Hydrological inflows and losses from cattle ranching impoundments in dry rangelands of Argentina

MAGLIANO, PN; MINDHAM, DAVID; TYCH, WLODEK; MURRAY, F; NOSETTO, MD; NIBORSKI, MJ; HEIDER, G; JOBBÁGY, EG; RUFINO, MARIANA C.; CHAPPELL, NA

Simposio; British Hydrological Society National Symposium; 2024

Impoundments of the dry rangelands, Argentina, are recharged solely by infiltration-excess overland flow. Two impoundments, one for supplying cattle and the other a control, are studied with their hydrological functioning quantified and modelled using UK developed methods. Despite the additional outflow from cattle, the impoundment for cattle stored water for longer (65-day vs 25-day residence time for cattle and control respectively). This is because of cattle trampling the ground reducing the loss of storage via leakage to 15%, compared with 65% storage loss from leakage for the control.