One of the concerns associated with the prospect of global warming is its potential consequences in the hydrologic regime. Changes in the amount and seasonality of precipitation may have far-reaching implications to the patterns of water and nutrient movement in terrestrial ecosystems. The current state of knowledge on the interrelations and transfers of water, energy, and chemical compounds is insufficient to adequately model these processes, thus hampering predictive efforts of the true environmental impacts of global warming. A better understanding of Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) is needed over a range of scales, in a representative cross section of global ecosystems.
- Investigate and describe the linkages between soil hydrology and solute transport in the soil zone through detailed accounting of water and chemical flux at points on a hillside.
- Apply carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopes to trace the movement of water and solutes.
- Assess the sensitivity of trace gas budgets to changing land use and climate.
- Determine the partitioning of hydrologic pathways as basin size increases.
- Investigate the relation of radiation balance, aspect, and topography on snowmelt rates in a forest environment, and the streamflow response.
- Investigate hydrologic and geochemical interactions between hillslope and the riparian zone