<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Coastal wetlands are transitional ecosystems between land and sea. Participants of citizen science programs have detected frequent floods in wetlands, as well as small pools that appear and then disappear. Considering that it is not clear whether their main hydrologic drivers are of marine or continental origin, we studied the El Culebrón wetland located in the Chilean semi-arid zone. El Culebrón is strongly influenced by extreme rain events. This wetland also experiences seasonal changes in its water stage (WS). A high mean sea level agreed with 41% of the WS rises. High intensity storm surges coincided with 53% of WS peaks. A small tsunami in 2022 impacted the WS, and another very intense tsunami flooded it in 2015. An apparent diurnal cycle in the WS was discarded due to an instrumental artifact. The combination of the aforementioned factors provided an explanation for 91% of the WS rises. The probable and novel mechanism for sea level and storm surge influence on WS is the formation of a sand barrier between the coastal lagoon and the sea. As a whole, El Culebrón receives varied influences from both the sea and the mainland, but it seems to be more dependent on freshwater sources.</p>
</abstract>

Coastal wetlands are transitional ecosystems between land and sea. Participants of citizen science programs have detected frequent floods in wetlands, as well as small pools that appear and then disappear. Considering that it is not clear whether their main hydrologic drivers are of marine or continental origin, we studied the El Culebrón wetland located in the Chilean semi-arid zone. El Culebrón is strongly influenced by extreme rain events. This wetland also experiences seasonal changes in its water stage (WS). A high mean sea level agreed with 41% of the WS rises. High intensity storm surges coincided with 53% of WS peaks. A small tsunami in 2022 impacted the WS, and another very intense tsunami flooded it in 2015. An apparent diurnal cycle in the WS was discarded due to an instrumental artifact. The combination of the aforementioned factors provided an explanation for 91% of the WS rises. The probable and novel mechanism for sea level and storm surge influence on WS is the formation of a sand barrier between the coastal lagoon and the sea. As a whole, El Culebrón receives varied influences from both the sea and the mainland, but it seems to be more dependent on freshwater sources.

Varied hydrological regime of a semi-arid coastal wetland

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Varied hydrological regime of a semi-arid coastal wetland"}

Coastal wetlands are transitional ecosystems between land and sea. Participants of citizen science programs have detected frequent floods in wetlands, as well...

Varied hydrological regime of a semi-arid coastal wetland

Publié en ligne: 09 mai 2024

Pages: 238 - 251

Reçu: 04 déc. 2023

Accepté: 28 févr. 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/johh-2024-0007

Mots clés
Instrumental artifacts, Sand barrier, Diurnal cycles, Storm surges, Wetlands

© 2024 Jaime G. Cuevas et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Varied hydrological regime of a semi-arid coastal wetland

Publié en ligne: 09 mai 2024

Pages: 238 - 251

Reçu: 04 déc. 2023

Accepté: 28 févr. 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/johh-2024-0007

Mots clésInstrumental artifacts, Sand barrier, Diurnal cycles, Storm surges, Wetlands

© 2024 Jaime G. Cuevas et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
Instrumental artifacts, Sand barrier, Diurnal cycles, Storm surges, Wetlands