Peter Regier

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Authors: Peter Regier1, Kyongho Son2, Xingyuan Chen2, Yilin Fang2, Peishi Jiang2, Micah Taylor2, Wilfred M Wollheim3, James Stegen2Affiliations 1Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, United States2Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States3University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United StatesAbstract:Hyporheic zones regulate biogeochemical processes in streams and rivers, but high spatiotemporal heterogeneity makes it difficult to predict how these processes scale from individual reaches to river basins. Recent work applying allometric scaling (i.e., power-law relationships between size and function) to river networks provides a new paradigm for understanding cumulative hyporheic biogeochemical processes. We used previously published model predictions of reach-scale hyporheic aerobic respiration to explore patterns in allometric scaling across two climatically divergent basins with differing characteristics in the Pacific Northwest, United States. In the model, hydrologic exchange fluxes (HEFs) regulate hyporheic respiration so we examined how HEFs might influence allometric scaling of respiration. We found consistent scaling behaviors where HEFs were either very low or very high, but differences between basins when HEFs were moderate. Our findings provide initial model-generated hypotheses for factors influencing allometric scaling of hyporheic respiration. These hypotheses can be used to optimize new data generation efforts aimed at developing predictive understanding of allometries that can, in turn, be used to scale biogeochemical dynamics across watersheds.