Small Watershed Studies at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, Georgia
The Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) is a 41-hectare forested watershed in the southern Piedmont physiographic province near Atlanta, Georgia. The watershed contains a naturally regenerated second-growth forest on abandoned agricultural land, typical of the Piedmont. Research at PMRW is focused on how streamflow is generated, and in particular, on how water and solutes move from hillslopes to the stream.
The Panola Mountain Research Watershed project was formally a part of the Water, Energy and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB). The project is now a part of the Ecosystems Climate Research and Development Program.
The research shows that streamflow and solute concentrations of precipitation, throughfall, soil water and streamwater change rapidly during rainstorms. Furthermore, these variations are strongly associated with the soil-moisture conditions, the soil type and and thickness, and the rainfall intensity, all of which effect the chemical interactions and mixing of water traveling along hydrological pathways over and through the bedrock and soils.
Problem
Watersheds are composed of chemically distinct environments. Consequently, a mechanistic determination of streamwater chemistry requires an understanding of the hydrologic pathways to the stream in the watershed as well as the interactions between the soil and water. The combination indicates that to understand streamwater chemistry, it is important to understand soil-solution chemistry. Yet, the regulation of soil-solution chemistry is poorly understood because, in part, the principles of thermodynamics governing solubility and the theory of ion exchange, absorption, and kinetics cannot be readily applied to complex natural systems.
Research is conducted at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, a 41-hectare forested watershed in the Panola Mountain State Park. Intensive (or event-based) and extensive characterizations determine the physics and chemistry of soil and water at both the plot (10- to 100-meter2 area), and sub-catchment (4- to 20-hectare area) scales. Extensive characterizations focus on spatial distributions of physical and chemical characteristics of soils and water in plots distributed throughout the watershed.
Objectives
- To investigate processes that control the movement and solute composition of water along hydrologic pathways that produce streamflow in a forested Piedmont watershed;
- determine relative contributions from a variety of sources of solutes observed in streamwater, including primary mineral weathering, cation exchange, and atmospheric deposition (both wet and dry deposition);
- and investigate biogeochemical processes controlling the regulation of soil-solution chemistry and element cycling.
Publications on the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, Georgia
- Publications on the Panola Mountain Research Watershed
- Other Publications of the Panola Mountain Project Staff
The Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) is a 41-hectare forested watershed in the southern Piedmont physiographic province near Atlanta, Georgia. The watershed contains a naturally regenerated second-growth forest on abandoned agricultural land, typical of the Piedmont. Research at PMRW is focused on how streamflow is generated, and in particular, on how water and solutes move from hillslopes to the stream.
The Panola Mountain Research Watershed project was formally a part of the Water, Energy and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB). The project is now a part of the Ecosystems Climate Research and Development Program.
The research shows that streamflow and solute concentrations of precipitation, throughfall, soil water and streamwater change rapidly during rainstorms. Furthermore, these variations are strongly associated with the soil-moisture conditions, the soil type and and thickness, and the rainfall intensity, all of which effect the chemical interactions and mixing of water traveling along hydrological pathways over and through the bedrock and soils.
Problem
Watersheds are composed of chemically distinct environments. Consequently, a mechanistic determination of streamwater chemistry requires an understanding of the hydrologic pathways to the stream in the watershed as well as the interactions between the soil and water. The combination indicates that to understand streamwater chemistry, it is important to understand soil-solution chemistry. Yet, the regulation of soil-solution chemistry is poorly understood because, in part, the principles of thermodynamics governing solubility and the theory of ion exchange, absorption, and kinetics cannot be readily applied to complex natural systems.
Research is conducted at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, a 41-hectare forested watershed in the Panola Mountain State Park. Intensive (or event-based) and extensive characterizations determine the physics and chemistry of soil and water at both the plot (10- to 100-meter2 area), and sub-catchment (4- to 20-hectare area) scales. Extensive characterizations focus on spatial distributions of physical and chemical characteristics of soils and water in plots distributed throughout the watershed.
Objectives
- To investigate processes that control the movement and solute composition of water along hydrologic pathways that produce streamflow in a forested Piedmont watershed;
- determine relative contributions from a variety of sources of solutes observed in streamwater, including primary mineral weathering, cation exchange, and atmospheric deposition (both wet and dry deposition);
- and investigate biogeochemical processes controlling the regulation of soil-solution chemistry and element cycling.
Publications on the Panola Mountain Research Watershed, Georgia
- Publications on the Panola Mountain Research Watershed
- Other Publications of the Panola Mountain Project Staff