Evaluating mountain meadow groundwater response to Pinyon‐Juniper and temperature in a great basin watershed

Carroll, Rosemary; Huntington, Justin L.; Snyder, Keirith A.; Niswonger, Richard G.; Morton, Charles; Stringham, Tamzen K.

doi:10.1002/eco.1792

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The importance of interflow to support down-gradient consumption in the lower portions of CC is supported by other studies in which increased above ground productivity (Swetnam et al, 2017), soil carbon stocks (Perdrial et al, 2018), and hydrologic vegetation gradients (Hwang et al, 2012) are observed in downslope, convergent topography. Monsoon rains also support late summer productivity (Berkelhammer et al, 2017), and it is theorized that a weak monsoon may result in high groundwater use by phreatophytes (Carroll et al, 2017) and a reduction in late summer stream flow. Our results support the hypothesis presented by others (Carroll et al, 2018;Cowie et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018) that the upper subalpine dominates groundwater recharge in mountain systems.…”

Section: What Controls Spatially Distributed Groundwater Recharge?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Interflow to Groundwater Recharge in a Snowmelt‐Dominated Headwater Basin

Carroll

Deems

Niswonger

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Understanding the sensitivity of groundwater generation to climate in a mountain system is complicated by the tight coupling of snow dynamics to vegetation and topography. To address these feedbacks, we combine light detection and ranging (LiDAR)‐derived snow observations with an integrated hydrologic model to quantify spatially and temporally distributed water fluxes across varying climate conditions in a Colorado River headwater basin. Results indicate that annual groundwater flow is an important and stable source of stream water. However, interflow decreases during drought as a function increased plant water use and the relative fraction of groundwater to streams increases. Seasonal snowmelt and vegetation water use regulate small recharge rates in the lower portions of the basin, but snowmelt transported via interflow from high mountain ridges toward convergent topographic zones defines preferential recharge in the upper subalpine. Recharge in this zone appears decoupled from annual climate variability and resilient to drought.

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Section: What Controls Spatially Distributed Groundwater Recharge?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Interflow to Groundwater Recharge in a Snowmelt‐Dominated Headwater Basin

Carroll

Deems

Niswonger

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…However, to our knowledge, few modeling studies have considered the impacts of climate change coupled with changes in vegetation (Buma and Livneh, 2015;Carroll et al, 2017;Pribulick et al, 2016). In this study, we incorporated changes from the CMIP5 dynamic vegetation models and from an estimate of forest mortality (McDowell et al, 2016) to consider the impacts of both climate and vegetation changes on the water balance in a headwater system of the CRB, the San Juan River basin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-driven disturbances in the San Juan River sub-basin of the Colorado River

Bennett

Bohn

Solander

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Accelerated climate change and associated forest disturbances in the southwestern USA are anticipated to have substantial impacts on regional water resources. Few studies have quantified the impact of both climate change and land cover disturbances on water balances on the basin scale, and none on the regional scale. In this work, we evaluate the impacts of forest disturbances and climate change on a headwater basin to the Colorado River, the San Juan River watershed, using a robustly calibrated (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency 0.76) hydrologic model run with updated formulations that improve estimates of evapotranspiration for semiarid regions. Our results show that future disturbances will have a substantial impact on streamflow with implications for water resource management. Our findings are in contradiction with conventional thinking that forest disturbances reduce evapotranspiration and increase streamflow. In this study, annual average regional streamflow under the coupled climate-disturbance scenarios is at least 6-11 % lower than those scenarios accounting for climate change alone; for forested zones of the San Juan River basin, streamflow is 15-21 % lower. The monthly signals of altered streamflow point to an emergent streamflow pattern related to changes in forests of the disturbed systems. Exacerbated reductions of mean and low flows under disturbance scenarios indicate a high risk of low water availability for forested headwater systems of the Colorado River basin. These findings also indicate that explicit representation of land cover disturbances is required in modeling efforts that consider the impact of climate change on water resources.

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“…In particular, field observations and conceptual and numerical models of GDEs developed using traditional hydrogeologic approaches can provide important context and constraints for interpreting remotely sensed time‐series data (Carroll et al. ). Field assessments of the hydrogeologic controls on spring locations and discharge rates integrate information on the lithology, stratigraphy, geomorphology, and topography associated with springs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evaluation of hypothesized physical mechanisms supporting spring resilience (e.g., spring microclimates, recharge zone dynamics, and subsurface hydrogeology) can benefit from the integration of remote-sensing metrics with other lines of evidence derived from field studies (P erez Hoyos et al 2016). In particular, field observations and conceptual and numerical models of GDEs developed using traditional hydrogeologic approaches can provide important context and constraints for interpreting remotely sensed time-series data (Carroll et al 2017). Field assessments of the hydrogeologic controls on spring locations and discharge rates integrate information on the lithology, stratigraphy, geomorphology, and topography associated with springs.…”

Section: Integrated Approaches To Identify Possible Hydrologic Refugimentioning

confidence: 99%

Springs as hydrologic refugia in a changing climate? A remote‐sensing approach

Cartwright

Johnson

2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Spring-fed wetlands are ecologically important habitats in arid and semi-arid regions. Springs have been suggested as possible hydrologic refugia from droughts and climate change; however, springs that depend on recent precipitation or snowmelt for recharge may be vulnerable to warming and drought intensification. Springs that are expected to maintain their ecohydrologic function in a warmer, drier climate may be priorities for conservation and restoration. Identifying such springs is difficult because many springs lack hydrologic records of adequate temporal extent and resolution to assess their resilience to water cycle changes. This study demonstrates proof-of-concept for the assessment of certain spring types (i.e., helocrene, hypocrene, and hillslope springs) in terms of hydrologic and ecological resilience to climatic water stress using freely available remote-sensing and climate data. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 1985 through 2011 to delineate surface-moisture zones (SMZs) associated with 39 clusters of 172 springs in a montane sage-steppe landscape in southeastern Oregon, USA. We developed and synthesized seven NDVI-based indicators of SMZ resilience to interannual changes in water availability: (1) mean and (2) standard deviation of July NDVI; (3) mean difference in July NDVI and (4) difference in coefficient of variation for July NDVI between each SMZ and its surrounding watershed; (5) response of SMZ July NDVI to 90-day antecedent precipitation; (6) response of SMZ July NDVI to the previous winter's snowpack; and (7) range of NDVI values from an exceptionally wet year followed by three dry years. Because all resilience indicators were highly inter-correlated, we derived an overall metric of SMZ resilience using principal components analysis that accounted for 66% of total variance. This overall resilience score was positively correlated with SMZ elevation, slope, mean annual precipitation, and with the number of associated springs. Resilience was greater for SMZs on topographically shaded, north-facing slopes. Several high-resilience SMZs were located immediately below persistent snowbanks, suggesting a possible source of steady recharge throughout the growing season. The approach presented here-if combined with field assessments of spring hydrogeology, discharge, and groundwater age-could help identify spring-fed wetlands that are most likely to serve as hydrologic refugia from climate change.

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Evaluating mountain meadow groundwater response to Pinyon‐Juniper and temperature in a great basin watershed

Cited by 25 publications

References 64 publications

The Importance of Interflow to Groundwater Recharge in a Snowmelt‐Dominated Headwater Basin

The Importance of Interflow to Groundwater Recharge in a Snowmelt‐Dominated Headwater Basin

Climate-driven disturbances in the San Juan River sub-basin of the Colorado River

Springs as hydrologic refugia in a changing climate? A remote‐sensing approach

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