Quantifying the relative contributions of forest change and climatic variability to hydrology in large watersheds: A critical review of research methods

Water (Switzerland)

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 728-746

  Wei, Xiaohua ^a   Liu, Wenfei ^b,c   Zhou, Peicong ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

^b JIANGXI AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY   (China)

^c NANCHANG INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (China)

Author keywords

Climate variability; Forest change; Large watershed hydrology; Relative contribution; Research methods

Indexed keywords

FORESTRY; WATERSHEDS;

CLIMATE VARIABILITY; CLIMATIC VARIABILITY; FOREST CHANGE; HYDROLOGICAL EFFECTS; LARGE WATERSHEDS; RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION; WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS; WATERSHED HYDROLOGY;

RESEARCH;

BIOGEOCHEMISTRY; CLIMATE CHANGE; CRITICAL ANALYSIS; FOREST DYNAMICS; HYDROLOGICAL RESPONSE; LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY; RESEARCH METHOD; WATERSHED;

FORESTRY; HYDROLOGY; SEASONAL VARIATION; WATER SHEDS;

EID: 84883186143     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20734441     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3390/w5020728     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. Andreassian, V. Waters and forests: From historical controversy to scientific debate. J. Hydrol. 2004, 291, 1-27.
2. Bosch, J.M.; Hewlett, J.L. A review of catchment experiments to determine the effects of vegetation changes on water yield and evapotranspiration. J. Hydrol. 1982, 55, 3-23.
3. Hibbert, A.R. Forest Treatment Effects on Water Yield. In Proceedings of International Symposium on Forest Hydrology, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 6-8 September 1967; Sopper, W.E., Lull, H.W., Eds.; pp. 813.
4. Jackson, R.B.; Jobbágy, E.G.; Avissar, R.; Roy, S.B.; Barrett, D.J.; Cook, C.W.; Farley, K.A.; le Maitre, D.C.; McCarl, B.A.; Murray, B.C. Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration. Science 2005, 310, 944-1947.
5. MacDonald, L.H.; Stednick, J.D. Forests and Water: A State-of-the-Art Review for Colorado; CWRRI Completion Report No. 196; Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 2003.
6. Price, K. Effects of watershed topography, soils, land use, and climate on baseflow hydrology in humid regions: A review. Progr. Phys. Geogr. 2011, 35, 465-492.
7. Price, K.; Jackson, C.R.; Parker, A.J.; Reitan, T.; Dowd, J.; Cyterski, M. Effects of watershed land use and geomorphology on stream low flows during severe drought conditions in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, Georgia and North Carolina, USA. Water Resour. Res. 2011, 47, W02516.
8. Gao, X.; Sorooshian, S.; Gupta, H.V. Sensitivity analysis of the biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme. J. Geophys. Res. 1996, 101, 7279-7289.
9. Pitman, A.J. Assessing the sensitivity of a land-surface scheme to the parameter values using a single column method. J. Clim. 1994, 7, 1856-1869.
10. Wilson, M.F.; Henderson-Sellers, A.; Dickinson, R.E.; Kennedy, P.J. Sensitivity of the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfere Scheme (BATS) to the inclusion of variable soil characteristics. J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol. 1987, 26, 341-362.
11. Wilson, M.F.; Henderson-Sellers, A.; Dickinson, R.E.; Kennedy, P.J. Investigation of the sensitivity of the land-surface parameterization of the NCAR Community Climate Model in regions of tundra vegetation. Climatology 1987, 7, 319-343.
12. Karvonen, T.; Koivusalo, H.; Jauhiainen, M.; Palko, J.; Weppling, K. A hydrological model for predicting runoff from different land use areas. J. Hydrol. 1999, 217, 253-256.
13. Zhang, A.J.; Zhang, C.; Fu, G.B.; Wang, B.D.; Bao, Z.X.; Zheng, H.X. Assessments of impacts of climate change and human activities on runoff with swat for the Huifa River Basin, northeast China. Water Resour Manage 2012, 26, 2199-2217.
14. Chen, J.F.; Li, X.B.; Zhang, M. Simulating the impacts of climate variation and land-cover changes on basin hydrology: A case study of the Suomo Basin. Sci. China Ser. D 2005, 48, 1501-1519.
