Flooding the Colorado River Delta: A Landscape‐Scale Experiment

Flessa, Karl W.; Glenn, Edward P.; Hinojosa-Huerta, Osvel; Parra-Rentería, Carlos A. de la; Ramírez‐Hernández, Jorge; Schmidt, John C.; Zamora-Arroyo, Francisco

doi:10.1002/2013eo500001

Cited by 30 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The role of lateral groundwater flow in watershed dynamics has been demonstrated in prior studies (e.g., Sear et al ; Brouyère et al ; Kollet and Maxwell ; Decharme et al ; Flessa et al ; Miller et al ; Fang and Pomeroy 2016; Buto et al ). On a large‐scale, Condon and Maxwell () and Condon et al () demonstrated the close connections between lateral groundwater flow streamflow and evapotranspiration (ET) using an integrated groundwater surface water model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Simulating Groundwater‐Streamflow Connections in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Tran¹,

Zhang

Cohard

et al. 2020

Groundwater

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In mountain, snow driven catchments, snowmelt is supposed to be the primary contribution to river streamflows during spring. In these catchments the contribution of groundwater is not well documented because of the difficulty to monitor groundwater in such complex environment with deep aquifers. In this study we use an integrated hydrologic model to conduct numerical experiments that help quantify the effect of lateral groundwater flow on total annual and peak streamflow in predevelopment conditions. Our simulations focus on the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB; 2.8 × 10 5 km 2 ) a well-documented mountain catchment for which both streamflow and water table measurements are available for several important sub-basins. For the simulated water year, our results suggest an increase in peak flow of up to 57% when lateral groundwater flow processes are included-an unexpected result for flood conditions generally assumed independent of groundwater. Additionally, inclusion of lateral groundwater flow moderately improved the model match to observations. The correlation coefficient for mean annual flows improved from 0.84 for the no lateral groundwater flow simulation to 0.98 for the lateral groundwater flow one. Spatially we see more pronounced differences between lateral and no lateral groundwater flow cases in areas of the domain with steeper topography. We also found distinct differences in the magnitude and spatial distribution of streamflow changes with and without lateral groundwater flow between Upper Colorado River Sub-basins. A sensitivity test that scaled hydraulic conductivity over two orders of magnitude was conducted for the lateral groundwater flow simulations. These results show that the impact of lateral groundwater flow is as large or larger than an order of magnitude change in hydraulic conductivity. While our results focus on the UCRB, we feel that these simulations have relevance to other headwaters systems worldwide.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Simulating Groundwater‐Streamflow Connections in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Tran¹,

Zhang

Cohard

et al. 2020

Groundwater

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“…These impacts include the functional extinction of a key bivalve species and suppressed growth rates in the iconic fish Totoaba macdonaldi, among other faunal effects, and yielded the first science-based estimates of the water flow across the US-Mexico border that will be needed to restore some modicum of marine ecosystem services (Zamora-Arroyo & Flessa 2009). Indeed, these assessments of environmental needs, along with estimates of flows required to sustain riparian habitats (Zamora-Arroyo et al 2005), played an integral role in a newly signed international agreement to provide water for the delta's environments (Flessa et al 2013). …”

Section: Documenting Shifting Baselinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Paleobiology: Leveraging Knowledge of the Past to Inform Conservation and Restoration

Dietl

Kidwell

Brenner

et al. 2015

Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci.

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218

173

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Humans now play a major role in altering Earth and its biota. Finding ways to ameliorate human impacts on biodiversity and to sustain and restore the ecosystem services on which we depend is a grand scientific and societal challenge. Conservation paleobiology is an emerging discipline that uses geohistorical data to meet these challenges by developing and testing models of how biota respond to environmental stressors. Here we (a) describe how the discipline has already provided insights about biotic responses to key environmental stressors, (b) outline research aimed at disentangling the effects of multiple stressors, (c) provide examples of deliverables for managers and policy makers, and (d ) identify methodological advances in geohistorical analysis that will foster the next major breakthroughs in conservation outcomes. We highlight cases for which exclusive reliance on observations of living biota may lead researchers to erroneous conclusions about the nature and magnitude of biotic change, vulnerability, and resilience. 79 Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2015.43:79-103. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by University of California -San Diego on 06/01/15. For personal use only.

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“…For example, the Australian Murray-Darling Basin Plan, designed to re-allocate water from cropland to riparian and riverine ecosystems, was unpopular with many farmers and only feasible because of the extreme dysfunction of the river system and the political will of the central government, yet is still unlikely to provide sufficient water to sustain riparian habitats under projected future climate change (Kirby et al, 2014;Wheeler et al, 2014). Likewise, existing water laws make changes to water management in water-stressed southwestern North America challenging (Palmer et al, 2009;Sabo et al, 2010), although experimental flows have been implemented on some rivers (Patten et al, 2001;Shafroth et al, 2010;Flessa et al, 2013). Climate change may further reduce the feasibility of adjusting water management operations for riparian restoration, especially in regions where warmer temperatures increase water demand and reduce supply (e.g.…”

Section: Water Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating climate change projections into riparian restoration planning and design

et al. 2015

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Climate change and associated changes in streamflow may alter riparian habitats substantially in coming decades. Riparian restoration provides opportunities to respond proactively to projected climate change effects, increase riparian ecosystem resilience to climate change, and simultaneously address effects of both climate change and other human disturbances. However, climate change may alter which restoration methods are most effective and which restoration goals can be achieved. Incorporating climate change into riparian restoration planning and design is critical to long-term restoration of desired community composition and ecosystem services.In this review, we discuss and provide examples of how climate change might be incorporated into restoration planning at the key stages of assessing the project context, establishing restoration goals and design criteria, evaluating design alternatives, and monitoring restoration outcomes. Restoration planners have access to numerous tools to predict future climate, streamflow, and riparian ecology at restoration sites. Planners can use those predictions to assess which species or ecosystem services will be most vulnerable under future conditions, and which sites will be most suitable for restoration. To accommodate future climate and streamflow change, planners may need to adjust methods for planting, invasive species control, channel and floodplain reconstruction, and water management. Given the considerable uncertainty in future climate and streamflow projections, riparian ecological responses, and effects on restoration outcomes, planners will need to consider multiple potential future scenarios, implement a variety of restoration methods, design projects with flexibility to adjust to future conditions, and plan to respond adaptively to unexpected change.

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Flooding the Colorado River Delta: A Landscape‐Scale Experiment

Cited by 30 publications

References 8 publications

Simulating Groundwater‐Streamflow Connections in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Simulating Groundwater‐Streamflow Connections in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Conservation Paleobiology: Leveraging Knowledge of the Past to Inform Conservation and Restoration

Incorporating climate change projections into riparian restoration planning and design

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