Articles | Volume 25, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3455-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3455-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Jun 2021
Research article |
| 18 Jun 2021
Attribution of growing season evapotranspiration variability considering snowmelt and vegetation changes in the arid alpine basins
Tingting Ning
Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Qilian Mountains Eco-environment Research Center in Gansu Province, Lanzhou, 730000, China
College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China
Qi Feng
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Qilian Mountains Eco-environment Research Center in Gansu Province, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Zongxing Li
Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Qilian Mountains Eco-environment Research Center in Gansu Province, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Yanyan Qin
Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
Related authors
Tingting Ning, Zhi Li, and Wenzhao Liu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1515–1526, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1515-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1515-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The relationship between controlling parameters of annual catchment water balance and climate seasonality (S) and vegetation coverage (M) was discussed under the Budyko framework and an empirical equation was further developed so that the contributions from M to actual evapotranspiration (ET) could be determined more accurately. The results showed that the effects of landscape condition changes to ET variation will be estimated with a large error if the impacts of S are ignored.
Zongxing Li, Juan Gui, and Baijjuan Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2023-240, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2023-240, 2023
Preprint under review for HESS
Short summary
Short summary
Precipitation, ground ice, and snow meltwater accounted for approximately 72 %, 20 %, and 8 % of soil water during the early ablation period. Snow is completely melted in the heavy and the end of the ablation period, and precipitation contributed to about 90 % and 94 % of soil water, respectively. These recharges also vary markedly with altitude and vegetation type.
Juan Gui, Zongxing Li, Qi Feng, Qiao Cui, and Jian Xue
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 97–122, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-97-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-97-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
As the transition zone between the Tibetan Plateau and the arid region, the Qilian Mountains are important ecological barriers and source regions of inland rivers in northwest China. In recent decades, drastic changes in the cryosphere have had a significant impact on the quantity and formation process of water resources in the Qilian Mountains. The mountain runoff of the Qilian Mountains mainly comes from the cryosphere belt, which contributes to approximately 80 % runoff.
Li Zongxing, Gui Juan, Zhang Baijuan, and Feng Qi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-558, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-558, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
Short summary
Short summary
Building spatial patterns of stable isotope of soil water; Finding influencing factors of stable isotope in soil water; Precipitation contributes to about 88 % of soil water; Ground ice accounts for about 12 % of soil water; Ecological conservation would be urgent under permafrost degradation.
Zong-Jie Li, Zong-Xing Li, Ling-Ling Song, Juan Gui, Jian Xue, Bai Juan Zhang, and Wen De Gao
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4169–4187, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4169-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4169-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study mainly explores the hydraulic relations, recharge–drainage relations and their transformation paths, and the processes of each water body. It determines the composition of runoff, quantifies the contribution of each runoff component to different types of tributaries, and analyzes the hydrological effects of the temporal and spatial variation in runoff components. More importantly, we discuss the hydrological significance of permafrost and hydrological processes.
Tingting Ning, Zhi Li, and Wenzhao Liu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1515–1526, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1515-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1515-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The relationship between controlling parameters of annual catchment water balance and climate seasonality (S) and vegetation coverage (M) was discussed under the Budyko framework and an empirical equation was further developed so that the contributions from M to actual evapotranspiration (ET) could be determined more accurately. The results showed that the effects of landscape condition changes to ET variation will be estimated with a large error if the impacts of S are ignored.
Related subject area
Subject: Catchment hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Theory development
Increased nonstationarity of stormflow threshold behaviors in a forested watershed due to abrupt earthquake disturbance
HESS Opinions: Are soils overrated in hydrology?
Hydrologic implications of projected changes in rain-on-snow melt for Great Lakes Basin watersheds
A hydrological framework for persistent pools along non-perennial rivers
Evidence-based requirements for perceptualising intercatchment groundwater flow in hydrological models
Droughts can reduce the nitrogen retention capacity of catchments
Explaining changes in rainfall–runoff relationships during and after Australia's Millennium Drought: a community perspective
Three hypotheses on changing river flood hazards
A multivariate-driven approach for disentangling the reduction in near-natural Iberian water resources post-1980
Hydrology and riparian forests drive carbon and nitrogen supply and DOC : NO3− stoichiometry along a headwater Mediterranean stream
Event controls on intermittent streamflow in a temperate climate
Inclusion of flood diversion canal operation in the H08 hydrological model with a case study from the Chao Phraya River basin: model development and validation
Flood generation: process patterns from the raindrop to the ocean
Use of streamflow indices to identify the catchment drivers of hydrographs
Theoretical and empirical evidence against the Budyko catchment trajectory conjecture
Spatial distribution of groundwater recharge, based on regionalised soil moisture models in Wadi Natuf karst aquifers, Palestine
Barriers to mainstream adoption of catchment-wide natural flood management: a transdisciplinary problem-framing study of delivery practice
Low hydrological connectivity after summer drought inhibits DOC export in a forested headwater catchment
Rainbow color map distorts and misleads research in hydrology – guidance for better visualizations and science communication
Event and seasonal hydrologic connectivity patterns in an agricultural headwater catchment
Exploring the role of hydrological pathways in modulating multi-annual climate teleconnection periodicities from UK rainfall to streamflow
Technical note: “Bit by bit”: a practical and general approach for evaluating model computational complexity vs. model performance
Hillslope and groundwater contributions to streamflow in a Rocky Mountain watershed underlain by glacial till and fractured sedimentary bedrock
A framework for seasonal variations of hydrological model parameters: impact on model results and response to dynamic catchment characteristics
Hydrology and beyond: the scientific work of August Colding revisited
The influence of a prolonged meteorological drought on catchment water storage capacity: a hydrological-model perspective
Hydrological and runoff formation processes based on isotope tracing during ablation period in the source regions of Yangtze River
Importance of snowmelt contribution to seasonal runoff and summer low flows in Czechia
Concentration–discharge relationships vary among hydrological events, reflecting differences in event characteristics
Recession analysis revisited: impacts of climate on parameter estimation
Understanding the effects of climate warming on streamflow and active groundwater storage in an alpine catchment: the upper Lhasa River
Technical note: An improved discharge sensitivity metric for young water fractions
Hydrological signatures describing the translation of climate seasonality into streamflow seasonality
Spatial and temporal variation in river corridor exchange across a 5th-order mountain stream network
Historic hydrological droughts 1891–2015: systematic characterisation for a diverse set of catchments across the UK
A topographic index explaining hydrological similarity by accounting for the joint controls of runoff formation
Trajectories of nitrate input and output in three nested catchments along a land use gradient
Contrasting rainfall-runoff characteristics of floods in desert and Mediterranean basins
Anthropogenic and catchment characteristic signatures in the water quality of Swiss rivers: a quantitative assessment
Using paired catchments to quantify the human influence on hydrological droughts
HESS Opinions: Socio-economic and ecological trade-offs of flood management – benefits of a transdisciplinary approach
A parsimonious transport model of emerging contaminants at the river network scale
Emergent stationarity in Yellow River sediment transport and the underlying shift of dominance: from streamflow to vegetation
A new probability density function for spatial distribution of soil water storage capacity leads to the SCS curve number method
How does initial soil moisture influence the hydrological response? A case study from southern France
Studying catchment storm response using event- and pre-event-water volumes as fractions of precipitation rather than discharge
Anatomy of simultaneous flood peaks at a lowland confluence
Including effects of watershed heterogeneity in the curve number method using variable initial abstraction
Seasonal shifts in export of DOC and nutrients from burned and unburned peatland-rich catchments, Northwest Territories, Canada
Sensitivity of young water fractions to hydro-climatic forcing and landscape properties across 22 Swiss catchments
Guotao Zhang, Peng Cui, Carlo Gualtieri, Nazir Ahmed Bazai, Xueqin Zhang, and Zhengtao Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3005–3020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3005-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3005-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study used identified stormflow thresholds as a diagnostic tool to characterize abrupt variations in catchment emergent patterns pre- and post-earthquake. Earthquake-induced landslides with spatial heterogeneity and temporally undulating recovery increase the hydrologic nonstationary; thus, large post-earthquake floods are more likely to occur. This study contributes to mitigation and adaptive strategies for unpredictable hydrologic regimes triggered by abrupt natural disturbances.
