Using trees to remediate tritium contaminated groundwater: a modeling and tracer study.
Rebel, Karin, T. 2004. Using trees to remediate tritium contaminated groundwater: a modeling and tracer study. Ph.D Dissertation. Cotnell University. Ithaca, New York. 174 pp. Abstract: We have developed a spatially explicit model of water and tritium fluxes in the vadose zone in order to simulate water uptake and subsurface lateral movement in coniferous and mixed hardwood - coniferous forests on Coastal Plain soils of the southern United States. These Coastal Plain soils are characteristically sand overlying slowly permeable clays found at depths of 30 to 200 cm, and can form temporarily saturated, unconfined aquifers. Ten hectares of the modeled watershed was periodically irrigated with tritium enriched water. We used the tritium enriched water as a tracer to validate the model. The model was used to optimize irrigation, to evaluate the amount of tritium entering the atmosphere due to evapotranspiration and to quantify water and tritium fluxes in texture contrast soils. Using tritium as a tracer, we have studied how tree species and canopy position effect water and solutes uptake from different parts of the soil profile. We clipped branches to obtain leaf water from over-and understory laurel oak (Quercus Laurifolia) and over- and understory pine (Pinus elliottii and Pinus taeda), which was then analyzed for tritium. We found that for early successional trees (Pinus spp.) and trees in the overstory proportionally more water was taken up from deeper in the soil compared to the hardwoods or trees in the understory, which took up proportionally more water from the soil surface. These differences are important for understanding competition for resources within a forest and in predicting the hydrologic response to forest management practices such as thinning.
- Research Organization:
- USDA Forest Service, Savannah River, New Ellenton, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AI09-00SR22188
- OSTI ID:
- 835561
- Report Number(s):
- na; 04-20-D; TRN: US201103%%167
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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