Articles | Volume 29, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3673-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-29-3673-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Aug 2025
Research article |
| 08 Aug 2025
| 08 Aug 2025
Catchment hydrological response and transport are affected differently by precipitation intensity and antecedent wetness
Julia L. A. Knapp
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Wouter R. Berghuijs
Department of Earth Sciences, Free University Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Marius G. Floriancic
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
James W. Kirchner
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
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Jana von Freyberg, Julia L. A. Knapp, Andrea Rücker, Bjørn Studer, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5821–5834, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5821-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5821-2020, 2020
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Automated water samplers are often used to collect precipitation and streamwater samples for subsequent isotope analysis, but the isotopic signal of these samples may be altered due to evaporative fractionation occurring during the storage inside the autosamplers in the field. In this article we present and evaluate a cost-efficient modification to the Teledyne ISCO automated water sampler that prevents isotopic enrichment through evaporative fractionation of the water samples.
James W. Kirchner and Julia L. A. Knapp
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Ensemble hydrograph separation is a powerful new tool for measuring the age distribution of streamwater. However, the calculations are complex and may be difficult for researchers to implement on their own. Here we present scripts that perform these calculations in either MATLAB or R so that researchers do not need to write their own codes. We explain how these scripts work and how to use them. We demonstrate several potential applications using a synthetic catchment data set.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
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This study provides the first event-scale observational evidence that runoff sensitivity to precipitation decreases significantly in degrading permafrost regions of the Tibetan Plateau. Data-driven analysis reveals that permafrost thaw enhances infiltration and subsurface storage, reducing peak runoff and runoff coefficients, especially during heavy rainfall. These results are important for drought and flood risk management under climate change.
Wouter R. Berghuijs, Kate Hale, and Harsh Beria
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2851–2862, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2851-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2851-2025, 2025
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We present directional statistics to characterize seasonality, capturing the timing of streamflow (center of mass timing) and the strength of its seasonal cycle (concentration). Directional statistics are more robust than several widely used metrics to quantify streamflow seasonality. The introduced metrics can improve our understanding of streamflow seasonality and associated changes and can also be used to study the seasonality of other environmental fluxes within and beyond hydrology.
Guilhem Türk, Christoph J. Gey, Bernd R. Schöne, Marius G. Floriancic, James W. Kirchner, Loic Leonard, Laurent Gourdol, Richard Keim, and Laurent Pfister
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1530, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1530, 2025
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How landscape features affect water storage and release in catchments remains poorly understood. Here we used water stable isotopes in 12 streams to assess the fraction of precipitation reaching streamflow in less than 2 weeks. More recent precipitation was found when streamflow was high and the fraction was linked to the geology (i.e. high when impermeable, low when permeable). Such information is key for better anticipating streamflow responses to a changing climate.
Quentin Duchemin, Maria Grazia Zanoni, Marius G. Floriancic, Hansjörg Seybold, Guillaume Obozinski, James W. Kirchner, and Paolo Benettin
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1591, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1591, 2025
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Water balances of catchments will often strongly depend on their state in the recent past, but such memory effects may persist at annual timescales. We use global data sets to show that annual memory is typically absent in precipitation but strong in terrestrial water stores and also present in evaporation and streamflow (including low flows and floods). Our experiments show that hysteretic models provide behaviour that is consistent with these observed memory behaviours.
Huibin Gao, Laurent Pfister, and James W. Kirchner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-613, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-613, 2025
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Some streams respond to rainfall with flow that peaks twice: a sharp first peak followed by a broad second peak. We analyzed data from a catchment in Luxembourg to better understand the processes behind this phenomenon. Our results show that the first peak is mostly driven directly by rainfall, and the second peak is mostly driven by rain that infiltrates to groundwater. We also show that the relative importance of these two processes depends on how wet the landscape is before the rain falls.
Zahra Eslami, Hansjörg Seybold, and James W. Kirchner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-35, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-35, 2025
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We used a new method to measure how streamflow responds to precipitation across a network of watersheds in Iran. Our analysis shows that streamflow is more sensitive to precipitation when groundwater levels are shallower, climates are more humid, topography is steeper, and drainage basins are smaller. These results are a step toward more sustainable water resource management and more effective flood risk mitigation.