Hongkai Gao, Fabrizio Fenicia, and Hubert H. G. Savenije
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2607–2620, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2607-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2607-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
It is a deeply rooted perception that soil is key in hydrology. In this paper, we argue that it is the ecosystem, not the soil, that is in control of hydrology. Firstly, in nature, the dominant flow mechanism is preferential, which is not particularly related to soil properties. Secondly, the ecosystem, not the soil, determines the land–surface water balance and hydrological processes. Moving from a soil- to ecosystem-centred perspective allows more realistic and simpler hydrological models.
Daniel T. Myers, Darren L. Ficklin, and Scott M. Robeson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1755–1770, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1755-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1755-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We projected climate change impacts to rain-on-snow (ROS) melt events in the Great Lakes Basin. Decreases in snowpack limit future ROS melt. Areas with mean winter/spring air temperatures near freezing are most sensitive to ROS changes. The projected proportion of total monthly snowmelt from ROS decreases. The timing for ROS melt is projected to be 2 weeks earlier by the mid-21st century and affects spring streamflow. This could affect freshwater resources management.
Sarah A. Bourke, Margaret Shanafield, Paul Hedley, Sarah Chapman, and Shawan Dogramaci
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 809–836, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-809-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-809-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Here we present a hydrological framework for understanding the mechanisms supporting the persistence of water in pools along non-perennial rivers. Pools may collect water after rainfall events, be supported by water stored within the river channel sediments, or receive inflows from regional groundwater. These hydraulic mechanisms can be identified using a range of diagnostic tools (critiqued herein). We then apply this framework in north-west Australia to demonstrate its value.
Louisa D. Oldham, Jim Freer, Gemma Coxon, Nicholas Howden, John P. Bloomfield, and Christopher Jackson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 761–781, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Water can move between river catchments via the subsurface, termed intercatchment groundwater flow (IGF). We show how a perceptual model of IGF can be developed with relatively simple geological interpretation and data requirements. We find that IGF dynamics vary in space, correlated to the dominant underlying geology. We recommend that IGF
loss functionsmay be used in conceptual rainfall–runoff models but should be supported by perceptualisation of IGF processes and connectivities.
Carolin Winter, Tam V. Nguyen, Andreas Musolff, Stefanie R. Lutz, Michael Rode, Rohini Kumar, and Jan H. Fleckenstein
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 303–318, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-303-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-303-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The increasing frequency of severe and prolonged droughts threatens our freshwater resources. While we understand drought impacts on water quantity, its effects on water quality remain largely unknown. Here, we studied the impact of the unprecedented 2018–2019 drought in Central Europe on nitrate export in a heterogeneous mesoscale catchment in Germany. We show that severe drought can reduce a catchment's capacity to retain nitrogen, intensifying the internal pollution and export of nitrate.
Keirnan Fowler, Murray Peel, Margarita Saft, Tim J. Peterson, Andrew Western, Lawrence Band, Cuan Petheram, Sandra Dharmadi, Kim Seong Tan, Lu Zhang, Patrick Lane, Anthony Kiem, Lucy Marshall, Anne Griebel, Belinda E. Medlyn, Dongryeol Ryu, Giancarlo Bonotto, Conrad Wasko, Anna Ukkola, Clare Stephens, Andrew Frost, Hansini Gardiya Weligamage, Patricia Saco, Hongxing Zheng, Francis Chiew, Edoardo Daly, Glen Walker, R. Willem Vervoort, Justin Hughes, Luca Trotter, Brad Neal, Ian Cartwright, and Rory Nathan
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 6073–6120, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-6073-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-6073-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Recently, we have seen multi-year droughts tending to cause shifts in the relationship between rainfall and streamflow. In shifted catchments that have not recovered, an average rainfall year produces less streamflow today than it did pre-drought. We take a multi-disciplinary approach to understand why these shifts occur, focusing on Australia's over-10-year Millennium Drought. We evaluate multiple hypotheses against evidence, with particular focus on the key role of groundwater processes.
Günter Blöschl
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5015–5033, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5015-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5015-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
There is serious concern that river floods are increasing. Starting from explanations discussed in public, the article addresses three hypotheses: land-use change, hydraulic structures, and climate change increase floods. This review finds that all three changes have the potential to not only increase floods, but also to reduce them. It is crucial to consider all three factors of change in flood risk management and communicate them to the general public in a nuanced way.
Amar Halifa-Marín, Miguel A. Torres-Vázquez, Enrique Pravia-Sarabia, Marc Lemus-Canovas, Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero, and Juan Pedro Montávez
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 4251–4263, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4251-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4251-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Near-natural Iberian water resources have suddenly decreased since the 1980s. These declines have been promoted by the weakening (enhancement) of wintertime precipitation (the NAOi) in the most humid areas, whereas afforestation and drought intensification have played a crucial role in semi-arid areas. Future water management would benefit from greater knowledge of North Atlantic climate variability and reforestation/afforestation processes in semi-arid catchments.
José L. J. Ledesma, Anna Lupon, Eugènia Martí, and Susana Bernal
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 4209–4232, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4209-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4209-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We studied a small stream located in a Mediterranean forest. Our goal was to understand how stream flow and the presence of riparian forests, which grow in flat banks near the stream, influence the availability of food for aquatic microorganisms. High flows were associated with higher amounts of food because rainfall episodes transfer it from the surrounding sources, particularly riparian forests, to the stream. Understanding how ecosystems work is essential to better manage natural resources.
Nils Hinrich Kaplan, Theresa Blume, and Markus Weiler
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2671–2696, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2671-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2671-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study is analyses how characteristics of precipitation events and soil moisture and temperature dynamics during these events can be used to model the associated streamflow responses in intermittent streams. The models are used to identify differences between the dominant controls of streamflow intermittency in three distinct geologies of the Attert catchment, Luxembourg. Overall, soil moisture was found to be the most important control of intermittent streamflow in all geologies.
Saritha Padiyedath Gopalan, Adisorn Champathong, Thada Sukhapunnaphan, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Naota Hanasaki
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2541–2560, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2541-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2541-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The modelling of diversion canals using hydrological models is important because they play crucial roles in water management. Therefore, we developed a simplified canal diversion scheme and implemented it into the H08 global hydrological model. The developed diversion scheme was validated in the Chao Phraya River basin, Thailand. Region-specific validation results revealed that the H08 model with the diversion scheme could effectively simulate the observed flood diversion pattern in the basin.
