Advancing our predictive understanding of river corridor exchange

Abstract

Despite decades of research, we lack an accurate framework to predict and manage hydrologic exchange in the river corridor and the associated ecosystem services and functions at the scales of stream reaches and entire networks. While many individual studies have been conducted to investigate specific mechanisms, they have not been synthesized to account for heterogeneity in space, nonstationarity, and multiscale feedbacks that typify the river corridor. As a result, contradictory predictions of exchange flux, geometry, and timescale are prevalent in the literature. We attribute these contradictions to (a) failure to account for multiscale feedbacks and (b) uncertainty in the information content of common measurement methods. Here, we apply the concept of interacting multiscale spatial and time-variable domains to the river corridor to demonstrate why more complete multiscale characterization is necessary to achieve predictive understanding. Next, we highlight uncertainties and inconsistencies in measurement methods which may obfuscate our understanding of river corridor exchange. Finally, we briefly outline four necessary advances to achieve predictive understanding of river corridor exchange: standardization of metadata, critical evaluation of the information content and support volumes for measurement techniques, multiscale model-data integration, and advancing theoretical models of river corridor exchange. This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Water and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems Science of Water > Methods.