Curve number method: Time to think anew?, J. Hyrol. Eng., 19, 1059-1059, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000954.
34. Hewlett, J. D., and, A. R. Hibbert, (1963), Moisture and energy conditions on a sloping soil mass during drainage, J. Geophys. Res., 68 (4), 1081-1087.
35. Hrachowicz, M., et al., (2013), A decade of predictions in ungauged basins (PUB)-A review, Hydrol. Sci. J., 58 (6), 1198-1255, doi: 10.1080/02626667.2013.803183.
36. Jasechko, S., Z. D. Sharp, J. J. Gibson, S. J. Birks, Y. Yi, and, P. J. Fawcett, (2013), Terrestrial water fluxes dominated by transpiration, Nature, 496, 347-350, doi: 10.1038/nature11983.
37. Jensco, K. G., B. L. McGlynn, M. N. Gooseff, S. M. Wondzell, K. E. Bencala, and, L. A. Marshall, (2009), Hydrological connectivity between landscapes and streams: Transferring reach- and plot- scale understanding to the catchment scale, Water Resour. Res., 45, W04428, doi: 10.1029/2008WR007225.
38. Kendall, C., J. J. McDonnell, and, W. Gu, (2001), A look inside 'black box'hydrograph separation models: A study at the Hydrohill catchment, Hydrol. Processes, 15 (10), 1877-1902.
39. Kennedy, B. A., (1983), On outrageous hypothesis in geography, Geography 68 (4), 322-326.
40. Kirchner, J. W., (2003), A double paradox in catchment hydrology and geochemistry, Hydrol. Processes, 17, 871-874, doi: 10.1002/hyp.5108.
41. Kirchner, J. W., (2006), Getting the right answers for the right reasons: Linking measurements, analyses, and models to advance the science of hydrology, Water Resour. Res., 42, W03S04, doi: 10.1029/2005WR004362.
42. Kirchner, J. W., X. Feng, C. Neal, and, A. J. Robson, (2004), The fine structure of water-quality dynamics: The (high-frequency) wave of the future, Hydrol. Processes, 18, 1353-1359.
43. Kirkby, M. J., (Ed.) (2004), Geomorphology: Critical Concepts in Geography, Volume II, Hillslope Geomorphology, p. 16, Routledge, London.
44. Klemeš, V., (1986), Dilettantism in hydrology: Transition or destiny?, Water Resour. Res., 22 (9S), 177S-188S.
45. Laine-Kaulio, H., S. Backnäs, T. Karvonen, H. Koivusalo, and, J. J. McDonnell, (2014), Lateral subsurface stormflow and solute transport in a forested hillslope: A combined measurement and modeling approach, Water Resour. Res., 50, 8159-8178, doi: 10.1002/2014WR015381.
46. Lall, U., (2014), Debate-The future of hydrological sciences: A (common) path forward? One water. One world. Many climes. Many souls, Water Resour. Res., 50, 5335-5341, doi: 10.1002/2014WR015402.
47. Martinec, J., (1975), Subsurface flow from snowmelt traced by tritium, Water Resour. Res., 11 (3), 496-498, doi: 10.1029/WR011i003p00496.
48. McDonnell, J. J., (2014), The two water worlds hypothesis: ecohydrological separation of water between streams and trees?, WIREs Water, 1, 323-329, doi: 10.1002/wat2.1027.
49. McDonnell, J. J., (2013), Are all runoff processes the same?, Hydrol. Processes, 27, 4103-4111, doi: 10.1002/hyp.10076.
50. McDonnell, J. J., and, K. Beven, (2014), Debates: The future of hydrological sciences: A (common) path forward? A call to action aimed at understanding velocities, celerities and residence time distributions of the headwater hydrograph, Water Resour. Res., 50, 5342-5350, doi: 10.1002/2013WR015141.
51. McDonnell, J. J., (1990), A rational for old water discharge through macropores in a steep, humid catchment, Water Resour. Res., 26 (11), 2821-2832.
52. McDonnell, J. J., et al., (2007), Moving beyond heterogeneity and process complexity: A new vision for watershed hydrology, Water Resour. Res., 43, W07301, doi: 10.1029/2006WR005467.
53. Montgomery, D. R., W. E. Dietrich, R. Torres, S. P. Anderson, J. T. Heffner, and, K. Loague, (1997), Hydrologic response of a steep, unchanneled valley to natural and applied rainfall, Water Resour. Res., 33 (1), 91-109, doi: 10.1029/96WR02985.
54. Mosley, M. P., (1979), Streamflow generation in a forested watershed, New Zealand, Water Resour. Res., 15 (4), 795-806, doi: 10.1029/WR015i004p00795.
55. Pearce, A. J., M. K. Stewart, and, M. G. Sklash, (1986), Storm runoff generation in humid headwater catchments: 1. Where does the water come from?, Water Resour. Res., 22 (8), 1263-1272, doi: 10.1029/WR022i008p01263.
56. Peters, D. L., J. M. Buttle, C. H. Taylor, and, B. D. LaZerte, (1995), Runoff production in a forested, shallow soil Canadian Shield basin, Water Resour. Res. 31 (5), 1291-1304.
57. Pinder, G. F., and, J. F. Jones, (1969), Determination of the ground-water component of peak discharge from the chemistry of total runoff, Water Resour. Res., 5 (2), 438-445, doi: 10.1029/WR005i002p00438.
58. Ragan, R. M., (1968), An experimental investigation of partial-area contributions, Int. Assoc. Sci. Hydrol. Publ., 76, 241-249.
59. Robertson, M., (1980), Biology in the 1980s, plus or minus a decade, Nature, 285, 358, doi: 10.1038/285358a0.
60. Rodhe, A., L. Nyberg, and, K. Bishop, (1996), Transit times for water in a small till catchment from a step shift in the oxygen 18 content of the water input, Water Resour. Res., 32 (12), 3497-3511.
61. Rothacher, J., (1965), Streamflow from small watersheds on the western slope of the Cascade Range of Oregon, Water Resour. Res., 1 (1), 125-134.
62. Scholl, M. A., and, S. F. Murphy, (2014), Precipitation isotopes link regional climate patterns to water supply in a tropical mountain forest, eastern Puerto Rico, Water Resour. Res., 50, 4305-4322, doi: 10.1002/2013WR014413.
63. Seibert, J., and, J. J. McDonnell, (2002), On the dialog between experimentalist and modeler in catchment hydrology: Use of soft data for multicriteria model calibration, Water Resour. Res, 38 (11), 1241, doi: 10.1029/2001WR000978.
64. Selker, J., N. van de Giesen, M. Westhoff, W. Luxemburg, and, M. B. Parlange, (2006), Fiber optics opens window on stream dynamics, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L24401, doi: 10.1029/2006GL027979.
65. Shiklomanov, A. I., R. B. Lammers, C. J. Vorosmarty, (2002), Widespread decline in hydrological monitoring threatens Pan-Arctic Research, Eos Trans. AGU, 83 (2), 13-17, doi: 10.1029/2002EO000007.
66. Sivapalan, M., et al., (2003), IAHS decade on predictions in ungauged basins (PUB), 2003-2012: Shaping an exciting future for the hydrologic sciences, Hydrol. Sci. J., 48 (6), 857-880, doi: 10.1623/hysj.48.6.857.51421.
67. Sivapalan, M., H. H. G. Savenije, and, G. Bloschl, (2012), Socio-hydrology: A new science of people and water, Hydrol. Processes, 26 (8), 1270-1276, doi: 10.1002/hyp.8426.
68. Sklash, M. G., and, R. N. Farvolden, (1979), The role of groundwater in storm runoff, J. Hydrol., 43, 45-65.
69. Sklash, M. G., M. K. Stewart, and, A. J. Pearce, (1986), Storm runoff generation in humid headwater catchments: 2. A case study of hillslope and low-order stream response, Water Resour. Res., 22 (8), 1273-1282, doi: 10.1029/WR022i008p01273.