Günter Blöschl
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2469–2480, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2469-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2469-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Sound understanding of how floods come about allows for the development of more reliable flood management tools that assist in mitigating their negative impacts. This article reviews river flood generation processes and flow paths across space scales, starting from water movement in the soil pores and moving up to hillslopes, catchments, regions and entire continents. To assist model development, there is a need to learn from observed patterns of flood generation processes at all spatial scales.
Jeenu Mathai and Pradeep P. Mujumdar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2019–2033, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2019-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2019-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
With availability of large samples of data in catchments, it is necessary to develop indices that describe the streamflow processes. This paper describes new indices applicable for the rising and falling limbs of streamflow hydrographs. The indices provide insights into the drivers of the hydrographs. The novelty of the work is on differentiating hydrographs by their time irreversibility property and offering an alternative way to recognize primary drivers of streamflow hydrographs.
Nathan G. F. Reaver, David A. Kaplan, Harald Klammler, and James W. Jawitz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1507–1525, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1507-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1507-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Budyko curve emerges globally from the behavior of multiple catchments. Single-parameter Budyko equations extrapolate the curve concept to individual catchments, interpreting curves and parameters as representing climatic and biophysical impacts on water availability, respectively. We tested these two key components theoretically and empirically, finding that catchments are not required to follow Budyko curves and usually do not, implying the parametric framework lacks predictive ability.
Clemens Messerschmid and Amjad Aliewi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1043–1061, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1043-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1043-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Temporal distribution of groundwater recharge has been widely studied; yet, much less attention has been paid to its spatial distribution. Based on a previous study of field-measured and modelled formation-specific recharge in the Mediterranean, this paper differentiates annual recharge coefficients in a novel approach and basin classification framework for physical features such as lithology, soil and LU/LC characteristics, applicable also in other previously ungauged basins around the world.
Thea Wingfield, Neil Macdonald, Kimberley Peters, and Jack Spees
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 6239–6259, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6239-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6239-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Human activities are causing greater and more frequent floods. Natural flood management (NFM) uses processes of the water cycle to slow the flow of rainwater, bringing together land and water management. Despite NFM's environmental and social benefits, it is yet to be widely adopted. Two environmental practitioner groups collaborated to produce a picture of the barriers to delivery, showing that there is a perceived lack of support from government and the public for NFM.
Katharina Blaurock, Burkhard Beudert, Benjamin S. Gilfedder, Jan H. Fleckenstein, Stefan Peiffer, and Luisa Hopp
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 5133–5151, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5133-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5133-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is an important part of the global carbon cycle with regards to carbon storage, greenhouse gas emissions and drinking water treatment. In this study, we compared DOC export of a small, forested catchment during precipitation events after dry and wet preconditions. We found that the DOC export from areas that are usually important for DOC export was inhibited after long drought periods.
Michael Stoelzle and Lina Stein
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4549–4565, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4549-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4549-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We found with a scientific paper survey (~ 1000 papers) that 45 % of the papers used rainbow color maps or red–green visualizations. Those rainbow visualizations, although attracting the media's attention, will not be accessible for up to 10 % of people due to color vision deficiency. The rainbow color map distorts and misleads scientific communication. The study gives guidance on how to avoid, improve and trust color and how the flaws of the rainbow color map should be communicated in science.
Lovrenc Pavlin, Borbála Széles, Peter Strauss, Alfred Paul Blaschke, and Günter Blöschl
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2327–2352, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2327-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2327-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We compared the dynamics of streamflow, groundwater and soil moisture to investigate how different parts of an agricultural catchment in Lower Austria are connected. Groundwater is best connected around the stream and worse uphill, where groundwater is deeper. Soil moisture connectivity increases with increasing catchment wetness but is not influenced by spatial position in the catchment. Groundwater is more connected to the stream on the seasonal scale compared to the event scale.
William Rust, Mark Cuthbert, John Bloomfield, Ron Corstanje, Nicholas Howden, and Ian Holman
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2223–2237, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2223-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2223-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we find evidence for the cyclical behaviour (on a 7-year basis) in UK streamflow records that match the main cycle of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Furthermore, we find that the strength of these 7-year cycles in streamflow is dependent on proportional contributions from groundwater and the response times of the underlying groundwater systems. This may allow for improvements to water management practices through better understanding of long-term streamflow behaviour.
Elnaz Azmi, Uwe Ehret, Steven V. Weijs, Benjamin L. Ruddell, and Rui A. P. Perdigão
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 1103–1115, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1103-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1103-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Computer models should be as simple as possible but not simpler. Simplicity refers to the length of the model and the effort it takes the model to generate its output. Here we present a practical technique for measuring the latter by the number of memory visits during model execution by
Strace, a troubleshooting and monitoring program. The advantage of this approach is that it can be applied to any computer-based model, which facilitates model intercomparison.
Sheena A. Spencer, Axel E. Anderson, Uldis Silins, and Adrian L. Collins
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 237–255, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-237-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-237-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We used unique chemical signatures of precipitation, hillslope soil water, and groundwater sources of streamflow to explore seasonal variation in runoff generation in a snow-dominated mountain watershed underlain by glacial till and permeable bedrock. Reacted hillslope water reached the stream first at the onset of snowmelt, followed by a dilution effect by snowmelt from May to June. Groundwater and riparian water were important sources later in the summer. Till created complex subsurface flow.
Tian Lan, Kairong Lin, Chong-Yu Xu, Zhiyong Liu, and Huayang Cai
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5859–5874, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5859-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5859-2020, 2020
Dan Rosbjerg
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4575–4585, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4575-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4575-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
August Colding contributed the first law of thermodynamics, evaporation from water and grass, steady free surfaces in conduits, the cross-sectional velocity distribution in conduits, a complete theory for the Gulf Stream, air speed in cyclones, the piezometric surface in confined aquifers, the unconfined elliptic water table in soil between drain pipes, and the wind-induced set-up in the sea during storms.
Zhengke Pan, Pan Liu, Chong-Yu Xu, Lei Cheng, Jing Tian, Shujie Cheng, and Kang Xie
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4369–4387, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4369-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4369-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study aims to identify the response of catchment water storage capacity (CWSC) to meteorological drought by examining the changes of hydrological-model parameters after drought events. This study improves our understanding of possible changes in the CWSC induced by a prolonged meteorological drought, which will help improve our ability to simulate the hydrological system under climate change.
Zong-Jie Li, Zong-Xing Li, Ling-Ling Song, Juan Gui, Jian Xue, Bai Juan Zhang, and Wen De Gao
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4169–4187, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4169-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4169-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This study mainly explores the hydraulic relations, recharge–drainage relations and their transformation paths, and the processes of each water body. It determines the composition of runoff, quantifies the contribution of each runoff component to different types of tributaries, and analyzes the hydrological effects of the temporal and spatial variation in runoff components. More importantly, we discuss the hydrological significance of permafrost and hydrological processes.
Michal Jenicek and Ondrej Ledvinka
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3475–3491, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3475-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3475-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in snow affect the runoff seasonality, including summer low flows. Here we analyse this effect in 59 mountain catchments in Czechia. We show that snow is more effective in generating runoff compared to rain. Snow-poor years generated lower groundwater recharge than snow-rich years, which resulted in higher deficit volumes in summer. The lower recharge and runoff in the case of a snowfall-to-rain transition due to air temperature increase might be critical for water supply in the future.