Marco M. Lehmann, Josie Geris, Ilja van Meerveld, Daniele Penna, Youri Rothfuss, Matteo Verdone, Pertti Ala-Aho, Matyas Arvai, Alise Babre, Philippe Balandier, Fabian Bernhard, Lukrecija Butorac, Simon Damien Carrière, Natalie C. Ceperley, Zuosinan Chen, Alicia Correa, Haoyu Diao, David Dubbert, Maren Dubbert, Fabio Ercoli, Marius G. Floriancic, Teresa E. Gimeno, Damien Gounelle, Frank Hagedorn, Christophe Hissler, Frédéric Huneau, Alberto Iraheta, Tamara Jakovljević, Nerantzis Kazakis, Zoltan Kern, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Jiří Kocum, Charlotte Koeber, Gerbrand Koren, Angelika Kübert, Dawid Kupka, Samuel Le Gall, Aleksi Lehtonen, Thomas Leydier, Philippe Malagoli, Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa, Chiara Marchina, Núria Martínez-Carreras, Nicolas Martin-StPaul, Hannu Marttila, Aline Meyer Oliveira, Gaël Monvoisin, Natalie Orlowski, Kadi Palmik-Das, Aurel Persoiu, Andrei Popa, Egor Prikaziuk, Cécile Quantin, Katja T. Rinne-Garmston, Clara Rohde, Martin Sanda, Matthias Saurer, Daniel Schulz, Michael Paul Stockinger, Christine Stumpp, Jean-Stéphane Venisse, Lukas Vlcek, Stylianos Voudouris, Björn Weeser, Mark E. Wilkinson, Giulia Zuecco, and Katrin Meusburger
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Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
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Marius G. Floriancic, Michael P. Stockinger, James W. Kirchner, and Christine Stumpp
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Shaozhen Liu, Ilja van Meerveld, Yali Zhao, Yunqiang Wang, and James W. Kirchner
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We study the seasonal and spatial patterns of soil moisture in 0–500 cm soil using 89 monitoring sites in a loess catchment with monsoonal climate. Soil moisture is highest during the months of least precipitation and vice versa. Soil moisture patterns at the hillslope scale are dominated by the aspect-controlled evapotranspiration variations (a local control), not by the hillslope convergence-controlled downslope flow (a nonlocal control), under both dry and wet conditions.
Marvin Höge, Martina Kauzlaric, Rosi Siber, Ursula Schönenberger, Pascal Horton, Jan Schwanbeck, Marius Günter Floriancic, Daniel Viviroli, Sibylle Wilhelm, Anna E. Sikorska-Senoner, Nans Addor, Manuela Brunner, Sandra Pool, Massimiliano Zappa, and Fabrizio Fenicia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5755–5784, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, 2023
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CAMELS-CH is an open large-sample hydro-meteorological data set that covers 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland from 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2020. It comprises (a) daily data of river discharge and water level as well as meteorologic variables like precipitation and temperature; (b) yearly glacier and land cover data; (c) static attributes of, e.g, topography or human impact; and (d) catchment delineations. CAMELS-CH enables water and climate research and modeling at catchment level.
Alexa Marion Hinzman, Ylva Sjöberg, Steve W. Lyon, Wouter R. Berghuijs, and Ype van der Velde
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2391, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2391, 2023
Preprint archived
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An Arctic catchment with permafrost responds in a linear fashion: water in=water out. As permafrost thaws, 9 of 10 nested catchments become more non-linear over time. We find upstream catchments have stronger streamflow seasonality and exhibit the most nonlinear storage-discharge relationships. Downstream catchments have the greatest increases in non-linearity over time. These long-term shifts in the storage-discharge relationship are not typically seen in current hydrological models.
Niek Jesse Speetjens, Gustaf Hugelius, Thomas Gumbricht, Hugues Lantuit, Wouter R. Berghuijs, Philip A. Pika, Amanda Poste, and Jorien E. Vonk
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 541–554, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-541-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-541-2023, 2023
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The Arctic is rapidly changing. Outside the Arctic, large databases changed how researchers look at river systems and land-to-ocean processes. We present the first integrated pan-ARctic CAtchments summary DatabasE (ARCADE) (> 40 000 river catchments draining into the Arctic Ocean). It incorporates information about the drainage area with 103 geospatial, environmental, climatic, and physiographic properties and covers small watersheds , which are especially subject to change, at a high resolution
Tobias Nicollier, Gilles Antoniazza, Lorenz Ammann, Dieter Rickenmann, and James W. Kirchner
Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 929–951, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-929-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-929-2022, 2022
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Monitoring sediment transport is relevant for flood safety and river restoration. However, the spatial and temporal variability of sediment transport processes makes their prediction challenging. We investigate the feasibility of a general calibration relationship between sediment transport rates and the impact signals recorded by metal plates installed in the channel bed. We present a new calibration method based on flume experiments and apply it to an extensive dataset of field measurements.
Sebastian A. Krogh, Lucia Scaff, James W. Kirchner, Beatrice Gordon, Gary Sterle, and Adrian Harpold
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3393–3417, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3393-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3393-2022, 2022
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We present a new way to detect snowmelt using daily cycles in streamflow driven by solar radiation. Results show that warmer sites have earlier and more intermittent snowmelt than colder sites, and the timing of early snowmelt events is strongly correlated with the timing of streamflow volume. A space-for-time substitution shows greater sensitivity of streamflow timing to climate change in colder rather than in warmer places, which is then contrasted with land surface simulations.
