Groundwater And Ecosystems

Description: Groundwater resources are facing increasing pressure from consuming and contaminating activities. There is a growing awareness that the quantitative and qualitative preservation of groundwater resources is a global need, not only to safeguard their future use for public supply and irrigation, but also to protect those ecosystems that depend partially or entirely on groundwater to maintain their species composition and natural ecological processes. Known as groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs), they have been a fast-growing field of research during the last two decades. This book is intended to provide a diverse overview of important studies on groundwater and ecosystems, including a toolbox for assessing the ecological water requirements for GDEs, and relevant case studies on groundwater/surface-water interactions, as well as the role of nutrients in groundwater for GDEs and ecosystem dependence (vegetation and cave fauna) on groundwater. Case studies are from Australia (nine studies) and Europe (12 studies from nine countries) as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa. This book is of interest to everybody dealing with groundwater and its relationship with ecosystems. It is highly relevant for researchers, managers and decision-makers in the field of water and environment. It provides up-to-date information on crucial factors and parameters that need to be considered when studying groundwater-ecosystem relationships in different environments worldwide.

Contents: Foreword 1. A toolbox for assessing the ecological water requirements of groundwater dependent ecosystems in Australia. 2. Water table dynamics of a severely eroded wetland system, prior to rehabilitation, Sand River Catchment, South Africa 3. Small-scale water- and nutrient-exchange between lowland River Spree (Germany) and adjacent groundwater 4. Artificial maintenance of groundwater levels to protect carbonate cave fauna, Yanchep, Western Australia 5. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the flux of organic carbon in caves 6. The influence of groundwater/surface water exchange on stable water isotopic signatures along the Darling River, NSW, Australia. 7. A geochemical approach to determining the hydrological regime of wetlands in a volcanic plain, south-eastern Australia 8. Mapping surface water-groundwater interactions and associated geological faults using temperature profiling 9. Typology of Groundwater - Surface water Interaction (GSI typology) - with new developments and case study supporting implementation of the EU Water Framework and Groundwater Directives 10. Conservation of trial dewatering discharge through re-injection in the Pilbara region, Western Australia. 11. Nitrogen cycle in gravel bed rivers: The effect of the hyporheic zone 12. Groundwater recharge quantification for the sustainability of ecosystems in plains of Argentina. 13. Nutrient sources for green macroalgae in the Ria Formosa lagoon - assessing the role of groundwater 14. Relationships between wetlands and the Donana coastal aquifer (SW Spain) 15. Groundwater dependent ecosystems associated with basalt aquifers of the Alstonville Plateau, New South Wales, Australia 16. A Shift in the ecohydrological state of groundwater dependent vegetation due to climate change and groundwater drawdown on the swan Coastal Plain of Western Australia 17. Response of wetland vegetation to climate change and groundwater decline on the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia: implications for management 18. Hydrogeochemical processes in the Pateira de Fermentelos lagoon (Portugal) and their impact on water quality 19. Relationship between dry and wet beach ecosystems and E. coli levels in groundwater below beaches of the Great Lakes, Canada 20. Surface water, groundwater and ecological interactions along the River Murray. A pilot study of management initiatives at the Bookpurnong Floodplain, South Australia 21. Hydrodynamic Interaction between gravity-driven and over-pressured groundwater flow and its consequences on soil and wetland salinisation 22. Relationship between certain phreatophytic plants and regional groundwater circulation in hard rocks of the Spanish Central System 23. Surface/groundwater interactions: identifying spatial controls on water quality and quantity in a lowland UK Chalk catchment. 24. Modelling Stream-Groundwater Interactions in the Querenca-Silves Aquifer System

Author Biography:

Luis Ribeiro graduated in Mining Engineering at the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) of the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL) in Lisbon, Portugal in 1978 and completed his PhD in Mining Engineering (Hydrogeology) at IST-UTL in 1992. He is currently Associate Professor at IST, Director of the Geo-Systems Centre/CVRM, and President of the Portuguese Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH). He was also President of the Scientific Committee of XXXV IAH Congress Groundwater and Ecosystems held in Lisbon in 2007.

Tibor Y. Stigter completed his MSc in Geographical Hydrology in 1997 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands and his PhD in Engineering Sciences (Hydrogeology) in 2005 at the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal. He has worked and taught classes at the Universidade do Algarve (UALG) in Faro, Portugal. He currently holds a Researcher position from IST, working on groundwater, contamination, climate change and sustainability. As a member of the Geo-Systems Centre/CVRM, he works both at IST and UALG, coordinating research projects and supervising MSc and PhD students.

M. Teresa Condesso de Melo graduated in Geology from the University of Coimbra, Portugal in 1992, completed her MSc in Groundwater Hydrology at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain in 1996 and her PhD in Geosciences (Hydrogeology) with a sandwich PhD project at the Hydrogeology Group of the British Geological Survey (BGS), Wallingford, UK and the University of Aveiro (UA), Aveiro, Portugal in 2002. In 2006 she became a Guest Professor of hydrogeology at the University of Aveiro, and she now holds a research position at the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal.

Born in 1961 in Sardoal, Portugal, Antonio Chambel obtained his PhD in Geology, specialising in Hydrogeology, at the University of Evora, Portugal, in 1999. He is currently teacher in the University of Evora and ERASMUS teacher in the Universities of Prague, Czech Republic, and Huelva, Spain, as well as researcher of the Geophysics Centre of Evora. He is Vice-President ofProgramme and Science Coordination for the International Association of Hydrogeologists and Technical Director of Hydrogeologists Without Borders. He specialises in groundwater prospecting, hydrogeology of hard rocks, relations between groundwater and ecosystems, hydrogeological mapping and aquifer contamination. He has also focussed on legislation and water and environmental management, including the river basin management plans for Portugal.

Jose Paulo Monteiro currently holds a position as Professor at the Universidade of the Algarve. He obtained his PhD in hydrogeology in 2001 at the Faculty of Sciences of the Universite de Neuchatel, Switzerland and his MSc in hydrogeology in 1993, at the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. His main research topics are modelling and monitoring porous, fractured and karstic coastal aquifers, aquifer-ocean and river-aquifer interfaces; hydraulics of water wells; groundwater dependent ecosystems and integrated water resources management.

Albino Medeiros graduated in Applied Economic Geology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal in 1993 and completed his MSc in Engineering Geology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa - UNL, Portugal in 1999. In 2005 he became a Guest Professor of Groundwater Modelling at the Earth Sciences Department of UNL. Currently he is a hydrogeologist at the Grandewater Hidrogeologia Aplicada, Lda with development work in Portugal and Africa (Angola and Mozambique).