Julia L. A. Knapp, Jana von Freyberg, Bjørn Studer, Leonie Kiewiet, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 2561–2576, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2561-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2561-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Changes of stream water chemistry in response to discharge changes provide important insights into the storage and release of water from the catchment. Here we investigate the variability in concentration–discharge relationships among different solutes and hydrologic events and relate it to catchment conditions and dominant water sources.
Elizabeth R. Jachens, David E. Rupp, Clément Roques, and John S. Selker
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1159–1170, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1159-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1159-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Recession analysis uses the receding streamflow following precipitation events to estimate watershed-average properties. Two methods for recession analysis use recession events individually or all events collectively. Using synthetic case studies, this paper shows that analyzing recessions collectively produces flawed interpretations. Moving forward, recession analysis using individual recessions should be used to describe the average and variability of watershed behavior.
Lu Lin, Man Gao, Jintao Liu, Jiarong Wang, Shuhong Wang, Xi Chen, and Hu Liu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1145–1157, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1145-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1145-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, recession flow analysis – assuming nonlinearized outflow from aquifers into streams – was used to quantify active groundwater storage in a headwater catchment with high glacierization and large-scale frozen ground on the Tibetan Plateau. Hence, this work provides a perspective to clarify the impact of glacial retreat and frozen ground degradation due to climate change on hydrological processes.
Francesc Gallart, Jana von Freyberg, María Valiente, James W. Kirchner, Pilar Llorens, and Jérôme Latron
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1101–1107, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1101-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1101-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
How catchments store and release rain or melting water is still not well known. Now, it is broadly accepted that most of the water in streams is older than several months, and a relevant part may be many years old. But the age of water depends on the stream regime, being usually younger during high flows. This paper tries to provide tools for better analysing how the age of waters varies with flow in a catchment and for comparing the behaviour of catchments diverging in climate, size and regime.
Sebastian J. Gnann, Nicholas J. K. Howden, and Ross A. Woods
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 561–580, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-561-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-561-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In many places, seasonal variability in precipitation and evapotranspiration (climate) leads to seasonal variability in river flow (streamflow). In this work, we explore how climate seasonality is transformed into streamflow seasonality and what controls this transformation (e.g. climate aridity and geology). The results might be used in grouping catchments, predicting the seasonal streamflow regime in ungauged catchments, and building hydrological simulation models.
Adam S. Ward, Steven M. Wondzell, Noah M. Schmadel, Skuyler Herzog, Jay P. Zarnetske, Viktor Baranov, Phillip J. Blaen, Nicolai Brekenfeld, Rosalie Chu, Romain Derelle, Jennifer Drummond, Jan H. Fleckenstein, Vanessa Garayburu-Caruso, Emily Graham, David Hannah, Ciaran J. Harman, Jase Hixson, Julia L. A. Knapp, Stefan Krause, Marie J. Kurz, Jörg Lewandowski, Angang Li, Eugènia Martí, Melinda Miller, Alexander M. Milner, Kerry Neil, Luisa Orsini, Aaron I. Packman, Stephen Plont, Lupita Renteria, Kevin Roche, Todd Royer, Catalina Segura, James Stegen, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Hager, and Nathan I. Wisnoski
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 5199–5225, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-5199-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-5199-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The movement of water and solutes between streams and their shallow, connected subsurface is important to many ecosystem functions. These exchanges are widely expected to vary with stream flow across space and time, but these assumptions are seldom tested across basin scales. We completed more than 60 experiments across a 5th-order river basin to document these changes, finding patterns in space but not time. We conclude space-for-time and time-for-space substitutions are not good assumptions.
Lucy J. Barker, Jamie Hannaford, Simon Parry, Katie A. Smith, Maliko Tanguy, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 4583–4602, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4583-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4583-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
It is important to understand historic droughts in order to plan and prepare for possible future events. In this study we use the standardised streamflow index for 1891–2015 to systematically identify, characterise and rank hydrological drought events for 108 near-natural UK catchments. Results show when and where the most severe events occurred and describe events of the early 20th century, providing catchment-scale detail important for both science and planning applications of the future.
Ralf Loritz, Axel Kleidon, Conrad Jackisch, Martijn Westhoff, Uwe Ehret, Hoshin Gupta, and Erwin Zehe
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3807–3821, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3807-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3807-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we develop a topographic index explaining hydrological similarity within a energy-centered framework, with the observation that the majority of potential energy is dissipated when rainfall becomes runoff.
Sophie Ehrhardt, Rohini Kumar, Jan H. Fleckenstein, Sabine Attinger, and Andreas Musolff
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3503–3524, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3503-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3503-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This study shows quantitative and temporal offsets between nitrogen input and riverine output, using time series of three nested catchments in central Germany. The riverine concentrations show lagged reactions to the input, but at the same time exhibit strong inter-annual changes in the relationship between riverine discharge and concentration. The study found a strong retention of nitrogen that is dominantly assigned to a hydrological N legacy, which will affect future stream concentrations.
Davide Zoccatelli, Francesco Marra, Moshe Armon, Yair Rinat, James A. Smith, and Efrat Morin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2665–2678, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2665-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2665-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a comparison of flood properties over multiple Mediterranean and desert catchments. While in Mediterranean areas floods are related to rainfall amount, in deserts we observed a strong connection with the characteristics of the more intense part of storms. Because of the different mechanisms involved, despite having significantly shorter and more localized storms, deserts are able to produce floods with a magnitude comparable to Mediterranean areas.
Martina Botter, Paolo Burlando, and Simone Fatichi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1885–1904, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1885-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1885-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The study focuses on the solute export from rivers with the purpose of discerning the impacts of anthropic activities and catchment characteristics on water quality. The results revealed a more detectable impact of the anthropic activities than of the catchment characteristics. The solute export follows different dynamics depending on catchment characteristics and mainly on solute-specific properties. The export modality is consistent across different catchments only for a minority of solutes.
Anne F. Van Loon, Sally Rangecroft, Gemma Coxon, José Agustín Breña Naranjo, Floris Van Ogtrop, and Henny A. J. Van Lanen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1725–1739, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1725-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1725-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We explore the use of the classic
paired-catchmentapproach to quantify human influence on hydrological droughts. In this approach two similar catchments are compared and differences are attributed to the human activity present in one. In two case studies in UK and Australia, we found that groundwater abstraction aggravated streamflow drought by > 200 % and water transfer alleviated droughts with 25–80 %. Understanding the human influence on droughts can support water management decisions.
Karl Auerswald, Peter Moyle, Simon Paul Seibert, and Juergen Geist
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1035–1044, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1035-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1035-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The demand for flood protection often results in the construction of more and bigger levees along rivers. We highlight that such technical solutions often result in undesired socio-economic and ecological consequences such as increased downstream flooding risk, changes of groundwater levels, and a loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. We propose a transdisciplinary approach of integrated flood management and green infrastructure instead of reliance on technical protection measures.
Elena Diamantini, Stefano Mallucci, and Alberto Bellin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 573–593, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-573-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-573-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The description of pharmaceutical fate and transport introduced into a watershed is a challenging topic, especially because of the possible adverse effects on human health. In addition, an accurate estimation of solute sources and routes is still missing. This study uses a new promising modeling approach to predict pharmaceutical concentrations in rivers. Results show an interesting relationship between solute concentrations in waters and touristic fluxes.
