Global river discharge and water temperature under climate change

Vliet, Michelle T. H. van; Franssen, Wietse; Yearsley, J. R.; Ludwig, Fulco; Haddeland, Ingjerd; Lettenmaier, Dennis P.; Kabat, P.

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.11.002

Cited by 769 publications

(561 citation statements)

References 82 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

527

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Discharge variation takes the form of less flow in summer and more flow in winter due to warmer high-altitude snow and ice melt/runoff regimes (Addor et al, 2014;Birsan et al, 2005), which also influence river temperature (Isaak et al, 2012;Van Vliet et al, 2013). Increased air temperature may also enhance erosion rates in river basins thereby supplementing river-borne suspended sediment loads (Bennett et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tributaries affect the thermal response of lakes to climate change

Vinnå¹,

Wüest

Zappa

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Thermal responses of inland waters to climate change varies on global and regional scales. The extent of warming is determined by system-specific characteristics such as fluvial input. Here we examine the impact of ongoing climate change on two alpine tributaries, the Aare River and the Rhône River, and their respective downstream peri-alpine lakes: Lake Biel and Lake Geneva. We propagate regional atmospheric temperature effects into river discharge projections. These, together with anthropogenic heat sources, are in turn incorporated into simple and efficient deterministic models that predict future water temperatures, river-borne suspended sediment concentration (SSC), lake stratification and river intrusion depth/volume in the lakes. Climate-induced shifts in river discharge regimes, including seasonal flow variations, act as positive and negative feedbacks in influencing river water temperature and SSC. Differences in temperature and heating regimes between rivers and lakes in turn result in large seasonal shifts in warming of downstream lakes. The extent of this repressive effect on warming is controlled by the lakes hydraulic residence time. Previous studies suggest that climate change will diminish deep-water oxygen renewal in lakes. We find that climaterelated seasonal variations in river temperatures and SSC shift deep penetrating river intrusions from summer towards winter. Thus potentially counteracting the otherwise negative effects associated with climate change on deep-water oxygen content. Our findings provide a template for evaluating the response of similar hydrologic systems to on-going climate change.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tributaries affect the thermal response of lakes to climate change

Vinnå¹,

Wüest

Zappa

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over the past decade, global mean surface air temperatures have increased by 0.81°C and are predicted to increase by an additional 1.4-3.1°C by the year 2100 (IPCC, 2014), with the southeastern USA falling within the middle of this range (Burkett et al, 2001;van Vliet et al, 2013). As water temperatures tend to parallel air temperatures, freshwaters have also experienced a warming trend.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative physiological, biochemical, and molecular thermal stress response profiles for two Unionid freshwater mussel species

Payton

Johnson

Jenny

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Freshwater mussels, aquatic keystone species, are in global decline. Long life spans, sedentary lifestyles, and unique reproductive strategies involving obligate parasitic stages make unionid freshwater mussels particularly sensitive to environmental perturbations resulting from global climate change. A greater understanding of the mechanisms by which closely related species differ in their response to thermal challenge is critical for successful conservation and management practices. As such, both an acute heat shock and a chronic warming simulation were conducted in order to evaluate responses between hypothesized thermally tolerant (Villosa lienosa) and thermally sensitive (Villosa nebulosa) freshwater mussels in response to predicted thermal warming. Multiple biological responses were quantified, including mortality, condition index, growth rates, glycogen and triglyceride content, and candidate gene expression. During acute heat shock, both species upregulated HSP90 and HSP70, although V. lienosa showed consistently greater transcript levels during upregulation. This pattern was consistent during the chronic warming simulation, with V. nebulosa showing greater induction of HSP60. Chronic warming stimulated increases in condition index for V. nebulosa; however, declines in growth rates during a recovery period were observed with no concurrent change in tissue glycogen levels. This contrasts with V. lienosa, where tissue glycogen significantly increased during chronic warming, although no response was observed for condition index or growth rates. These biological differences might indicate disparate thermal stress response mechanisms correlated with metabolic demands and resource utilization, and could thus be a factor influencing current ranges of these two species and their ability to cope with future persistent warming in their native habitats.

show abstract

“…The VIC model, like most land surface models, does not consider deep groundwater withdrawals (Haddeland et al 2007), which therefore are not taken into account in this study. The model has been widely used for streamflow studies globally (Nijssen et al 2001a, Vliet et al 2013 and for major river basins, as well as for other basins of the world like Europe, the US, and China (Hurkmans et al 2008, Vliet et al 2012, Wu et al 2007, Xie et al 2007). The results of these studies have shown that the model has been able to reproduce the water cycle well.…”

Section: Hydrological Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preserving the world second largest hypersaline lake under future irrigation and climate change

Shadkam

Ludwig

Vliet

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Urmia Lake, the world second largest hypersaline lake, has been largely desiccated over the last two decades resulting in socio-environmental consequences similar or even larger than the Aral Sea disaster. To rescue the lake a new water management plan has been proposed, a rapid 40% decline in irrigation water use replacing a former plan which intended to develop reservoirs and irrigation. However, none of these water management plans, which have large socio-economic impacts, have been assessed under future changes in climate and water availability. By adapting a method of environmental flow requirements (EFRs) for hypersaline lakes, we estimated annually 3.7•10 9 m 3 water is needed to preserve Urmia Lake. Then, the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrological model was forced with bias-corrected climate model outputs for both the lowest (RCP2.6) and highest (RCP8.5) greenhouse-gas concentration scenarios to estimate future water availability and impacts of water management strategies. Results showed a 10% decline in future water availability in the basin under RCP2.6 and 27% under RCP8.5. Our results showed that if future climate change is highly limited (RCP2.6) inflow can be just enough to meet the EFRs by implementing the reduction irrigation plan. However, under more rapid climate change scenario (RCP8.5) reducing irrigation water use will not be enough to save the lake and more drastic measures are needed. Our results showed that future water management plans are not robust under climate change in this region. Therefore, an integrated approach of future land-water use planning and climate change adaptation is therefore needed to improve future water security and to reduce the desiccating of this hypersaline lake.

show abstract

Global river discharge and water temperature under climate change

Cited by 769 publications

References 82 publications

Tributaries affect the thermal response of lakes to climate change

Tributaries affect the thermal response of lakes to climate change

Comparative physiological, biochemical, and molecular thermal stress response profiles for two Unionid freshwater mussel species

Preserving the world second largest hypersaline lake under future irrigation and climate change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About