In many regions of the world, increasing temperatures in recent decades are paradoxically associated with declining pan evaporation, but evidence is sparse for this trend from the southern hemisphere in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. In this study, we examined changes in pan evaporation and four other meteorological variables (rainfall, wind run, temperature and vapour pressure deficit) at 20 climate stations in the predominantly winter-rainfall Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa over the period 1974-2005. Our results show that pan evaporation has declined significantly at 16 climate stations at an average rate of 9.1 mm a −2 while wind run has declined significantly at all climate stations by more than 25% over the study period. Annual rainfall has not changed significantly at any of the climate stations while maximum temperature has increased significantly at all but one climate station at an average rate of 0.03 • C a. −1 over the study period. The trends in vapour pressure deficit are mixed and no clear regional pattern is evident. Our results raise important questions about the predicted catastrophic impact that the projected changes in twenty-first century climates will have on the rich flora of the region. If evaporative demand has declined over the last 30 years in the Cape Floristic Region then it is possible that more water has become available for plant growth, infiltration and runoff despite the widespread increase in temperature. However, decreased pan evaporation and wind run combined with increased temperatures could potentially reduce transpiration and exacerbate heat stress of plants on increasingly frequent 438 Climatic Change (2011) 109:437-452 hot and windless days during the summer drought. Contrary to other predictions for the area, it is also likely that the changing conditions will decrease the frequency and/or intensity of fires which are an important component of the ecology of the fireadapted CFR. Consideration of other factors besides changes in temperature and rainfall are essential in debates on the impact of climate change on the vegetation of this region.

Abstract. Because of sampling problems, the precipitation estimates from satellite remote sensing are aggregated over time (typically monthly) and over space. Since land surface hydrologic processes have threshold and nonlinear dependencies on precipitation, coarse-resolution precipitation observations may not be directly used in hydrologic models. Differences in the character of intermittency of precipitation, the averaged values remaining the same, can in fact yield large differences in the hydrologic partitioning and therefore in the resulting climate. In this paper an equilibrium hydrologic model is used to study the influence of intermittency on the way precipitation is partitioned into different hydrological quantities. The parameters defining intensity and duration of storms are varied (keeping total precipitation volume constant), and the resulting effects on the partitioning into runoff, evaporation, recharge, and soil moisture storage are determined.It is found that the character of intermittency in storm arrivals has a large impact on the hydrologic partitioning. Furthermore, investigations on the sensitivity of hydrologic partitioning on soil type and water table depth show that rainfall intermittency plays a major role irrespective of these other factors. Runoff generation, evaporation, and groundwater recharge are the three main components of the water balance. Depending on the soil type and climate, the main competition is between different combinations of these three loss mechanisms. It is concluded that the temporal structure of storms has a strong influence on the long-term equilibrium state of the hydrological system.

Salmon monitoring programs often measure juvenile production by operating migrant traps downstream of spawning and rearing areas during smolt migration. However, this approach does not account for individuals that move downstream of trapping locations prior to smolt sampling. We used a mark–recapture study with passive integrated transponder tagging to estimate the proportion of Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch juveniles, tagged in the fall in a Northern California stream, that migrated to rearing habitat downstream of a seasonally operated trap before spring smolt sampling. Emigrants were detected by using the migrant trap, located near the upstream limit of tidal influence, and continuously operated antennas located in tidal wetlands downstream of the trap. For all three cohorts sampled (2010, 2011, 2012), we identified two distinct emigration periods (not including fry emigrants that emigrated in spring at a size too small to tag): a fall–winter period, when early emigrant parr moved into a restored tidal wetland (early emigrants); and a spring period, when smolts emigrated (smolt emigrants). There was little movement in the intervening period. Emigration timing varied depending on the location in the basin where fish were tagged; locations in the lower main stem generally produced more early emigrants, while locations in the upper basin produced more smolt emigrants. Across locations, early emigrants accounted for 2–25% of the fall‐marked juveniles from 2010, 8–29% from 2011, and 7–13% in 2012. Smolt emigrants accounted for 15–49% of the fall‐marked juveniles from 2010, 13–14% from 2011, and 3–35% from 2012. The consistent occurrence of early emigration in this and other recent studies brings into question estimates of smolt abundance and demographic rates (e.g., overwinter and marine survival) that do not account for this life history variant. Received June 19, 2014; accepted October 23, 2014

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Groundwater systems have been notoriously difficult to map with high degrees of accuracy. As a result, not only have traditional geophysical methods proven inaccurate for groundwater characterization work, but they are often costly in terms of time, money, and environmental trauma. This paper describes a unique application of magnetometric resistivity or MMR (Edwards and Nabighian, 1991) for groundwater mapping and modeling, which is high-speed, accurate, minimally invasive, and cost effective. This method has now been deployed at many different sites all over the United States and in other countries like Canada, England, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Argentina. In 2007, the method was employed at 17 dams; some are large well-known structures in the United States. Through two case histories, this paper will assess the effectiveness of this methodology.