Sheng Ye, Qihua Ran, Xudong Fu, Chunhong Hu, Guangqian Wang, Gary Parker, Xiuxiu Chen, and Siwei Zhang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 549–556, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-549-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-549-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Our study shows that there is declining coupling between sediment concentration and discharge from daily to annual scales for gauges across the Yellow River basin (YRB). Not only the coupling, but also the magnitude of sediment response to discharge variation decreases with long-term mean discharge. This emergent stationarity can be related to sediment retardation by vegetation, suggesting the shift of dominance from water to vegetation as mean annual discharge increases.
Dingbao Wang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 6567–6578, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6567-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6567-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
A novel distribution function is proposed for describing the spatial distribution of soil water storage capacity, and then the classical and empirical hydrologic model (the SCS curve number method) is derived as when the initial soil water storage is zero. This distribution function unifies the SCS curve number method and probability-distributed models such as the VIC and Xinanjiang models. The unified model provides a better way for modeling surface runoff.
Magdalena Uber, Jean-Pierre Vandervaere, Isabella Zin, Isabelle Braud, Maik Heistermann, Cédric Legoût, Gilles Molinié, and Guillaume Nord
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 6127–6146, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6127-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6127-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We investigate how rivers in a flash-flood-prone region in southern France respond to rainfall depending on initial soil moisture. Therefore, high-resolution data of rainfall, river discharge and soil moisture were used. We find that during dry initial conditions, the rivers hardly respond even for heavy rain events, but for wet initial conditions, the response remains unpredictable: for some rain events almost all rainfall is transformed to discharge, whereas this is not the case for others.
Jana von Freyberg, Bjørn Studer, Michael Rinderer, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5847–5865, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5847-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5847-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We show event- and pre-event-water volumes as fractions of precipitation, rather than discharge, to provide an alternative and more insightful approach to study catchment hydrological processes. For this, we analyze 24 storm events using high-frequency measurements of stable water isotopes in stream water and precipitation at a pre-Alpine catchment. Antecedent wetness and storm characteristics are dominant controls on event-water discharge and pre-event-water mobilization from storage.
Tjitske J. Geertsema, Adriaan J. Teuling, Remko Uijlenhoet, Paul J. J. F. Torfs, and Antonius J. F. Hoitink
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5599–5613, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5599-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5599-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigate the processes and effects of simultaneous flood peaks at a lowland confluence. The flood peaks are analyzed with the relatively new dynamic time warping method, which offers a robust means of tracing flood waves in discharge time series at confluences. The time lag between discharge peaks in the main river and its lowland tributaries is small compared to the wave duration; therefore the exact timing of discharge peaks may be little relevant to flood risk.
Vijay P. Santikari and Lawrence C. Murdoch
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4725–4743, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4725-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4725-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The curve number (CN) method is the most widely used approach for estimating runoff from rainfall. Despite its popularity, there is a conceptual flaw where CN varies with rainfall although it is assumed to be constant. In this paper, we describe theoretical analyses that show how this behavior is due to watershed heterogeneity, and we then provide simple modifications to the method to improve its runoff predictions. The findings will benefit hydrologists and watershed models that use CN method.
Katheryn Burd, Suzanne E. Tank, Nicole Dion, William L. Quinton, Christopher Spence, Andrew J. Tanentzap, and David Olefeldt
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4455–4472, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4455-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4455-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we investigated whether climate change and wildfires are likely to alter water quality of streams in western boreal Canada, a region that contains large permafrost-affected peatlands. We monitored stream discharge and water quality from early snowmelt to fall in two streams, one of which drained a recently burned landscape. Wildfire increased the stream delivery of phosphorous and possibly increased the release of old natural organic matter previously stored in permafrost soils.
Jana von Freyberg, Scott T. Allen, Stefan Seeger, Markus Weiler, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3841–3861, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3841-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3841-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We explored how the fraction of streamflow younger than ca. 3 months (Fyw) varies with landscape characteristics and climatic forcing, using an extensive isotope data set from 22 Swiss catchments. Overall, Fyw tends to be larger when catchments are wet and discharge is correspondingly higher, indicating an increase in the proportional contribution of faster flow paths at higher flows. We quantify this
discharge sensitivityof Fyw and relate it to the dominant streamflow-generating mechanisms.
Cited articles
Baldocchi, D. D., Xu, L. K., and Kiang, N.: How plant functional-type, weather,
seasonal drought, and soil physical properties alter water and energy fluxes
of an oak-grass savanna and an annual grassland, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 123,
13–39, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2003.11.006, 2004.
Barnett, T. P., Adam, J. C., and Lettenmaier, D. P.: Potential impacts of a
warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions, Nature,
438, 303–309, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04141, 2005.
Barnhart, T. B., Molotch, N. P., Livneh, B., Harpold, A. A., Knowles, J. F., and Schneider, D.: Snowmelt rate dictates streamflow, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 8006–8016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016gl069690, 2016.
Berghuijs, W. R., Larsen, J. R., Van Emmerik, T. H. M., and Woods, R. A.: A Global
Assessment of Runoff Sensitivity to Changes in Precipitation, Potential
Evaporation, and Other Factors, Water Resour. Res., 53, 8475–8486,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021593, 2017.
Bosson, E., Sabel, U., Gustafsson, L.-G., Sassner, M., and Destouni, G.:
Influences of shifts in climate, landscape, and permafrost on terrestrial
hydrology, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 117, D05120,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011jd016429, 2012.
Bourque, C. P. A. and Mir, M. A.: Seasonal snow cover in the Qilian Mountains
of Northwest China: Its dependence on oasis seasonal evolution and lowland
production of water vapour, J. Hydrol., 454, 141–151,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.06.008, 2012.
Bruemmer, C., Black, T. A., Jassal, R. S., Grant, N. J., Spittlehouse, D. L.,
Chen, B., Nesic, Z., Amiro, B. D., Arain, M. A., Barr, A. G., Bourque, C. P. A., Coursolle, C., Dunn, A. L., Flanagan, L. B., Humphreys, E. R., Lafleur, P. M., Margolis, H. A., McCaughey, J. H., and Wofsy, S. C.: How climate and vegetation
type influence evapotranspiration and water use efficiency in Canadian
forest, peatland and grassland ecosystems, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 153,
14–30, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.04.008, 2012.
Budyko, M. I.: Climate and life, Academic, New York, USA, 1974.
Budyko, M. I. and Zubenok, L. I.: Determination of evaporation from the land surface, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSR, Ser. Geogr., 6, 3–17, 1961 (in Russian).
Buytaert, W., Celleri, R., Willems, P., Bièvre, B. D., and Wyseure, G.:
Spatial and temporal rainfall variability in mountainous areas: A case study
from the south Ecuadorian Andes, J. Hydrol., 329, 413–421,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2006.02.031, 2006.
Chen, X., Alimohammadi, N., and Wang, D.: Modeling interannual variability of
seasonal evaporation and storage change based on the extended Budyko
framework, Water Resour. Res., 49, 6067–6078,
https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20493, 2013.
