Location
In the River Corridor and Watershed Hydrobiogeochemistry Scientific Focus Area, led by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), researchers are developing mechanistic understanding of coupled hydrologic and biogeochemical processes in large, dynamic rivers and associated watersheds and translating that understanding into multiscale numerical models.
Key questions include:
- What are the hydrobiogeochemical processes that link river stage fluctuations and hydromorphic and hydrogeological setting to distributions of HEFs, residence times, and reaction rates?
- What are the manifestations of mechanistic processes at larger scales, and what is the appropriate representation of fundamental processes in system-scale predictive hydrobiogeochemical models?
Columbia River Field Site. The Hanford Reach is a 70-km stretch of the Columbia River. It is bordered by agriculture on the east and north and the Hanford site on the west and south. It has many islands, an active riparian zone, and complex channel physiography.
The project is supported by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), within DOE’s Office of Science, as part of BER’s Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR) program.