Masters Thesis

Ground water modeling to define vegetation roles and evaluate a planned restoration of a montane meadow

Meadows are biologically diverse systems where a melting pot of hydrological, geologic and ecologic conditions cumulate. Due to their lush vegetation, water resources and cool temperature meadows have long been utilized for human use. Through neglectful practices and weather events meadows across the west have been degraded. To bring meadows back to a pristine state restoration efforts have been underway since the last half century. A common practice is “pond and plug” restoration. In this research, MODFLOW models are linked with Rscript to simulate the groundwater regime and foliar cover at the study site. Two versions of pond and plug restoration are simulated. These are pond and plug restoration without and with a divergent stream channel used to reconnect the meadow aquifer with surface flows. It is found that moist meadow cover is increased by 0.61 and 1.32 hectares over control conditions for the respective restoration cases and the meadow aquifer was recharged as result of restorations. MODFLOW was found to be suitable for meadow modeling. As a tool for future restoration planning, the capacity of model calibration to the desired foliar cover was demonstrated. Additional packages, modeling techniques, and suggestions for future meadow models implementing MODFLOW are made. Recommendations for future research are provided.

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