15. Cuo, L.; Giambelluca, T.W.; Ziegler, A.D. Lumped parameter sensitivity analysis of a distributed hydrological model within tropical and temperate catchments. Hydrol. Process. 2011, 25, 2405-2421.
16. Sun, W.Y.; Bosilovich, M.G. Planetary boundary layer and surface layer sensitivity to land surface parameters. Boundary Lay. Meteorol. 1996, 77, 353-378.
17. Stonesifer, C.S. Modeling the cumulative effects of forest fire on watershed hydrology: A post-fire application of the Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model (DHSVM). J. Hydrol. 2007, 10, 282-290.
18. Christiaens, K.; Feyen, J. Analysis of uncertainties associated with different methods to determine soil hydraulic properties and their propagation in the distributed hydrological MIKE SHE model. J. Hydrol. 2001, 246, 63-81.
19. Beven, K. The future of distributed models: Model calibration and uncertainty prediction. Hydrol. Process. 1992, 6, 279-298.
20. Kirchner, J.W. Getting the right answers for the right reasons: Linking measurements, analyses, and models to advance the science of hydrology. Water Resour. Res. 2006, 42, W03S04.
21. Zhang, X.P.; Zhang, L.; Zhao, J. Responses of stream flow to changes in climate and land use/cover in the Loess Plateau, China. Water Resour. Res. 2008, 44, W00A07.
22. Sheng, Y.; Michio, H. Statistical interpretation of the impact of forest growth on stream flow of the Sameura Basin, Japan. Environ. Monit. Assess. 2005, 104, 369-384.
23. Wilcox, B.P.; Huang, Y. Woody plant encroachment paradox: Rivers rebound as degraded grasslands convert to woodlands. Geophys. Res. Lett. 2010, 37, L07402.
24. Zhou, G.Y.; Wei, X.H.; Luo, Y.; Zhang, M.F.; Li, Y.; Qiao, Y.; Liu, H.; Wang, C. Forest recovery and river discharge at the regional scale of Guangdong Province, China. Water Resour. Res. 2010, 46, W19503.
25. Peña-Arancibia, J.L.; van Dijk, A.I.J.M.; Guerschman, J.P.; Mulligan, M.; Bruijnzeel, L.A.; McVicar, T.R. Detecting changes in stream flow after partial woodland clearing in two large catchments in the seasonal tropics. J. Hydrol. 2012, 416-417, 60-71.
26. Wei, X.H.; Zhang, M.F. Quantifying stream flow change caused by forest disturbance at a large spatial scale: A single watershed study. Water Resour. Res. 2010, 46, W12525.
27. Buttle, J.M.; Metcalfe, R.A. Boreal forest disturbance and stream flow response, northeastern Ontario. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 2000, 57, 5-18.
28. Siriwardena, L.; Finlayson, B.L.; McMahon, T.A. The impact of land use change on catchment hydrology in large catchments: The Comet River, Central Queensland, Australia. J. Hydrol. 2006, 326, 199-214.
29. Wigbout, M. Limitations in the use of double mass curves. J. Hydrol. 1973, 12, 132-138.
30. Yao, Y.F.; Cai, T.J.; Wei, X.H.; Zhang, M.F.; Ju, C.Y. Effect of forest recovery on summer streamflow in small forested watersheds, Northeastern China. Hydrol. Process. 2011, 26, 1208-1214.
31. Koster, R.D.; Suarez, M.J. A simple framework for examining the interannual variability of land surface moisture fluxes. J. Clim. 1999, 12, 1911-1917.
32. Box, G.; Cox, D. An analysis of transformations, J.R. Stat. Soc. B 1964, 26, 211-252.
33. Box, G.; Pierce, D. Distribution of residual autocorrelations in autoregressive integrated moving average time series models. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 1970, 65, 1519-1526.
34. Buttle, J.M. Identifying Hydrological Responses to Basin Restoration: An Example from Southern Ontario. In Watershed Restoration Management: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Considerations; McDonnell, J.J., Stribling, J.B., Neville, L.R., Leopold, D.J., Eds.; American Water Resources Association: Herndon, VA, USA, 1996; pp. 5-13.
35. Zhang, M.F.; Wei, X.H. The effects of forest disturbance on hydrology in two contrasted watersheds. Hydrol. Processes. 2013, submitted for publication.
36. Zhang, M.F.; Wei, X. Alteration of flow regimes caused by large-scale forest disturbance: A case study from a large watershed in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. Ecohydrology 2013, in press.
37. Dooge, J.C.I.; Bruen, M.; Parmentier, B. A simple model for estimating the sensitivity of runoff to long-term changes in precipitation without a change in vegetation. Adv. Water Resour. 1999, 23, 153-163.
