Conference presentation
Groundwater discharge into an estuary using spatially distributed radon time series and radium isotopes
ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting (Granada, Spain, 22/02/2015 - 27/02/2015)
25/02/2015
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Abstract
We quantify submarine groundwater discharge into a wetland-surrounded estuary (Hat Head, Australia) using radon (222Rn) and radium isotopes (223Ra and 224Ra). High temporal (1 hour time steps) and spatial (4 time series stations) resolution radon observations were used to determine where groundwater discharge is prevalent in the estuary and to reduce uncertainty related to the mass balance model. The results show that using multiple 222Rn time series stations decreased the overall uncertainty of groundwater discharge estimates from about 40% to 22%. The calculated groundwater flux was 55.8±12.5 and 34.1±5.27 cm/d in wet and dry seasons, respectively, from the 222Rn mass balance. The spatially distributed stations detected a well-defined small area located two kilometers upstream from the mouth of the estuary as a groundwater discharging hotspot. The 223Ra and 224Ra mass balance resulted in 65.2±18.1 and 84.4±48.7 cm/d in the wet and 18.8±5.6 and 20.4±6.7 cm/d in the dry of total groundwater discharge, respectively. This study demonstrates that a comprehensive spatial and temporal sampling strategy can produce groundwater discharge estimates with lower uncertainty and provides additional insight on where groundwater enters surface waters.
Details
- Title
- Groundwater discharge into an estuary using spatially distributed radon time series and radium isotopes
- Creators
- Mahmood Sadat-NooriIsaac R Santos - Southern Cross UniversityDamien T Maher - Southern Cross UniversityChristian J Sanders - Southern Cross UniversityLuciana M Sanders
- Conference
- ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting (Granada, Spain, 22/02/2015 - 27/02/2015)
- Identifiers
- 991012845996402368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; National Marine Science Centre; School of Environment, Science and Engineering; Science
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation