Groundwater/Surface Water Ecotones Biological and Hydrological Interactions and Management Options International Hydrology Series

Aquatic ecosystems have formed the focus of several UNESCO research projects because of the impact on them of human activities such as intensification of agricultural activity, erosion and sedimentation due to irrigation projects, groundwater pollution and eutrophication. Interfaces, or ecotones, between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems were found to have an essential role in the movement of water and materials throughout the landscape. Ecotones are zones where ecological processes are more intense and resources more diversified. They are also zones which react quickly to human influences and changes of environmental variables. This volume summarises the results presented at an international conference dedicated to the study of groundwater/surface water ecotones, with contributors of international scientific reputation representing the multidisciplinary viewpoints of hydrologists, biologists and ecologists. It addresses areas of active research in hydrology and biology, and is aimed towards researchers, water resource project managers and policy makers.

Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. The groundwater/surface water ecotone perspective: state of the art; Part II. Function of Groundwater/Surface Water Interfaces: 2. Ecotonal animal assemblages: their interest for groundwater studies; 3. Stochasticity in resource utilization by a larval chironomidae (diptera) community in the bed sediments of a gravel stream; 4. Temporal and spatial dynamics of meiofaunal assemblages in the hyporheic interstitial of a gravel stream; 5. Interstitial fauna along an epigean-hypogean in a Rocky Mountain river; 6. Filter effect of karstic spring ecotones on the population structure of the hypogean amphipod Niphargus virei; 7. Community respiration in the hyporheic zone of a riffle-pool sequence; 8. Diversity, connectivity and variability of littoral, surface water ecotones in three side arms of the Szigetkö region (Danube, Hungary); 9. Seasonal dynamics and storage of particulate organic matter within bed sediment of three streams with contrasted riparian vegetation and morphology; 10. Bedsediments: protein and POM content (RITRODAT-Lunz study area, Austria); 12. Surface water/groundwater/forest alluvia ecosystems: functioning of interfaces: the case of the Rhine floodplain in Alsace (France); 13. Modelling of hydrological processes in a floodplain wetland; 14. Contribution to the groundwater hydrology of the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya; 15. The role of hydrology in defining a groundwater ecosystem; 16. Typology of water transport and chemical reactions in groundwater/lake ecotones; 17. Development of a water transfer equation for a groundwater/surface water interface and use of it to forecast floods in the Yanghe Reservoir Basin; 18. Uses and limitations of ground penetrating RADAR in two riparian systems; Part III. Malfunction of Groundwater/Surface Water Interfaces: Causes and Methods of Evaluation: 19. Heterogeneity of groundwater-surface water ecotones; 20. Failure of agricultural riparian buffers to protect surface waters from groundwater nitrate contamination; 21. Stable nitrogen isotope traqcing of trophic relations in good webs of river and hyporheic habityats; 22. La zone hypodermique du sol écotone entre eaux météoriques et eaux souterraines dans l'infiltraqtion des pesticides dissous; 23. Soils of the north-eastern coast of the Caspian Sea as the zone of sea water/groundwater interaction; Part IV. Management and Restoration of Groundwater/Surface Water Interfaces: 24. Ecotones and problems of their management in irrigation regions; 25. Hydrochemistry and ecohydrology of the transition area of the Netherlands Delta and the Brabantse; 26. Cautious reforestation of a wetland after clearfelling; 27. Responses of riparian ecosystems to dewatering of the Aral Sea in the vicinity of the Tedgen and Murgab rivers; 28. Water regime management of desertificated ecotone systems in the Amudarya delta (Aral Sea basin); Part V. Conclusion: 29. Problems and challenges in grounewater/surface water ecotone analysis; Annex.