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Hydro-Biogeochemical Process Dynamics in the Groundwater-Surface Water Interaction Zone


EMSL Project ID
49160

Abstract

This is a renewal proposal for a previous collaborative effort between the PNNL Scientific Focus Area (SFA) and EMSL.PNNL Scientific Focus Area. The PNNL SFA will develop a predictive understanding of the groundwater-surface water interaction zone (subsurface interaction zone, SIZ) and its linkages with the water cycle that incorporates hydrologic impacts on fundamental biogeochemical and ecological processes into a multiscale modeling framework that forecasts system responses and feedbacks to environmental changes. The SIZ is a critical and ubiquitous domain at the groundwater-surface water interface that regulates contaminant releases to surface waters and associated carbon and nitrogen cycling. Our research plan supports U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals to advance a predictive understanding of the biogeochemical structure and function of subsurface environments to enable systems-level environmental prediction and decision support. A key aspect of our plan is the performance of observational, experimental, and computational science on contaminant, carbon, and nitrogen transformation dynamics in the SIZ within the context of an integrative multiscale modeling approach that enables bi-directional (up- and down-scale) transfer of knowledge, process models, and parameters to the necessary scale of prediction. Using the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River as our field site, overarching research questions are driven down from the reach scale to focus lower-scale scientific hypotheses on essential system attributes, behaviors, or mechanisms for robust process model development. A facies-based, multiscale simulation framework will connect SFA biogeochemical transport models across scales while preserving robust process descriptions derived at the local field scale and in the laboratory. New predictive microbial ecological models will be coupled to hydro-biogeochemical models to translate microbial composition into biogeochemical process rates. Our research on the subsurface interaction zone will provide essential knowledge and relevant models for rivers worldwide that flow through glacio-fluvial aquifers and for high latitude/elevation catchments with coarse grained sediments vulnerable to climate change.

Project Details

Start Date
2015-10-14
End Date
2016-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

John Zachara
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Co-Investigator(s)

James Fredrickson
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Team Members

Zhifeng Yan
Institution
Tianjin University

Ilenia Battiato
Institution
San Diego State University

Carolyn Anderson
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Michel Sassi
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Steven Luksic
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richard Collins
Institution
University of New South Wales

Xingyuan Chen
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Yuanyuan Liu
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Erin Miller
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Zhangshuan Hou
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Vitali Alexandrov
Institution
University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Carolyn Pearce
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Robert Ewing
Institution
Iowa State University

Timothy Scheibe
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Piotr Zarzycki
Institution
Polish Academy of Sciences

Matthew Marshall
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Andrew Felmy
Institution
Washington State University

Sebastien Kerisit
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Thomas Wietsma
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

David Kennedy
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Allan Konopka
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Liang Shi
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Mark Engelhard
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Yilin Fang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Chongxuan Liu
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Mark Rockhold
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Timothy Droubay
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Zheming Wang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Odeta Qafoku
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Kevin Rosso
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Alice Dohnalkova
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Ravi Kukkadapu
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Bruce Arey
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Related Publications

Stern N ,Ginder-vogel M A,Stegen J C,Arntzen E V,Kennedy D W,Larget B R,Roden E E 2017. "Colonization Habitat Controls Biomass, Composition, and Metabolic Activity of Attached Microbial Communities in the Columbia River Hyporheic Corridor" Applied and Environmental Microbiology 83():e00260-17. 10.1128/AEM.00260-17
Xu F, Y Liu, JM Zachara, ME Bowden, DW Kennedy, AE Plymale, and C Liu. 2017. "Redox transformation and reductive immobilization of Cr(VI) in Columbia River hyporheic zone sediments." Journal of Hydrology 555:278-287. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.10.016
Yan A, C Liu, Y Liu, F Xu, and Y Liu. 2017. "Effect of ion exchange on the rate of aerobic microbial oxidation of ammonium in hyporheic zone sediments." PNNL-SA-126507, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA. [Unpublished]