Simulating the hydrogeologic setting of peatlands in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands, Alaska

Ground-water flow simulations were constructed to evaluate the interaction between ground water and wetlands systems, focusing on peatlands in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands, south-central Alaska. Peatland systems occur in both recharge and discharge zones along transects simulated in computer models,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) N.C.), 2008-03, Vol.28 (1), p.92-106
Main Authors: Reeve, A. S., Gracz, Mike
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Coastal Sciences
Discharge
Ecology
Environmental Management
Flow simulation
Freshwater
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Geologic units
geology
ground water
Groundwater
Groundwater flow
groundwater recharge
hydraulic conductivity
Hydrogeology
hydrologic models
Landscape Ecology
Life Sciences
Lowlands
Mathematical models
Modelling
Overland flow
Peatlands
Piezometric head
Recharge
Regular Submissions
Sediments
Sensitivity analysis
Simulation
simulation modeling
simulation models
Surface flow
Surface runoff
Water flow
Water table
Wetlands
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Summary:Ground-water flow simulations were constructed to evaluate the interaction between ground water and wetlands systems, focusing on peatlands in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands, south-central Alaska. Peatland systems occur in both recharge and discharge zones along transects simulated in computer models, whereas toe slope wetlands occurred in discharge zones. Sensitivity analysis indicates that hydraulic conductance of subsurface units has a strong influence on the rates and directions of ground-water flow exchanged between peatland systems and the surrounding mineral sediments, and needs to be further characterized to assess the hydrologic function of wetlands in the Kenai Lowlands. Perching of the water table was simulated in several modeling scenarios, altering ground-water flux rates to wetlands and shifting recharge zones to topographically lower areas. Runoff (saturated surface flow and shallow interflow) was the dominant flux in all simulations. Our exploratory simulations suggest three avenues for future research using computer modeling to evaluate wetland hydrologic function in the Kenai Peninsula: 1) improved simulation methods to better characterize ground-water perching and overland flow, 2) better characterization of the distribution and hydrogeologic parameters of geologic units, and 3) collection of hydraulic head data in and near representative wetland systems to calibrate computer simulations.
ISSN:0277-5212
1943-6246
DOI:10.1672/07-71.1