Decreased streamflow in semi-arid basins following drought-induced tree die-off: A counter-intuitive and indirect climate impact on hydrology

Guardiola‐Claramonte, Maite; Troch, P. A.; Breshears, David D.; Huxman, Travis E.; Switanek, Matthew B.; Durcik, Matej; Cobb, Neil S.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.06.017

Cited by 108 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Over 12,000 km 2 of temperate pine forests died in the southwestern U.S. following severe droughts in 1996 and 2002 (Breshears et al 2005). Such a rapid and mass collapse of forests have the potential to alter the composition (Mueller et al 2005), structure, and functioning of forests, causing the loss of ecosystem services (Guardiola-Claramonte et al 2011) including sequestered carbon (Huang et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sudden forest canopy collapse corresponding with extreme drought and heat in a mediterranean-type eucalypt forest in southwestern Australia

et al. 2013

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Drought and heat-induced forest dieback and mortality are emerging global concerns.Although Mediterranean-type forest (MTF) ecosystems are considered to be resilient to drought and other disturbances, we observed a sudden and unprecedented forest collapse in a MTF in Western Australia corresponding with record dry and heat conditions in 2010/2011.An aerial survey and subsequent field investigation were undertaken to examine: the incidence and severity of canopy dieback and stem mortality, associations between canopy health and stand-related factors as well as tree species response. Canopy mortality was found to be concentrated in distinct patches, representing 1.5% of the aerial sample (1,350 ha).Within these patches, 74% of all measured stems (> 1cm DBHOB) had dying or recently killed crowns, leading to 26% stem mortality six months following the collapse. Patches of canopy collapse were more densely stocked with the dominant species, Eucalyptus marginata, and lacked the prominent midstorey species Banksia grandis, compared to the surrounding forest. A differential response to the disturbance was observed among cooccurring tree species, which suggests contrasting strategies for coping with extreme water stress. These results suggest that MTFs, once thought to be resilient to climate change, are susceptible to sudden and severe forest collapse when key thresholds have been reached.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sudden forest canopy collapse corresponding with extreme drought and heat in a mediterranean-type eucalypt forest in southwestern Australia

et al. 2013

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“…Water yields and peak streamflows in North American river basins are anticipated to either increase, decrease, or show no response to changing forest cover (see Table 2 in Adams et al, 2012;Schnorbus et al, 2010;Guardiola-Claramonte et al, 2011;Somor, 2010;McDowell et al, 2018). Causes of the reported changes have been related to topography (Schnorbus et al, 2010) and climate variability .…”

Section: K E Bennett Et Al: Climate-driven Disturbances In the Sanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examination of water partitioning in disturbed forests within time frames of less than 5 years may not adequately resolve effects such as forest succession on the hydrologic regime of study basins (Brown et al, 2005), which can result in a significant overestimation of the impacts of changing forests on water yields over the long term (Pugh and Gordon, 2013). Indeed, most studies that encompass forest disturbance monitoring of greater than 5 years point to increased evapotranspiration from understory regrowth and an associated decline or mitigating effect of the forest cover removal (Brown et al, 2014;Biederman et al, 2014;Guardiola-Claramonte et al, 2011). Other research has shown that vegetation management, such as cutting or thinning of forests in the face of climate change, could be used to ameliorate the impacts of reduced streamflow in the CRB, noting that these effects would only last for a period of approximately 10 years (Zou et al, 2010).…”

Section: K E Bennett Et Al: Climate-driven Disturbances In the Sanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, we investigated the aridity effect upon water availability under forest disturbances using a one-cell analysis. Some studies have suggested an aridity effect, whereby basins with less than 500 mm annual precipitation will see streamflow decrease and vice-versa (Guardiola-Claramonte et al, 2011;Adams et al, 2012), although this finding is not supported in all work (Brown et al, 2010;Caldwell et al, 2016). For the single cell, we considered climate change by adding +3 • C (warm) and +6 • C (hot) to the temperature time series and changing precipitation by 20 or −20 %.…”

Section: Climate and Vegetation Change Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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 fact, water availability is highly sensitive to the variability of the climate system which has a direct impact on the water, the agricultural sectors and the sustainability of the environmental system (IPCC 2013). According to Guardiola-Claramonte et al (2011), the Mediterranean region, with 7 % of the global population, has only~2 % of the world's freshwater resources. The southern and eastern Mediterranean regions are constantly more exposed to the decrease in water availability to meet their ever increasing domestic and agricultural water demands.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Environment in the Coastal Basins of Syria - Assessing the Impacts of the War

Faour

Fayad

2014

Environ. Process.

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The water environment in the Syrian coastal basins was already under pressure over the past decade (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) due to recurring drought and increased water demand. The armedconflict, which started in 2011, had resulted in the displacement of more than 1.45 million people from the inland regions towards the coastal area. This study investigates the impact of war and conflict on the water environment in the coastal river basins of Syria. An evaluation of existing water sources, water uses, and pollution sources is made to highlight the major driving forces and stresses using a pre-war, during the war, and a post-war scenario. A reference time frame between 2000 and 2010 is used as a reference for these scenarios. The impact of war on the water environment is discussed next. Different actions and adaptation measures in a post-conflict scenario are presented and discussed. At present 4.45 million persons are living in the coastal area (compared to 3 million before 2011). The governmental management capacity had reduced to 30 % compared to that before war. An evaluation of major water scarcity indicators revealed a decline in renewable water resources (including groundwater reserves). It is estimated that the water scarcity index reduced from~760 m 3 /capita/year during pre-war dry years to less than 500 m 3 /capita/year during the war. The impact of war also revealed an increase in pollution risks due to the uncontrolled water abstraction, lack of management and decreased water accessibility. Proposed measures in a post conflict scenario suggest that water demand and water quality can be restored to the status quo using suitable economic development options.

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Decreased streamflow in semi-arid basins following drought-induced tree die-off: A counter-intuitive and indirect climate impact on hydrology

Cited by 108 publications

References 45 publications

Sudden forest canopy collapse corresponding with extreme drought and heat in a mediterranean-type eucalypt forest in southwestern Australia

Sudden forest canopy collapse corresponding with extreme drought and heat in a mediterranean-type eucalypt forest in southwestern Australia

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

Water Environment in the Coastal Basins of Syria - Assessing the Impacts of the War

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