China Meteorological Data Service Center: Meteorological data, available at: http://data.cma.cn/data/detail/dataCode/SURF_CLI_CHN_MUL_DAY_CES_V3.0.html (last access: 10 June 2021), 2012.
Choudhury, B. J.: Evaluation of an empirical equation for annual evaporation
using field observations and results from a biophysical model, J. Hydrol.,
216, 99–110, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1694(98)00293-5, 1999.
Cong, Z., Shahid, M., Zhang, D., Lei, H., and Yang, D.: Attribution of runoff
change in the alpine basin: a case study of the Heihe Upstream Basin, China,
Hydrolog. Sci. J., 62, 1013–1028,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2017.1283043, 2017.
Deng, S., Yang, T., Zeng, B., Zhu, X., and Xu, H.: Vegetation cover variation
in the Qilian Mountains and its response to climate change in 2000–2011,
J. Mt. Sci.-Engl., 10, 1050–1062, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-013-2558-z, 2013.
Donohue, R. J., Roderick, M. L., and McVicar, T. R.: On the importance of including vegetation dynamics in Budyko's hydrological model, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 983–995, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-11-983-2007, 2007.
Du, C., Sun, F., Yu, J., Liu, X., and Chen, Y.: New interpretation of the role of water balance in an extended Budyko hypothesis in arid regions, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 393–409, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-393-2016, 2016.
Du, J., He, Z., Piatek, K. B., Chen, L., Lin, P., and Zhu, X.: Interacting
effects of temperature and precipitation on climatic sensitivity of spring
vegetation green-up in arid mountains of China, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 269,
71–77, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.02.008, 2019.
Falge, E., Baldocchi, D., Tenhunen, J., Aubinet, M., Bakwin, P., Berbigier,
P., Bernhofer, C., Burba, G., Clement, R., Davis, K. J., Elbers, J. A.,
Goldstein, A. H., Grelle, A., Granier, A., Guomundsson, J., Hollinger, D.,
Kowalski, A. S., Katul, G., Law, B. E., Malhi, Y., Meyers, T., Monson, R. K.,
Munger, J. W., Oechel, W., Paw, K. T., Pilegaard, K., Rannik, U., Rebmann, C., Suyker, A., Valentini, R., Wilson, K., and Wofsy, S.: Seasonality of
ecosystem respiration and gross primary production as derived from FLUXNET
measurements, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 113, 53–74,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1923(02)00102-8, 2002.
Feng, S., Liu, J., Zhang, Q., Zhang, Y., Singh, V. P., Gu, X., and Sun, P.: A
global quantitation of factors affecting evapotranspiration variability, J.
Hydrol., 584, 124688, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124688, 2020.
Feng, X., Fu, B., Piao, S., Wang, S., and Ciais, P.: Revegetation in China's
Loess Plateau is approaching sustainable water resource limits, Nat. Clim.
Change, 6, 1019–1022, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3092, 2016.
Gao, X., Zhang, S., Ye, B., and Gao, H.: Recent changes of glacier runoff in
the Hexi Inland river basin, Advances in Water Science, 22, 344–350, 2011 (in Chinese).
Geospatial Data Cloud: The Digital elevation data, available at: http://www.gscloud.cn/sources/accessdata/310?pid=302, last access: 10 June 2021.
Godsey, S. E., Kirchner, J. W., and Tague, C. L.: Effects of changes in winter snowpacks on summer low flows: case studies in the Sierra Nevada,
California, USA, Hydrol. Process., 28, 5048–5064,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02273.x, 2014.
Griessinger, N., Seibert, J., Magnusson, J., and Jonas, T.: Assessing the benefit of snow data assimilation for runoff modeling in Alpine catchments, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3895–3905, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3895-2016, 2016.
Hock, R.: Temperature index melt modelling in mountain areas, J. Hydrol.,
282, 104–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1694(03)00257-9, 2003.
Huning, L. S. and AghaKouchak, A.: Mountain snowpack response to different
levels of warming, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 115, 10932–10937,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805953115, 2018.
Katul, G. G., Oren, R., Manzoni, S., Higgins, C., and Parlange, M. B.:
Evapotranspiration: a process driving mass transport and energy exchange in
the soil-plant-atmosphere-cliamte system, Rev. Geophys., 50, RG3002,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000366, 2012.
Koster, R. D. and Suarez, M. J.: A simple framework for examining the
interannual variability of land surface moisture fluxes, J. Climate, 12,
1911–1917, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<1911:asffet>2.0.co;2, 1999.
Kuusisto, E.: On the values and variability of degree-day melting factor in
Finland, Nord. Hydrol., 11, 235–242,
https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(80)90029-3, 1980.
Li, B., Chen, Y., Chen, Z., and Li, W.: The Effect of Climate Change during
Snowmelt Period on Streamflow in the Mountainous Areas of Northwest China,
Acta Geographica Sinica, 67, 1461–1470, 2012 (in Chinese).
Li, D., Pan, M., Cong, Z., Zhang, L., and Wood, E.: Vegetation control on
water and energy balance within the Budyko framework, Water Resour. Res.,
49, 969–976, https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20107, 2013.
Li, H., Zhao, Q., Wu, J., Ding, Y., Qin, J., Wei, H., and Zeng, D.:
Quantitative simulation of the runoff components and its variation
characteristics in the upstream of the Shule River, J. Glaciol. Geocryol.,
41, 907–917, 2019 (in Chinese).
Li, L. L., Li, J., Chen, H. M., and Yu, R. C.: Diurnal Variations of Summer
Precipitation over the Qilian Mountains in Northwest China,
J. Meteorol. Res.-Prc., 33, 18–30, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-019-8103-4, 2019a.
Li, S., Zhang, L., Kang, S., Tong, L., Du, T., Hao, X., and Zhao, P.:
Comparison of several surface resistance models for estimating crop
evapotranspiration over the entire growing season in arid regions, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 208, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.04.002, 2015.
Li, X., Cheng, G., Ge, Y., Li, H., Han, F., Hu, X., Tian, W., Tian, Y., Pan,
X., Nian, Y., Zhang, Y., Ran, Y., Zheng, Y., Gao, B., Yang, D., Zheng, C.,
Wang, X., Liu, S., and Cai, X.: Hydrological Cycle in the Heihe River Basin
and Its Implication for Water Resource Management in Endorheic Basins, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 123, 890–914, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017jd027889, 2018.
Li, Z., Feng, Q., Wang, Q. J., Yong, S., Cheng, A., and Li, J.: Contribution
from frozen soil meltwater to runoff in an in-land river basin under water
scarcity by isotopic tracing in northwestern China, Global Planet. Change,
136, 41–51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.12.002, 2016.
Li, Z., Feng, Q., Li, Z., Yuan, R., Gui, J., and Lv, Y.: Climate background,
fact and hydrological effect of multiphase water transformation in cold
regions of the Western China: A review, Earth-Sci. Rev., 190, 33–57,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.12.004, 2019b.
Liu, J., Zhang, Q., Singh, V. P., Song, C., Zhang, Y., Sun, P., and Gu, X.: Hydrological effects of climate variability and vegetation dynamics on annual fluvial water balance in global large river basins, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4047–4060, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4047-2018, 2018.
Liu, J., Zhang, Q., Feng, S., Gu, X., Singh, V. P., and Sun, P.: Global
Attribution of Runoff Variance Across Multiple Timescales, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 124, 13962–13974, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jd030539, 2019.
