Natural Flow Regimes of the Ozark–Ouachita Interior Highlands Region

Leasure, Douglas R.; Magoulick, Daniel D.; Longing, Scott D.

doi:10.1002/rra.2838

Cited by 55 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Each of these variables has been identified in the literature as being important to at least one species or functional process, and collectively, they characterize the main ecologically important dimensions of streamflow and are consistent with the flow variables used in other analyses (McCargo and Peterson, ; Chinnayakanahalli et al ., ; Rolls et al ., ). The use of only 16 key variables produced classifications that were qualitatively similar to the classifications produced by others based on a larger number of flow variables (Reidy Liermann et al ., ; McManamay et al ., ; Leasure et al ., ). Moreover, restricting our analyses to a manageable number of variables facilitated the interpretation of the PCA and classification results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Potential Effects of Climate Change on Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes

et al. 2016

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We assessed the climate-driven changes in ecologically relevant flow regimes expected to occur by the year 2100 in streams across the conterminous United States. We used long-term daily flow measurements from 601 gauged streams whose watersheds were in relatively natural condition to characterize spatial variation in 16 flow regime variables selected for their ecological importance. Principal component analysis of these 16 variables produced five uncorrelated factors that described patterns of spatial covariation in flow regimes. These five factors were associated with low flow, magnitude, flashiness, timing, and constancy characteristics of the daily flow regime. We applied hierarchical clustering to the five flow factors to classify the 601 streams into three coarses and eight more finely resolved flow regime classes. We then developed a random forest model that used watershed and climate attributes to predict the probabilities that streams belonged to each of the eight finely resolved flow regime classes. The model had a prediction accuracy (per cent correct classification) of 75%. We used the random forest model with downscaled climate (precipitation and temperature) projections to predict site-specific changes in flow regime classes expected by 2100. Thirty-three per cent of the 601 sites were predicted to change to a different flow regime class by 2100. Snow-fed streams in the western USA were predicted to be less likely to change regimes, whereas both small, perennial, rain-fed streams and intermittent streams in the central and eastern USA were predicted to be most likely to change regime.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Potential Effects of Climate Change on Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes

et al. 2016

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“…Groundwater Flashy streams are the most common flow regime in the Ozark Highlands and are characterised by less daily flow variability than any runoff‐dominated streams, but less constancy and lower base flow than other groundwater flow regimes. Like other groundwater‐influenced flow regimes, they never dry up completely (Leasure et al., ). Study streams selected ranged in drainage area from 16 to 542 km 2 and were located in three different major river basins: the Arkansas River basin, White River basin and Osage River basin.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…To facilitate ecological comparisons, all sites were selected within a single ecoregion, the Ozark Highlands; a single physiographic region, the Springfield Plateau; and within a single flow regime, Groundwater Flashy streams, based on the classification of Ozark streams into seven hydrologic flow regimes (Leasure, Magoulick, & Longing, ). Groundwater Flashy streams are the most common flow regime in the Ozark Highlands and are characterised by less daily flow variability than any runoff‐dominated streams, but less constancy and lower base flow than other groundwater flow regimes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All available gaged sites within the flow class and physiographic province were selected. Ungaged site selection was based on a flow regime map of the Ozark Highlands (Leasure et al., ); sites were randomly selected from stream segments within the Groundwater Flashy flow regime class. Natural flow conditions were predicted for all sites based on 171 flow metrics comprising five major flow components, magnitude (M), frequency (F), duration (D), timing (T) and rate of change (R) (Leasure et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The influence of drought on flow‐ecology relationships in Ozark Highland streams

2018

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Drought and summer drying can have strong effects on abiotic and biotic components of stream ecosystems. Environmental flow‐ecology relationships may be affected by drought and drying, adding further uncertainty to the already complex interaction of flow with other environmental variables, including geomorphology and water quality. Environment–ecology relationships in stream communities in Ozark Highland streams, USA, were examined over two years with contrasting environmental conditions, a drought year (2012) and a flood year (2013). We analysed fish, crayfish and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages using two different approaches: (1) a multiple regression analysis incorporating predictor variables related to habitat, water quality, geomorphology and hydrology and (2) a canonical ordination procedure using only hydrologic variables in which forward selection was used to select predictors that were most related to our response variables. Reach‐scale habitat quality and geomorphology were found to be the most important influences on community structure, but hydrology was also important, particularly during the flood year. We also found substantial between‐year variation in environment–ecology relationships. Some ecological responses differed significantly between drought and flood years, while others remained consistent. We found that magnitude was the most important flow component overall, but that there was a shift in relative importance from low flow metrics during the drought year to average flow metrics during the flood year, and the specific metrics of importance varied markedly between assemblages and years. Findings suggest that understanding temporal variation in flow‐ecology relationships may be crucial for resource planning. While some relationships show temporal variation, others are consistent between years. Additionally, different kinds of hydrologic variables can differ greatly in terms of which assemblages they affect and how they affect them. Managers can address this complexity by focusing on relationships that are temporally stable and flow metrics that are consistently important across groups, such as flood frequency and flow variability.

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“…Selected catchments were characterized by a good geographical coverage taking into account spatial climatic and physiographic variability as well as the length of the available river flow record (Piniewski 2017). Gauges with catchment area of more than 10,000 km 2 were excluded, as at this scale flow disturbance is almost unavoidable (Leasure et al 2016). A comprehensive analysis of available GIS data was carried out to exclude catchments suspected to have a moderate or high degree of flow regime disturbance (cf.…”

Section: River Flow Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Trend detection in river flow indices in Poland

2018

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The issue of trend detection in long time series of river flow records is of vast theoretical interest and considerable practical relevance. Water management is based on the assumption of stationarity; hence, it is crucial to check whether taking this assumption is justified. The objective of this study is to analyse long-term trends in selected river flow indices in small-and medium-sized catchments with relatively unmodified flow regime (semi-natural catchments) in Poland. The examined indices describe annual and seasonal average conditions as well as annual extreme conditions-low and high flows. The special focus is on the spatial analysis of trends, carried out on a comprehensive, representative data set of flow gauges. The present paper is timely, as no spatially comprehensive studies (i.e. covering the entire Poland or its large parts) on trend detection in time series of river flow have been done in the recent 15 years or so. The results suggest that there is a strong random component in the river flow process, the changes are weak and the spatial pattern is complex. Yet, the results of trend detection in different indices of river flow in Poland show that there exists a spatial divide that seems to hold quite generally for various indices (annual, seasonal, as well as low and high flow). Decreases of river flow dominate in the northern part of the country and increases usually in the southern part. Stations in the central part show mostly 'no trend' results. However, the spatial gradient is apparent only for the data for the period 1981-2016 rather than for 1956-2016. It seems also that the magnitude of increases of river flow is generally lower than that of decreases.

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Natural Flow Regimes of the Ozark–Ouachita Interior Highlands Region

Cited by 55 publications

References 39 publications

Potential Effects of Climate Change on Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes

Potential Effects of Climate Change on Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes

The influence of drought on flow‐ecology relationships in Ozark Highland streams

Trend detection in river flow indices in Poland

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