Ephemeral stream chemistry below the elevation of near-zero net infiltration

Abstract

Stormwater along ephemeral arroyos and areal infiltration in nearby boreholes were studied in the Amargosa Desert Region of Southern Nevada, USA. Chemical composition of ephemeral stream runoff was measured at elevations below where areal infiltration generally occurs in arid environments using lysimeters designed for this study. Borehole cuttings from several wells were evaluated in terms of chloride migration. Analysis of the borehole data indicates that net areal infiltration has been insignificant for the past 10 000+ years. This is associated with an environment where chloride and other soluble salts accumulate in shallow sediments and potentially in runoff waters. Measured storm events during the 4-year study period were small and localized but sufficient to produce surface runoff, at least near the lysimeters. Composition of storm runoff captured by the lysimeters was found to be a combination of the water chemistry types found in precipitation and from leaching tests of near-surface sediments. All major cations and bicarbonate increased relative to chloride when precipitation interacted with sediments to form ephemeral stream runoff. The changes were consistent with calculated saturation indices. Despite the long-term accumulation of chloride in soils and deep sediments caused by complete evapotranspiration of infiltrating precipitation, runoff waters were characterized by low chloride and total dissolved solids. This study presents a limitation of the chloride mass-balance method, as chloride and water migration were disassociated from each other in the study area. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.