Numerical Modeling of Water Flow and Heat Transport in Rangeland and Mountainous Forest Soils.

The Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics was established in 2011 to study runoff generation in terrestrial ecosystems with a special emphasis on sub-surface flow processes in snow-dominated systems. Numerical models describing soil water flow and heat transport are applied at the field, hillslope, and watershed scales. At the field scale, special emphasis is put on the coupling of the water and heat transport equations to account for water vapor flow, liquid water flow, and soil water freeze/thaw. At the hillslope and watershed scales the focus is on the role of fractured bedrock in sub-surface lateral flow. The numerical models are informed by seismic data to characterize the soil-bedrock physical properties and by time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography to assess sub-surface wetting and drying patterns. Results from ongoing work in the Laramie Basin and the Snowy Range Mountains, near Laramie, WY will be shown and discussed.