38. Jones, R.N.; Chiew, F.H.S.; Boughton, W.C.; Zang, L. Estimating the sensitivity of mean annual runoff to climate change using selected hydrological models. Adv. Water Resour. 2006, 29, 1419-1429.
39. Zhang, L.; Dawes, W.R.; Walker, G.R. The response of mean annual evapotranspiration to vegetation changes at catchment scale. Water Resour. Res. 2001, 37, 701-708.
40. Liu, Q.; Yang, Z.F.; Cui, B.S.; Sun, T. Temporal trends of hydro-climatic variables and runoff response to climatic variability and vegetation changes in the Yiluo River Basin, China. Hydrol. Process. 2019, 23, 3030-3039.
41. Zhang, L.; Dawes, W.R.; Walker, G.R. Predicting the Effect of Vegetation Changes on Catchment Average Water Balance; Technical Report 99/12; Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology. CSIRO Land and Water: Clayton South, Australia, 1999.
42. Ponce, V.M.; Shetty, A.V. A conceptual-model of catchment water-balance: 1. Formulation and calibration. J. Hydrol. 1995, 173, 27-40.
43. Budyko, M.I. The Heat Balance of the Earth's Surface; U.S. Department of Commerce: Dordrecht, The Netherland, 1958; p. 259.
44. Budyko, M.I. Climate and Life; Academic Press: San Diego, CA, USA, 1974; p. 508.
45. Li, L.J.; Zhang, L.; Wang, H.; Wang, J.; Yang, J.W.; Jiang, D.J.; Li, J.Y.; Qin, D.Y. Assessing the impact of climate variability and human activities on streamflow from the Wuding River Basin in China. Hydrol. Proces. 2007, 21, 3485-3491.
46. Zhang, L.; Hickel, K.; Dawes, W.R.; Chiew, F.H.S.; Western, A.W.; Briggs, P.R. A rational function approach for estimating mean annual evapotranspiration. Water Resour. Res. 2004, 40, W02502.
47. Xu, C.Y.; Gong, L.B.; Jiang, T.; Chen, D.L.; Singh, V.P. Analysis of spatial distribution and temporal trend of reference evapotranspiration and pan evaporation in Changjiang (Yangtze River) catchment. J. Hydrol. 2006, 327, 81-93.
48. Zhao, F.F.; Zhang, L.; Xu, Z.X.; Scott, D.F. Evaluation of methods for estimating the effects of vegetation change and climate variability on streamflow. Water Resour. Res. 2010, 46, W03505.
49. Guardiola-Claramonte, M.; Troch, P.A.; Breshears, D.D.; Huxman, T.E.; Switanek, M.B.; Durcik, M.; Cobb, N.S. Decreased streamflow in semi-arid basins following drought-induced tree die-off: A counter-intuitive and indirect climate impact on hydrology. J. Hydrol. 2011, 406, 225-233.
50. Tomer, M.D.; Schilling, K.E. A simple approach to distinguish land-use and climate-change effects on watershed hydrology. J. Hydrol. 2019, 376, 24-33.
51. Tootle, G.A.; Singh, A.K.; Piechota, T.C.; Farnham, I. Long lead-time forecasting of US streamflow using partial least squares regression. J. Hydrol. Eng. 2007, 12, 442-451.
52. Hu, S.S.; Zheng, H.X.; Liu, C.M.; Yu, J.J.; Wang, Z.G. Assessing the impacts of climate variability and human activities on streamflow in the water source area of Baiyangdian Lake. Acta Geograph. Sinica 2012, 67, 62-70.
53. Zhang, L.; Zhao, F.F.; Chen, Y.; Dixon, R.N.M. Estimating effects of plantation expansion and climate variability on streamflow for catchments in Australia. Water Resour. Res. 2011, 47, W12539.
54. Zhang, S.R.; Lu, X.X. Hydrological responses to precipitation variation and diverse human activities in a mountainous tributary of the lower Xijiang, China. Catena 2019, 77, 130-142.
55. Zhao, F.F.; Xu, Z.X.; Zhang, L.; Zuo, D.P. Streamflow response to climate variability and human activities in the upper catchment of the Yellow River Basin. Sci. China Ser. E 2019, 52, 1-8.
56. Chen, L.Q.; Liu, C.M. Influence of climate and land-cover change on runoff of the source regions of Yellow River. China Environ. Sci. 2007, 27, 559-565.
57. Li, Z.; Liu, W.Z.; Zhang, X.C.; Zheng, F.L. Impacts of landuse change and climate variability on hydrology in an agriculture catchment on the Loess Plateau of China. J. Hydrol. 2019, 377, 35-42.
58. Guo, H.; Hu, Q.; Jiang, T. Annual and seasonal streamflow responses to climate and land-cover changes in the Poyang Lake Basin, China. J. Hydrol. 2008, 355, 106-122.
59. Hao, X.M.; Chen, Y.N.; Xu, C.C.; Li, W.H. Impacts of climate change and human activities on the surfaces runoff in the Tarim River Basin over the last fifty years. Water Resour. Manag. 2008, 22, 1159-1171.