Nikos Theodoratos and James W. Kirchner
Earth Surf. Dynam., 9, 1545–1561, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-1545-2021, 2021
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We examine stream-power incision and linear diffusion landscape evolution models with and without incision thresholds. We present a steady-state relationship between curvature and the steepness index, which plots as a straight line. We view this line as a counterpart to the slope–area relationship for the case of landscapes with hillslope diffusion. We show that simple shifts and rotations of this line graphically express the topographic response of landscapes to changes in model parameters.
Scott T. Allen and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2020-683, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2020-683, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Extracting water from plant stems can introduce analytical errors in isotope analyses. We demonstrate that sensitivities to suspected errors can be evaluated and that conclusions drawn from extracted plant water isotope ratios are neither generally valid nor generally invalid. Ultimately, imperfect measurements of plant and soil water isotope ratios can continue to support useful inferences if study designs are appropriately matched to their likely biases and uncertainties.
Jana von Freyberg, Julia L. A. Knapp, Andrea Rücker, Bjørn Studer, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5821–5834, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5821-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5821-2020, 2020
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Automated water samplers are often used to collect precipitation and streamwater samples for subsequent isotope analysis, but the isotopic signal of these samples may be altered due to evaporative fractionation occurring during the storage inside the autosamplers in the field. In this article we present and evaluate a cost-efficient modification to the Teledyne ISCO automated water sampler that prevents isotopic enrichment through evaporative fractionation of the water samples.
Joost Buitink, Lieke A. Melsen, James W. Kirchner, and Adriaan J. Teuling
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 6093–6110, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6093-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6093-2020, 2020
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This paper presents a new distributed hydrological model: the distributed simple dynamical systems (dS2) model. The model is built with a focus on computational efficiency and is therefore able to simulate basins at high spatial and temporal resolution at a low computational cost. Despite the simplicity of the model concept, it is able to correctly simulate discharge in both small and mesoscale basins.
James W. Kirchner and Julia L. A. Knapp
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5539–5558, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5539-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5539-2020, 2020
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Ensemble hydrograph separation is a powerful new tool for measuring the age distribution of streamwater. However, the calculations are complex and may be difficult for researchers to implement on their own. Here we present scripts that perform these calculations in either MATLAB or R so that researchers do not need to write their own codes. We explain how these scripts work and how to use them. We demonstrate several potential applications using a synthetic catchment data set.
Marius G. Floriancic, Wouter R. Berghuijs, Tobias Jonas, James W. Kirchner, and Peter Molnar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5423–5438, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5423-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5423-2020, 2020
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Low river flows affect societies and ecosystems. Here we study how precipitation and potential evapotranspiration shape low flows across a network of 380 Swiss catchments. Low flows in these rivers typically result from below-average precipitation and above-average potential evapotranspiration. Extreme low flows result from long periods of the combined effects of both drivers.
James W. Kirchner, Sarah E. Godsey, Madeline Solomon, Randall Osterhuber, Joseph R. McConnell, and Daniele Penna
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5095–5123, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5095-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5095-2020, 2020
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Streams and groundwaters often show daily cycles in response to snowmelt and evapotranspiration. These typically have a roughly 6 h time lag, which is often interpreted as a travel-time lag. Here we show that it is instead primarily a phase lag that arises because aquifers integrate their inputs over time. We further show how these cycles shift seasonally, mirroring the springtime retreat of snow cover to higher elevations and the seasonal advance and retreat of photosynthetic activity.
Elham Rouholahnejad Freund, Massimiliano Zappa, and James W. Kirchner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5015–5025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5015-2020, 2020
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Evapotranspiration (ET) is the largest flux from the land to the atmosphere and thus contributes to Earth's energy and water balance. Due to its impact on atmospheric dynamics, ET is a key driver of droughts and heatwaves. In this paper, we demonstrate how averaging over land surface heterogeneity contributes to substantial overestimates of ET fluxes. We also demonstrate how one can correct for the effects of small-scale heterogeneity without explicitly representing it in land surface models.
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Short summary
This study explores how streams react to rain and how water travels through the landscape to reach them, two processes rarely studied together. Using detailed data from two temperate areas, we show that streams respond to rain much faster than rainwater travels to them. Wetter conditions lead to stronger runoff by releasing older stored water, while heavy rainfall moves newer rainwater to streams faster. These findings offer new insights into how water moves through the environment.
This study explores how streams react to rain and how water travels through the landscape to...
