Response of Low Flows of Polish Rivers to Climate Change in 1987–1989

• Published in: Water
• Main Authors: Dariusz Wrzesiński, Andrzej A. Marsz, Leszek Sobkowiak, Anna Styszyńska
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: rapid climate shift; river low flows; cause of warming up; thermohaline circulation; water balance; Poland; Hydraulic engineering; TC1-978; Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes; TD201-500; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/w14182780; https://doaj.org/article/647de60297d6403ea0faee6051453c86

The paper discusses changes in the low-flow regime of rivers in Poland, resulting from climate change that occurred between 1987 and 1989. The low-flow variability of rivers was measured with the use of the number of days with low flows (ND LF ) below a threshold value, which was adopted as the 0.1 (10%) percentile (Q 10 ) from the set of daily flows recorded in the multi-annual period 1951–2020 at 140 water gauges on 83 rivers. The analysis of the course of climate change over Poland showed that it was caused by macro-circulation conditions, controlled by changes in the intensity of thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic (NA THC). Climate change consisted of a sharp increase in sunshine duration and air temperature, and a decrease in relative humidity after 1988. Along with the lack of changes in precipitation totals, characterized by a strong yearly variability, and an increase in field evaporation, it led to noticeable changes in the water balance. As a result, in 1989–2020, there was a significant increase in ND FL detected in about 2/3 of the area of Poland. With the change in the NA THC phase and the macro-circulation conditions, there was also a change in the spatial distribution of areas drained by rivers with increased ND FL . In 1951–1988, these included the eastern parts of Poland, while after the climate change (1989–2020), its western and south-western parts.