Abstract
Seepage lakes lacking surface-water inflow or outflow, but with surrounding peatlands, are important and vulnerable ecosystems with water budgets that depend largely on inputs from precipitation and groundwater discharge. We studied the sediment diversity in two such lake-wetland systems and their surrounding catchments. The lakes were located in relatively close proximity to one another within the West Polesie Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, West Polesie, East Poland. In spite of physiographic similarities, the studied lake-wetland systems and their catchments displayed considerable diversity in their underlying sediments. This was determined from data collected from several hundred geological boreholes and 164 determinations of the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the organic and mineral sediments (constant and falling head methods). Our research results showed that the functioning of a closed lake-wetland ecosystem is greatly influenced by the hydrogeological properties of its sediments. In the case of wetland zones surrounding lakes, especially closed-drainage seepage lakes, it is very important to identify the geological settings and the hydrogeological properties of those sediments in order to better understand groundwater influences.
Highlights
Understanding the direction and rate of water movement is important in researching catchments where lakes are surrounded by wetlands (Dembek and Oświt 1992)
A case involves groundwater inflow to lakes surrounded by wide wetland zones
We explored the hydrogeological properties of mineral and organic deposits of two infilling lake basins and their catchments in the Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District of West Polesie, East Poland to determine whether water circulation is modulated between the lake catchments, the surrounding wetlands and the lakes themselves
Summary
Understanding the direction and rate of water movement is important in researching catchments where lakes are surrounded by wetlands (Dembek and Oświt 1992). Research on water inflow to lakes usually includes the determination of water exchange and hydrologically active zones (Cheng and Anderson 1994; Shaw and Prepas 1990; Hunt et al 1999; Winter 1999; Hunt et al 2003; Choiński 2007). This is usually based on detailed analyses of surface and groundwater inflows and outflows (Sacks et al 1992; Hunt and Krohelski 1996; Walker and Krabbenhoft 1998; Ojiambo et al 2003; Stets et al 2010). The spatial distribution of particular hydrogeological zones within the infilling lake basin and its catchment affects the time of response of lake waters to precipitation, inflow from the surface and groundwaters, and the input of mineral
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