60. Chen, J.F.; Li, X.B.; Zhang, M. Impacts of climate variability and land cover change on hydrology using model simulation in Suomuo Basin. Sci. China Ser. D 2004, 34, 668-674.
61. Li, L.J.; Li, B.; Liang, L.Q.; Li, J.Y.; Liu, Y.M. Effect of climate change and land use on stream flow in the upper and middle reaches of the Taoer River, northeastern China. For. Stud. China 2010, 12, 107-115.
62. Montenegro, S.; Ragab, R. Impact of possible climate and land use changes in the semi arid regions: A case study from North Eastern Brazil. J. Hydrol. 2012, 434-435, 55-68.
63. Xia, J.; Wang, M.L. Runoff changes and distributed hydrologic simulation in the upper reaches of Yangtze River. Resour. Sci. 2008, 30, 962-967.
64. Wang, G.S.; Xia, J.; Wan, D.H.; Ye, A.Z. A Distributed monthly water balance model for identifying hydrological response to climate changes and human activities. J. Nat. Resour. 2006, 21, 86-91.
65. Coe, M.; Latrubesse, E.; Ferreira, M.; Amsler, M. The effects of deforestation and climate variability on the streamflow of the Araguaia River, Brazil. Biogeochemistry 2011, 105, 119-131.
66. Ma, Z.M.; Kang, S.Z.; Zhang, L.; Tong, L. Analysis of impacts of climate variability and human activity on stream flow for a river basin in arid region of northwest China. J. Hydrol. 2008, 352, 239-249.
67. Zhang, Y.F.; Guan, D.X.; Jin, C.J.; Wang, A.Z.; Wu, J.B.; Yuan, F.H. Analysis of impacts of climate variability and human activity on streamflow for a river basin in northeast China. J. Hydrol. 2011, 410, 239-247.
68. Beguería, S.; López-Moreno, J.I.; Lorente, A.; Seeger, M.; García-Ruiz, J.M. Assessing the effect of climate oscillations and land-use changes on streamflow in the central Spanish Pyrenees. Ambio 2003, 32, 283-286.
69. Tang, L.X.; Zhang, Z.Q.; Wang, X.J.; Wang, S.P.; Zha, T.G. Streamflow response to climate and landuse changes in Qingshui River watershed in the loess hilly-gully region of Western Shanxi Province, China. Chin. J. Plant Ecol. 2010, 34, 800-810.
70. Naik, P.K.; Jay, D.A. Human and climate impacts on Columbia River hydrology and salmonids. River Res. Appl. 2011, 27, 1270-1276.
71. Zhang, M.F.; Wei, X.H.; Sun, P.S.; Liu, S.R. The effect of forest harvesting and climatic variability on runoff in a large watershed: The case study in the Upper Minjiang River of Yangtze River Basin. J. Hydrol. 2012, 464-465, 1-11.
72. Zheng, H.X.; Zhang, L.; Zhu, C.; Liu, C.M.; Sato, Y.; Fukushima, Y. Responses of streamflow to climate and land surface change in the headwaters of the Yellow River Basin. Water Resour. Res. 2019, 45, W00A19.
73. Li, H.Y.; Zhang, Y.Q.; Vaze, J.; Wang, B.D. Separating effects of vegetation change and climate variability using hydrological modelling and sensitivity-based approaches. J. Hydrol. 2012, 420-421, 403-418.
74. Doylea, M.E.; Vicente, B.R. Attribution of the river flow growth in the Plata Basin. Int. J. Climatol. 2011, 31, 2234-2248.
75. Tague, C.; Grant, G.E.; Farrell, M.; Choate, J.; Jefferson, A. Deep groundwater mediates streamflow response to climate warming in the Oregon Cascades. Clim. Change 2008, 86, 189-210.
76. Van Wateren-de Hoog, B. A regional model to assess the hydrological sensitivity of medium size catchments to climate variability. Hydrol. Process. 1998, 12, 43-56.
77. Vivoni, E.R.; Entekhabi, D.; Bras, R.L.; Ivanov, V.Y. Controls on runoff generation and scale-dependence in a distributed hydrologic model. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 2007, 11, 1683-1701.
78. Tetzlaff, D.; Soulsby, C.; Waldron, S.; Malcolm, I.A.; Bacon, P.J.; Dunn, S.M. Conceptualization of runoff processes using a geographical information system and tracers in a nested mesoscale catchment. Hydrol. Process. 2007, 21, 1289-1307.
79. Christophersen, N.; Neal, C.; Hooper, R.P.; Vogt, R.D.; Andersen, S. Modeling streamwater chemistry as a mixture of soilwater end-members-A step towards 2nd-generation acidification models. J. Hydrol. 1990, 116, 307-320.
80. McGuire, K.J.; McDonnell, J.J. A review and evaluation of catchment transit time modeling. J. Hydrol. 2006, 330, 543-563.
81. Soulsby, C.; Tetzlaff, D.; Hrachowitz, M. Tracers and transit times: Windows for viewing catchment scale storage? Hydrol. Process. 2019, 23, 3503-3507.