Ma, S., Eichelmann, E., Wolf, S., Rey-Sanchez, C., and Baldocchi, D. D.:
Transpiration and evaporation in a Californian oak-grass savanna: Field
measurements and partitioning model results, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 295,
108204, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108204, 2020.
Ma, Z., Kang, S., Zhang, L., Tong, L., and Su, X.: Analysis of impacts of
climate variability and human activity on streamflow for a river basin in
arid region of northwest China, J. Hydrol., 352, 239–249,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2007.12.022, 2008.
Matin, M. A. and Bourque, C. P. A.: Mountain-river runoff components and their role in the seasonal development of desert-oases in northwest China,
J. Arid Environ., 122, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.05.011, 2015.
Maurya, A. S., Rai, S. P., Joshi, N., Dutt, K. S., and Rai, N.: Snowmelt runoff and groundwater discharge in Himalayan rivers: a case study of the Satluj River, NW India, Environ. Earth Sci., 77, 694, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7849-9, 2018.
Milly, P. C. D.: Climate,soil-water storage, and the average annual
water-balance, Water Resour. Res., 30, 2143–2156,
https://doi.org/10.1029/94wr00586, 1994.
NASA: GLDAS data, available at https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/GLDAS_NOAH025_M_2.0/summary (last access: 10 June 2021), 2019.
NASA: MODIS MOD10A2 Version 6 snow cover products, available at: https://nsidc.org/data/mod10a2, last access: 10 June 2021a.
NASA: MODIS MOD13A3.006 products, available
at: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod13a3v006/, last access: 10 June 2021b.
National Tibetan Plateau Data Center: Ground truth of land surface evapotranspiration at regional scale in
the Heihe River Basin (2012–2016) ETmap Version 1.0, available at:
http://data.tpdc.ac.cn/zh-hans/data (last access: 10 June 2021), 2019.
Nie, N., Zhang, W. C., Zhang, Z. J., Guo, H. D., and Ishwaran, N.: Reconstructed Terrestrial Water Storage Change (Delta TWS) from 1948 to 2012 over the Amazon Basin with the Latest GRACE and GLDAS Products, Water Resour. Manag., 30, 279–294, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-015-1161-1, 2016.
Ning, T., Li, Z., and Liu, W.: Vegetation dynamics and climate seasonality jointly control the interannual catchment water balance in the Loess Plateau under the Budyko framework, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1515–1526, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1515-2017, 2017.
Ning, T., Li, Z., Feng, Q., Chen, W., and Li, Z.: Effects of forest cover
change on catchment evapotranspiration variation in China, Hydrol. Process., 34, 2219–2228, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13719, 2020.
Niu, Z., He, H., Zhu, G., Ren, X., Zhang, L., Zhang, K., Yu, G., Ge, R., Li,
P., Zeng, N., and Zhu, X.: An increasing trend in the ratio of transpiration
to total terrestrial evapotranspiration in China from 1982 to 2015 caused by
greening and warming, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 279, 107701,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107701, 2019.
Ohmura, A.: Physical basis for the temperature-based melt-index method, J.
Appl. Meteorol., 40, 753–761,
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(2001)040<0753:pbfttb>2.0.co;2, 2001.
Potter, N. J., Zhang, L., Milly, P. C. D., McMahon, T. A., and Jakeman, A. J.:
Effects of rainfall seasonality and soil moisture capacity on mean annual
water balance for Australian catchments, Water Resour. Res., 41, W06007,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2004wr003697, 2005.
Priestley, C. and Taylor, R.: On the assessment of surface heat flux and
evaporation using large-scale parameters, Mon. Weather Rev., 100, 81–92, 1972.
Qiang, F., Zhang, M. J., Wang, S., Liu, Y., Ren, Z., and Zhu, X.: Changes of
areal precipitation based on gridded dataset in Qilian Mountains during
1961–2012, Acta Geographica Sinica, 70, 1125–1136, 2015 (in Chinese).
Qin, Y., Abatzoglou, J. T., Siebert, S., Huning, L. S., AghaKouchak, A.,
Mankin, J. S., Hong, C., Tong, D., Davis, S. J., and Mueller, N. D.:
Agricultural risks from changing snowmelt, Nat. Clim. Change, 10, 459–465,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0746-8, 2020.
Ragettli, S., Pellicciotti, F., Immerzeel, W. W., Miles, E. S., Petersen, L.,
Heynen, M., Shea, J. M., Stumm, D., Joshi, S., and Shrestha, A.: Unraveling
the hydrology of a Himalayan catchment through integration of high
resolution in situ data and remote sensing with an advanced simulation
model, Adv. Water Resour., 78, 94–111,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.01.013, 2015.
Rice, R., Bales, R. C., Painter, T. H., and Dozier, J.: Snow water equivalent
along elevation gradients in the Merced and Tuolumne River basins of the
Sierra Nevada, Water Resour. Res., 47, W08515,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010wr009278, 2011.
Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.: Ecohydrology: A hydrologic perspective of
climate-soil-vegetation dynamics, Water Resour. Res., 36, 3–9,
https://doi.org/10.1029/1999wr900210, 2000.
Semadeni-Davies, A.: Monthly snowmelt modelling for large-scale climate
change studies using the degree day approach, Ecol. Model., 101, 303–323,
https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3800(97)00054-9, 1997.
Stewart, I. T.: Changes in snowpack and snowmelt runoff for key mountain
regions, Hydrol. Process., 23, 78–94, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7128, 2009.
Stewart, I. T., Cayan, D. R., and Dettinger, M. D.: Changes toward earlier
streamflow timing across western North America, J. Climate, 18, 1136–1155,
https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli3321.1, 2005.
Syed, T. H., Famiglietti, J. S., Rodell, M., Chen, J., and Wilson, C. R.:
Analysis of terrestrial water storage changes from GRACE and GLDAS,
Water Resour. Res., 44, W02433, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005779, 2008.
Villegas, J. C., Breshears, D. D., Zou, C. B., and Law, D. J.: Ecohydrological
controls of soil evaporation in deciduous drylands: How the hierarchical
effects of litter, patch and vegetation mosaic cover interact with phenology
and season, J. Arid Environ., 74, 595–602,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.09.028, 2010.
Wagle, P. and Kakani, V. G.: Growing season variability in
evapotranspiration, ecosystem water use efficiency, and energy partitioning
in switchgrass, Ecohydrology, 7, 64–72, https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1322, 2014.
Wang, D. and Hejazi, M.: Quantifying the relative contribution of the
climate and direct human impacts on mean annual streamflow in the contiguous
United States, Water Resour. Res., 47, W00J12,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010wr010283, 2011.
Wang, J. and Li, S.: The influence of climate change on snowmelt runoff
variation in arid alpine regions of China, Science in China Ser. D Earth Sciences, 35, 664–670, 2005 (in Chinese).
Wang, J. and Li, W.: Establishing snowmelt runoff simulating model using
remote sensing data and GIS in the west of China, Int. J. Remote Sens.,
22, 3267–3274, https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160010030082, 2001.
Wang, J., Li, H., and Hao, X.: Responses of snowmelt runoff to climatic change in an inland river basin, Northwestern China, over the past 50 years, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 1979–1987, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-14-1979-2010, 2010a.
