Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 13 12 2009 10.5194/hess-13-2349-2009 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/2349/2009/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/2349/2009/hess-13-2349-2009.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/2349/2009/hess-13-2349-2009.pdf 2349 2358 2009-12-10 Spatial variation in soil active-layer geochemistry across hydrologic margins in polar desert ecosystems J. E. Barrett M. N. Gooseff C. Takacs-Vesbach Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA Polar deserts are characterized by severe spatial-temporal limitations of liquid water. In soil active layers of the Antarctic Dry Valleys, liquid water is infrequently available over most of the arid terrestrial landscape. However, soils on the margins of glacial melt-water streams and lakes are visibly wet during the brief Austral summer when temperatures permit the existence of liquid water. We examined the role of these hydrologic margins as preferential zones for the transformation and transport of nutrient elements and solutes in an environment where geochemical weathering and biological activity is strictly limited by the dearth of liquid water. We report on hydropedological investigations of aquatic-terrestrial transition zones adjacent to 11 stream and lake systems in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. Our results show that wetted zones extended 1–11 m from the edges of lotic and lentic systems. 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