Hydrogeology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Letter |

    In the course of the transfer of precipitation into rivers, water is temporarily stored in reservoirs with different residence times. Analyses of precipitation and discharge records from Nepal suggest that in addition to snow and glacier melt and evapotranspiration, groundwater storage in a fractured basement aquifer also affects the annual discharge cycle of Himalayan rivers.

    • Christoff Andermann
    • , Laurent Longuevergne
    •  & Richard Gloaguen

  • News & Views |

    The relationship between soil moisture and rainfall has proved tricky to pin down. An analysis of close to 4,000 Sahelian storms suggests that certain soil-moisture patterns enhance the likelihood of rainfall.

    • Randal D. Koster

  • Letter |

    Evapotranspiration of soil moisture can affect rainfall and the development of convective storms. Satellite observations of cloud and land-surface temperatures over the Sahel suggest that convective storms are more likely to form over strong mesoscale gradients in soil moisture.

    • Christopher M. Taylor
    • , Amanda Gounou
    •  & Martin De Kauwe

  • Letter |

    Mixing in the Southern Ocean plays an important part in large-scale ocean circulation and in climate. An analysis of high-resolution hydrographic profiles from the Argo float programme reveals that the seasonal cycle of mixing in the Southern Ocean is controlled by seasonal variations in the wind stress, in particular over flat topography.

    • Lixin Wu
    • , Zhao Jing
    •  & Martin Visbeck

  • News & Views |

    Climate models suggest that deficits in soil moisture can lead to more frequent and severe hot summer temperatures. Observations confirm this effect, but only for relatively dry regions, where evaporation is limited by available moisture.

    • Lisa Alexander

  • News & Views |

    How groundwater flow varies when long-term external conditions change is little documented. Geochemical evidence shows that sea-level rise at the end of the last glacial period led to a shift in the flow patterns of coastal groundwater beneath Florida.

    • Ward E. Sanford

  • Letter |

    Sea-level fluctuations can have a profound impact on coastal groundwater circulation. The geochemistry of groundwater in the Floridan aquifer system suggests that the fresh water in the upper aquifer was emplaced primarily during the last glacial period, when sea level was more than 100 m lower than at present.

    • Sheila K. Morrissey
    • , Jordan F. Clark
    •  & Martin Stute

  • News & Views |

    The question of how soil moisture deficits affect runoff efficiency has flummoxed river forecasters for decades. Simulations with four land surface models reveal that soil moisture can have an influence that is on a par with early season snowpack.

    • Thomas C. Pagano

  • Commentary |

    Aquifers are the primary source of drinking water for up to two billion people. To avoid overexploitation, lengthy renewal periods of some aquifers must be taken into account.

    • Tom Gleeson
    • , Jonathan VanderSteen
    •  & Yangxiao Zhou

  • Letter |

    The onset of fluvial erosion in an area of tectonic uplift is thought to reflect the timing of the uplift. Geomorphological data from the Yellow River in Tibet, indicate that the rapid incision of this river channel occurred as a result of climate change, at least six million years after the onset of plateau uplift.

    • William H. Craddock
    • , Eric Kirby
    •  & Jianhui Liu

  • News & Views |

    Hydrologists have thought of soil as a kind of giant sponge that soaks up precipitation and slowly releases it to streams. But according to new evidence the soil water used by vegetation may be largely decoupled from the water that flows through soils to streams.

    • Fred M. Phillips

  • Progress Article |

    Arsenic levels in shallow groundwater in the Bengal Basin exceed thresholds for safe drinking water. Groundwater modelling indicates that deep wells that reach safe water below 150 m could remain safe for centuries if used for domestic water only, whereas the intensive use of deep groundwater for irrigation could contaminate this resource within decades.

    • W. G. Burgess
    • , M. A. Hoque
    •  & K. M. Ahmed

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