70. Sloan, P. G., and, I. D. Moore, (1984), Modeling subsurface stormflow on steeply sloping forested watersheds, Water Resour. Res., 20 (12), 1815-1822.
71. Sopper, W. E., and, H. W. Lull, (1965), Streamflow characteristics of physiographic units in the northeast, Water Resour. Res., 1 (1), 115-124.
72. Soulsby, C., F. Birkel, J. Geris, and, D. Tetzlaff, (2015), Spatial aggregation of time-variant stream water ages in urbanizing catchments, Hydrol. Processes, 29 (13), 3038-3050, doi: 10.1002/hyp.10500.
73. Spence, C., and, S. Mengistu, (2015), Deployment of an unmanned aerial system to assist in mapping an intermittent stream, Hydrol. Processes, doi: 10.1002/hyp.10597.
74. Sutanto, S. J., B. van den Hurk, P. A. Dirmeyer, S. I. Seneviratne, T. Rockmann, K. E. Trenberth, E. M. Blyth, J. Wenninger, and, G. Hoffmann, (2014), A perspective on isotope versus non-isotope approaches to determine the contribution of transpiration to total evaporation, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 2815-2827, doi: 10.5194/hess-18-2815-2014.
75. Taylor, R. G., C. M. C. Todd, L. Kongola, L. Maurice, E. Nahozya, H. Sanga, and, A. M. MacDonald, (2013), Evidence of the dependence of groundwater resources on extreme rainfall in East Africa, Nat. Clim. Change, 3, 374-378, doi: 10.1038/nclimate1731.
76. Tromp-van Meerveld, H. J., and, J. J. McDonnell, (2006), Threshold relations in subsurface stormflow: 2. The fill and spill hypothesis, Water Resour. Res., 42 (2), W02411, doi: 10.1029/2004WR003800.
77. Torres, R., W. E. Dietrich, D. R. Montgomery, S. P. Anderson, and, K. Loague, (1998), Unsaturated zone processes and the hydrologic response of a steep, unchanneled catchment, Water Resour. Res., 34 (8), 1865-1879, doi: 10.1029/98WR01140.
78. Uhlenbrook, S., (2006), Catchment hydrology-A science in which all processes are preferential, Hydrol. Processes, 20 (16), 3581-3585.
79. Wagener, T., M. Sivapalan, P. A. Troch, B. L. McGlynn, C. J. Harman, H. V. Gupta, P. Kumar, P. S. C. Rao, N. B. Basu, and, J. Wilson, (2010), The future of hydrology: An evolving science for a changing world, Water Resour. Res., 46, W05301, doi: 10.1029/2009WR008906.
80. Wagener, T., et al., (2012), It takes a community to raise a hydrologist: The Modular Curriculum for Hydrologic Advancement (MOCHA), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 3405-3418, doi: 10.5194/hess-16-3405-2012.
81. Wang, W., and, D. E. Pataki, (2012), Drivers of spatial variability in urban plant and soil isotopic composition in the Los Angeles basin, Plant Soil, 350 (1-2), 323-338.
82. Wang-Erlandsson, L., R. J. van der Ent, L. J. Gordon, and, H. H. G. Savenije, (2014), Contrasting roles of interception and transpiration in the hydrological cycle-Part 1: Temporal characteristics over land, Earth Syst. Dyn., 5, 441-469.
83. Ward, A. S., M. N. Gooseff, M. Fitzgerald, T. J. Voltz, and, K. Singha, (2014), Spatially distributed characterization of hyporheic solute transport during baseflow recession in a headwater mountain stream using electrical geophysical imaging, J. Hydrol., 517, 362-377, doi: 10.1016/jhydrol.2014.05.036.
84. Western, A. W., and, R. B. Grayson, (1998), The Tarrawarra data set: Soil moisture patterns, soil characteristics, and hydrological flux measurements, Water Resour. Res., 34 (11), 3035-3044.
85. Western, A. W., R. B. Grayson, and, T. R. Green, (1999), The Tarrawarra project: High resolution spatial measurement, modelling and analysis of soil moisture and hydrological response, Hydrol. Processes, 13, 633-652.