Papers published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions are under open-access review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Abstract In the context of studies aiming at the estimation of effective parameters for unsaturated zone modelling, this work tackles the problem of experimental data quality, considering the large collection of data gathered at an experimental sit...

Soil conservation measures undertaken to address land degradation can alter the hydrologic cycle by changing partitioning of water fluxes at the land surface. While effects on runoff are well documented, impacts of soil conservation activities on fluxes to groundwater are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to examine fluxes to groundwater in a semi-arid area of China’s Loess Plateau ...

To investigate processes that might affect chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) mixing ratios at the water table, a time series was obtained of unsaturated zone soil gas CFCs to depths of ca. 4 m at a site near New York City (NYC). Observed CFC 11, 12, and 113 mixing ratios were lower in winter than expected from either a local, high-resolution time series or remote atmospheric mixing ratios. A diffusion m...

Water and nutrient availability for crop production are critical issues in (semi)arid regions. Unsaturated-zone Cl tracer data and nutrient (NO3 and PO4) concentrations were used to quantify recharge rates using the Cl mass balance approach and nutrient availability in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India. Soil cores were collected in dune/interdune settings in the arid Thar Desert (near Jaisalmer...