Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-299-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-299-2016
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
19 Jan 2016
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 19 Jan 2016

Aggregation in environmental systems – Part 2: Catchment mean transit times and young water fractions under hydrologic nonstationarity

J. W. Kirchner

Related authors

Bedrock geology controls on new water fractions and catchment functioning in contrasted nested catchments
Guilhem Türk, Christoph J. Gey, Bernd R. Schöne, Marius G. Floriancic, James W. Kirchner, Loic Leonard, Laurent Gourdol, Richard Keim, and Laurent Pfister
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1530,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1530, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
Data-Driven Estimation of the hydrologic response via Generalized Additive Models
Quentin Duchemin, Maria Grazia Zanoni, Marius G. Floriancic, Hansjörg Seybold, Guillaume Obozinski, James W. Kirchner, and Paolo Benettin
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1591,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1591, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Quantifying controls on rapid and delayed runoff response in double-peak hydrographs using Ensemble Rainfall-Runoff Analysis (ERRA)
Huibin Gao, Laurent Pfister, and James W. Kirchner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-613,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-613, 2025
Short summary
Climatic, topographic, and groundwater controls on runoff response to precipitation: evidence from a large-sample data set
Zahra Eslami, Hansjörg Seybold, and James W. Kirchner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-35,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-35, 2025
Short summary
Catchment hydrological response and transport are affected differently by precipitation intensity and antecedent wetness
Julia L. A. Knapp, Wouter R. Berghuijs, Marius G. Floriancic, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-371,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-371, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Catchment hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Theory development
HESS Opinions: Floods and droughts – are land use, soil management, and landscape hydrology more significant drivers than increasing CO2?
Karl Auerswald, Juergen Geist, John N. Quinton, and Peter Fiener
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2185–2200, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2185-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2185-2025, 2025
Short summary
Causal relationships of vegetation productivity with root zone water availability and atmospheric dryness at the catchment scale
Guta Wakbulcho Abeshu, Hong-Yi Li, Mingjie Shi, and L. Ruby Leung
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1847–1864, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1847-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1847-2025, 2025
Short summary
Annual memory in the terrestrial water cycle
Wouter R. Berghuijs, Ross A. Woods, Bailey J. Anderson, Anna Luisa Hemshorn de Sánchez, and Markus Hrachowitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1319–1333, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1319-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1319-2025, 2025
Short summary
Can system dynamics explain long-term hydrological behaviors? The role of endogenous linking structure
Xinyao Zhou, Zhuping Sheng, Kiril Manevski, Rongtian Zhao, Qingzhou Zhang, Yanmin Yang, Shumin Han, Jinghong Liu, and Yonghui Yang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 159–177, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-159-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-159-2025, 2025
Short summary
Catchment hydrological response and transport are affected differently by precipitation intensity and antecedent wetness
Julia L. A. Knapp, Wouter R. Berghuijs, Marius G. Floriancic, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-371,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2024-371, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for HESS
Short summary

Cited articles

Benettin, P., van der Velde, Y., van der Zee, S., Rinaldo, A., and Botter, G.: Chloride circulation in a lowland catchment and the formulation of transport by travel time distributions, Water Resour. Res., 49, 4619–4632, https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20309, 2013.
Benettin, P., Kirchner, J., Rinaldo, A., and Botter, G.: Modeling chloride transport using travel-time distributions at Plynlimon, Wales, Water Resour. Res., 51, 3259–3276, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016600, 2015.
Bethke, C. M., and Johnson, T. M.: Groundwater age and groundwater age dating, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 36, 121–152, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.earth.36.031207.124210, 2008.
Beven, K.: On subsurface stormflow: predictions with simple kinematic theory for saturated and unsaturated flows, Water Resour. Res., 18, 1627–1633, 1982.
Beven, K.: A manifesto for the equifinality thesis, J. Hydrol., 320, 18–36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.07.007, 2006.
Download

The requested paper has a corresponding corrigendum published. Please read the corrigendum first before downloading the article.

Short summary
Here I show that seasonal tracer cycles yield strongly biased estimates of mean transit times in nonstationary catchments (and, by implication, in real-world catchments). However, they can be used to reliably estimate the fraction of "young" water in streamflow, meaning water that fell as precipitation less than roughly 2–3 months ago. This young water fraction varies systematically between high and low flows and may help in characterizing controls on stream chemistry.
Share