Chemical weathering and runoff chemistry in a steep headwater catchment

Abstract

AbstractWe present here deductions about the location, rate, and mechanisms of chemical weathering in a small catchment based on a catchment‐scale sprinkling experiment. In this experiment demineralized water was applied at an approximately steady rate in the CB1 catchment in the Oregon Coast Range to reach and maintain a quasi‐steady discharge for a period of 4 days. Because of nearly steady flow conditions within the catchment, the contribution to solute fluxes from soil and bedrock could be partitioned. One half of the solute flux from the catchment derived from colluvial soil, and one half from weathering in bedrock. This implies more intense weathering in the thin colluvium mantling the catchment than in the thick underlying weathered bedrock. The annual solute flux from the catchment, scaled to the annual runoff from the catchment, is 32 ± 10 t km−2 year−1, equivalent to published chemical denudation rates for nearby rivers with drainage areas 106 times greater than the experiment site. Soil waters sampled during the sprinkling experiment had steady compositions following a period of transient water flow conditions, implying steady‐state chemical evolution in the soil. The waters leached ‘organic’ anions from shallow depths in the soil, which solubilized aluminium and iron, indicating that podzolization is occurring in these soils. Carbonate dissolution appears to be an important source of solutes from the bedrock, despite being present as only a minor phase in the rock. Water balance suggests that the residence time of water in the catchment is about 2 months, and that typical 24 h storms displace only a fraction of the stored water. A consequence is that runoff chemistry is dominated by old water, which imposes strong limits on the variability of runoff composition. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.