"Impacts of Evaporation-Induced Groundwater Upwelling on Mixing Dynamic" by Xiaolong Geng, Michel C. Boufadel et al.
 

Impacts of Evaporation-Induced Groundwater Upwelling on Mixing Dynamics in Shallow Wetlands

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-16-2023

Abstract

Groundwater mixing dynamics play a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycling of shallow wetlands. In this paper, we conducted groundwater simulations to investigate the combined effects of evaporation and local heterogeneity on mixing dynamics in shallow wetland sediments. The results show that evaporation causes groundwater and solutes to upwell from deep sediments to the surface. As the solute reaches the surface, evaporation enhances the accumulation of the solute near the surface, resulting in a higher solute concentration than in deep sediments. Mapping of flow topology reveals that local heterogeneity generates spatially varied mixing patterns mainly along preferential flow pathways. The upwelling of groundwater induced by surface evaporation through heterogeneous sediments is likely to create distinct mixing hotspots that differ spatially from those generated by lateral preferential flows driven by large-scale hydraulic gradients, which enhances the overall mixing in the subsurface. These findings have strong implications for biogeochemical processing in wetlands.

Identifier

85166737847 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104642

e-ISSN

19448007

ISSN

00948276

Issue

15

Volume

50

Grant

2130595

Fund Ref

National Science Foundation

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