Snowmelt Runoff and Total Solids Production in a Discontinuous Permafrost Basin: Paper presented at the 9th Northern Res. Basin Symposium/Workshop (Whitehorse/Dawson/Inuvik, Canada - August 1992)

Snowmelt runoff and total suspended solids were measured for two years on Glenn Creek, a small, second-order, subarctic stream located near Fairbanks, Alaska, within the Yukon-Tanana Uplands physiographic province. The stream drains a 2.25-km² research watershed of which 70 % is underlain by permafrost. The two years of study represent very different snowmelt hydrographs due to differences in the snowpacks. In 1985, the snowpack was 180 % of the long-term average, while in 1988 it was only 56 % of the average. During both years, 60 % of the total snowmelt-season water yield had passed before a significant rate of solids yield was observed. Also in both years the peak in total suspended solids concentration lagged the stream discharge peak by three days. Diurnal fluctuations in discharge and total suspended solids concentrations are well-defined, including a peculiar occurrence of double diurnal peaks in the discharge hydrograph during portions of the snowmelt season. The diurnal fluctuations in solids concentration are shown to be consistent with water temperature fluctuations. In 1988, the percentage of organics in the total suspended solids was scattered from 0 % to 66 % during the snowmelt season.