Spatiotemporal Drivers of Hydrochemical Variability in a Tropical
Glacierized Watershed in the Andes
Abstract
Little is currently known about the hydrochemistry of tropical
glacierized mountain watersheds, which are among the most vulnerable
systems in the world. Glacier retreat may impact their export of
nutrients, with possible implications for downstream ecosystems. Solute
export depends on dynamic and heterogeneous processes within the
watershed, which calls for investigations of the different factors
controlling hydrochemical variability. To examine these in a sub-humid
glacierized watershed in Ecuador, we implemented a hydrological model
that incorporates reactive transport, RT-Flux-PIHM. Our results
demonstrate that calibrating the model to hydrochemical in addition to
hydrological data is important for constraining groundwater fluxes,
which we found to contribute 78% of stream discharge and to include
35% of the total glacial meltwater. Stream chemistry fluctuations are
strongly controlled by varying contributions of groundwater, which
contains high concentrations of reactive ions predominantly sourced from
silicate mineral dissolution. The spatial variability in these
concentrations, however, is driven more by heterogeneous
evapotranspiration resulting from sharp montane vegetation gradients.
With this concentrating effect, evapotranspiration also largely
determines seasonal patterns in groundwater chemistry, with highest
concentrations occurring in dry seasons, even when dissolution rates are
low due to low soil moisture. While groundwater serves as a primary
end-member source of streamwater, glacier melt-dominated surface runoff
acts as a second source that imposes dilution events on an otherwise
chemostatic concentration and discharge (C-Q) graph. Glacier melt
overall decreases stream concentrations and increases discharge, with
the latter effect dominating such that solute exports (C*Q) increase by
23% with melt.