Wang, K., Wang, P., Li, Z., Cribb, M., and Sparrow, M.: A simple method to
estimate actual evapotranspiration from a combination of net radiation,
vegetation index, and temperature, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 112, D15107,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2006jd008351, 2007.
Wang, L., Caylor, K. K., Villegas, J. C., Barron-Gafford, G. A., Breshears,
D. D., and Huxman, T. E.: Partitioning evapotranspiration across gradients of
woody plant cover: Assessment of a stable isotope technique, Geophys. Res.
Lett., 37, L09401, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL043228, 2010b.
Wang, R., Yao, Z., Liu, Z., Wu, S., Jiang, L., and Wang, L.: Snow cover
variability and snowmelt in a high-altitude ungauged catchment, Hydrol. Process., 29, 3665–3676, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10472, 2015.
Wang, Y. J. and Qin, D. H.: Influence of climate change and human activity on
water resources in arid region of Northwest China: An overview,
Advances in Climate Change Research, 8, 268–278, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accre.2017.08.004, 2017.
Wei, X., Li, Q., Zhang, M., Giles-Hansen, K., Liu, W., Fan, H., Wang, Y.,
Zhou, G., Piao, S., and Liu, S.: Vegetation cover-another dominant factor in
determining global water resources in forested regions, Global Change Biol.,
24, 786–795, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13983, 2018.
Wu, C., Hu, B. X., Huang, G., and Zhang, H.: Effects of climate and
terrestrial storage on temporal variability of actual evapotranspiration, J.
Hydrol., 549, 388–403, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.04.012, 2017.
Wu, F., Zhan, J., Wang, Z., and Zhang, Q.: Streamflow variation due to
glacier melting and climate change in upstream Heihe River Basin, Northwest
China, Phys. Chem. Earth, 79–82, 11–19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2014.08.002, 2015.
Xu, C. Y. and Singh, V. P.: Evaluation of three complementary relationship
evapotranspiration models by water balance approach to estimate actual
regional evapotranspiration in different climatic regions, J. Hydrol., 308,
105–121, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.10.024, 2005.
Xu, T., Guo, Z., Liu, S., He, X., Meng, Y., Xu, Z., Xia, Y., Xiao, J.,
Zhang, Y., and Ma, Y.: Evaluating Different Machine Learning Methods for
Upscaling Evapotranspiration from Flux Towers to the Regional Scale,
J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 123, 8674–8690, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028447,
2018.
Xu, X., Liu, W., Scanlon, B. R., Zhang, L., and Pan, M.: Local and global
factors controlling water-energy balances within the Budyko framework,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 6123–6129, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013gl058324,
2013.
Yang, D., Shao, W., Yeh, P. J. F., Yang, H., Kanae, S., and Oki, T.: Impact of vegetation coverage on regional water balance in the nonhumid regions of
China, Water Resour. Res., 45, W00A14, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008wr006948, 2009.
Yang, D. W., Sun, F. B., Liu, Z. T., Cong, Z. T., and Lei, Z. D.: Interpreting the
complementary relationship in non-humid environments based on the Budyko and
Penman hypotheses, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L18402, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006wr005224, 2006.
Yang, H. B., Yang, D. W., Lei, Z. D., and Sun, F. B.: New analytical derivation
of the mean annual water-energy balance equation, Water Resour. Res., 44,
W03410, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007wr006135, 2008.
Yang, L., Feng, Q., Yin, Z., Wen, X., Si, J., Li, C., and Deo, R. C.:
Identifying separate impacts of climate and land use/cover change on
hydrological processes in upper stream of Heihe River, Northwest China,
Hydrol. Process., 31, 1100–1112, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.11098, 2017.
Yang, T., Wang, C., Chen, Y., Chen, X., and Yu, Z.: Climate change and water
storage variability over an arid endorheic region, J. Hydrol., 529, 330–339,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.07.051, 2015.
Ye, S., Li, H. Y., Li, S., Leung, L. R., Demissie, Y., Ran, Q., and
Blöschl, G.: Vegetation regulation on streamflow intra-annual
variability through adaption to climate variations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42,
10307–10315, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl066396, 2016.
Yuan, W., Liu, S., Liu, H., Randerson, J. T., Yu, G., and Tieszen, L. L.:
Impacts of precipitation seasonality and ecosystem types on
evapotranspiration in the Yukon River Basin, Alaska, Water Resour. Res., 46,
W02514, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009wr008119, 2010.
Zeng, R. and Cai, X.: Assessing the temporal variance of evapotranspiration
considering climate and catchment storage factors, Adv. Water Resour., 79,
51–60, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.02.008, 2015.
Zeng, R. and Cai, X.: Climatic and terrestrial storage control on
evapotranspiration temporal variability: Analysis of river basins around the
world, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 185–195,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl066470, 2016.
Zha, T., Barr, A. G., van der Kamp, G., Black, T. A., McCaughey, J. H., and
Flanagan, L. B.: Interannual variation of evapotranspiration from forest and
grassland ecosystems in western canada in relation to drought, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 150, 1476–1484, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.08.003,
2010.
Zhang, D., Cong, Z., Ni, G., Yang, D., and Hu, S.: Effects of snow ratio on annual runoff within the Budyko framework, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1977–1992, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-1977-2015, 2015.
Zhang, D., Liu, X., Zhang, Q., Liang, K., and Liu, C.: Investigation of
factors affecting intra-annual variability of evapotranspiration and
streamflow under different climate conditions, J. Hydrol., 543, 759–769,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.10.047, 2016a.
Zhang, D., Liu, X., Zhang, L., Zhang, Q., Gan, R., and Li, X.: Attribution of
Evapotranspiration Changes in Humid Regions of China from 1982 to 2016, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, e2020JD032404, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd032404, 2020.
Zhang, L., Dawes, W. R., and Walker, G. R.: Response of mean annual
evapotranspiration to vegetation changes at catchment scale, Water Resour. Res., 37, 701–708, https://doi.org/10.1029/2000wr900325, 2001.
Zhang, J., Liu, S., and Ding, Y.: Spatial variation of degree-day factors on the observed glaciers in Western China, Acta Geographica Sinica, 61, 89–98, 2006 (in Chinese).
Zhang, S., Yang, H., Yang, D., and Jayawardena, A. W.: Quantifying the effect
of vegetation change on the regional water balance within the Budyko
framework, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 1140–1148,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl066952, 2016b.
Zhang, Y., Luo, Y., Sun, L., Liu, S., Chen, X., and Wang, X.: Using glacier
area ratio to quantify effects of melt water on runoff, J. Hydrol., 538,
269–277, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.04.026, 2016c.
Zhou, S., Yu, B., Huang, Y., and Wang, G.: The complementary relationship and
generation of the Budyko functions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 1781–1790,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl063511, 2015.
Short summary
Previous studies decomposed ET variance in precipitation, potential ET, and total water storage changes based on Budyko equations. However, the effects of snowmelt and vegetation changes have not been incorporated in snow-dependent basins. We thus extended this method in arid alpine basins of northwest China and found that ET variance is primarily controlled by rainfall, followed by coupled rainfall and vegetation. The out-of-phase seasonality between rainfall and snowmelt weaken ET variance.
Previous studies decomposed ET variance in precipitation, potential ET, and total water storage...
