Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin
The Heihe River basin in northwest China depends heavily on both anthropogenic and natural storage (e.g., surface reservoirs, rivers and groundwater) to support economic and environmental functions. The Qilian Mountain cryosphere in the upper basin is integral to recharging these storage supplies. I...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:87e38fa714704f998178a83598f9bc45 2023-08-20T04:09:10+02:00 Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin A. Triplett L. E. Condon 2023-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 https://doaj.org/article/87e38fa714704f998178a83598f9bc45 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/27/2763/2023/hess-27-2763-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1027-5606 https://doaj.org/toc/1607-7938 doi:10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 1027-5606 1607-7938 https://doaj.org/article/87e38fa714704f998178a83598f9bc45 Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 27, Pp 2763-2785 (2023) Technology T Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 2023-07-30T00:38:27Z The Heihe River basin in northwest China depends heavily on both anthropogenic and natural storage (e.g., surface reservoirs, rivers and groundwater) to support economic and environmental functions. The Qilian Mountain cryosphere in the upper basin is integral to recharging these storage supplies. It is well established that climate warming is driving major shifts in high-elevation water storage through loss of glaciers and permafrost. However, the impacts on groundwater–surface-water interactions and water supply in corresponding lower reaches are less clear. We built an integrated hydrologic model of the middle basin, where most water usage occurs, in order to explore the hydrologic response to the changing cryosphere. We simulate the watershed response to loss of glaciers (glacier scenario), advanced permafrost degradation (permafrost scenario), both of these changes simultaneously (combined scenario) and projected temperature increases in the middle basin (warming scenario) by altering streamflow inputs to the model to represent cryosphere-melting processes, as well as by increasing the temperature of the climate forcing data. Net losses to groundwater storage in the glacier scenario and net gains in the permafrost and combined scenarios show the potential of groundwater exchanges to mediate streamflow shifts. The result of the combined scenario also shows that permafrost degradation has more of an impact on the system than glacial loss. Seasonal differences in groundwater–surface-water partitioning are also evident. The glacier scenario has the highest fraction of groundwater in terms of streamflow in early spring. The permafrost and combined scenarios meanwhile have the highest fraction of streamflow infiltration in late spring and summer. The warming scenario raises the temperature of the combined scenario by 2 ∘ C. This results in net groundwater storage loss, a reversal from the combined scenario. Large seasonal changes in evapotranspiration and stream network connectivity relative to the combined ... Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 27 14 2763 2785 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Technology T Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
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Technology T Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 A. Triplett L. E. Condon Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
topic_facet |
Technology T Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
The Heihe River basin in northwest China depends heavily on both anthropogenic and natural storage (e.g., surface reservoirs, rivers and groundwater) to support economic and environmental functions. The Qilian Mountain cryosphere in the upper basin is integral to recharging these storage supplies. It is well established that climate warming is driving major shifts in high-elevation water storage through loss of glaciers and permafrost. However, the impacts on groundwater–surface-water interactions and water supply in corresponding lower reaches are less clear. We built an integrated hydrologic model of the middle basin, where most water usage occurs, in order to explore the hydrologic response to the changing cryosphere. We simulate the watershed response to loss of glaciers (glacier scenario), advanced permafrost degradation (permafrost scenario), both of these changes simultaneously (combined scenario) and projected temperature increases in the middle basin (warming scenario) by altering streamflow inputs to the model to represent cryosphere-melting processes, as well as by increasing the temperature of the climate forcing data. Net losses to groundwater storage in the glacier scenario and net gains in the permafrost and combined scenarios show the potential of groundwater exchanges to mediate streamflow shifts. The result of the combined scenario also shows that permafrost degradation has more of an impact on the system than glacial loss. Seasonal differences in groundwater–surface-water partitioning are also evident. The glacier scenario has the highest fraction of groundwater in terms of streamflow in early spring. The permafrost and combined scenarios meanwhile have the highest fraction of streamflow infiltration in late spring and summer. The warming scenario raises the temperature of the combined scenario by 2 ∘ C. This results in net groundwater storage loss, a reversal from the combined scenario. Large seasonal changes in evapotranspiration and stream network connectivity relative to the combined ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. Triplett L. E. Condon |
author_facet |
A. Triplett L. E. Condon |
author_sort |
A. Triplett |
title |
Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
title_short |
Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
title_full |
Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
title_fullStr |
Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the Heihe River basin |
title_sort |
climate-warming-driven changes in the cryosphere and their impact on groundwater–surface-water interactions in the heihe river basin |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 https://doaj.org/article/87e38fa714704f998178a83598f9bc45 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 27, Pp 2763-2785 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/27/2763/2023/hess-27-2763-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1027-5606 https://doaj.org/toc/1607-7938 doi:10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 1027-5606 1607-7938 https://doaj.org/article/87e38fa714704f998178a83598f9bc45 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2763-2023 |
container_title |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
14 |
container_start_page |
2763 |
op_container_end_page |
2785 |
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