Abstract
Wetlands are environments whose water balance is highly sensitive to climate change and human action. This sensitivity has allowed us to explore the relationships between surface water and groundwater in the long term as their sediments record all these changes and go beyond the instrumental/observational period. The Lagunas Reales, in central Spain, is a semi-arid inland wetland endangered by both climate and human activity. The reconstruction of the hydroclimate and water levels from sedimentary facies, as well as the changes in the position of the surface water and groundwater via the record of their geochemical fingerprint in the sediments, has allowed us to establish a conceptual model for the response of the hydrological system (surface water and groundwater) to climate. Arid periods are characterized by low levels of the deeper saline groundwater and by a greater influence of the surface freshwater. A positive water balance during wet periods allows the discharge of the deeper saline groundwater into the wetland, causing an increase in salinity. These results contrast with the classical model where salinity increases were related to greater evaporation rates and this opens up a new way of understanding the evolution of the hydrology of wetlands and their resilience to natural and anthropogenic changes.
Highlights
Wetlands are a valuable resource for mankind as they play a key role in climate regulation, house more than 40% of the living species of the planet and are an important element of the water cycle [1,2,3]
This paper presents a reconstruction of the water balance and its composition from the sedimentary facies and geochemical records of a semi-arid ephemeral wetland in central Spain, as well as of the linkages amongst the surface water–groundwater levels as a result of the mixing of waters with different origins and under different climate settings
Gravel appears in 2 to 5 cm-thick layers composed of quartz and quartzite clasts, with clast
Summary
Wetlands (enclosing coastal, fluvial and lake systems) are a valuable resource for mankind as they play a key role in climate regulation, house more than 40% of the living species of the planet and are an important element of the water cycle [1,2,3]. They are one of the most threatened ecosystems and have lost more than 50% of their surface during the last century due to human activities [4,5]. To evaluate the extent of the effects of human activity on wetlands and their resilience to these actions, it is necessary to analyse the long-term evolution of the water–wetland linkage and to compare the behaviour of the system under natural and human-influenced conditions.
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