Highlight articles

A post-wildfire response in cave dripwater chemistry

Our current understanding of wildfires on Earth is filled with knowledge gaps. One reason for this is our poor record of fire in natural archives. We open the possibility for speleothems to be “a missing piece to the fire-puzzle”. We find by effecting surface evaporation and transpiration rates, wildfires can have a multi-year impact on speleothem, forming dripwater hydrology and chemistry. We open a new avenue for speleothems as potential palaeo-fire archives.

Can mussels be used as sentinel organisms for characterization of pollution in urban water systems?

We assessed if nitrogen stable isotopes in mussels are a suitable indicator, capable of resolving spatial and temporal variability of nutrient pollution in an urban estuary. Our results highlight the value of using stable isotope analysis as an integrative tool to establish an understanding of local processes and pollution levels in theses urban aquatic systems. We suggest that mussels can become a robust tool for the detection of emerging anthropogenic pollutants of concern in urban water systems.

Modeling 25 years of spatio-temporal surface water and inundation dynamics on large river basin scale using time series of Earth observation data

We statistically modeled surface water extent (SWE) and inundation dynamics from a unique Landsat-based time series (1986–2011) for Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin as a function of river flow and spatially explicit time series of rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture. We present a data-driven and transferable approach that allowed us to model SWE through periods of flooding and drying for 363 floodplain units and to identify local combinations of variables that drive SWE dynamics.

Investigating the impact of land-use land-cover change on Indian summer monsoon daily rainfall and temperature during 1951–2005 using a regional climate model

Regional climate model (RegCM4) simulations demonstrate that part of the observed decrease in moderate rainfall events during the summer monsoon season over central India from 1951 to 2005 is attributed to anthropogenically induced land-use land-cover change (LULCC). LULCC also partly explains the observed warming trend in the daily mean and maximum temperatures over India. This study demonstrates the importance of LULCC in the context of regional climate change over India.

Coevolution of volcanic catchments in Japan

We derived indices of landscape properties as well as hydrological response and examined their relation with catchment age and climate. We found significant correlation between drainage density and baseflow index with age, but not with climate. We compared our data with data from volcanic catchments in Oregon and could confirm that baseflow index decreases with time, but also discovered that drainage density seems to stabilize after 2M years, after an initial increase due to landscape incision.

Does the Budyko curve reflect a maximum-power state of hydrological systems? A backward analysis

We derived mathematical formulations of relations between relative wetness and gradients driving run-off and evaporation for a one-box model such that, when conductances are optimized with the maximum power principle, the model leads exactly to a point on the Budyko curve. With dry spells and dynamics in actual evaporation added, the model compared well with catchment observations without calibrating any parameter. The maximum-power principle may thus be used to derive the Budyko curve.

Aggregation in environmental systems – Part 1: Seasonal tracer cycles quantify young water fractions, but not mean transit times, in spatially heterogeneous catchments

Catchment mean transit times have been widely inferred from seasonal cycles of environmental tracers in precipitation and streamflow. Here I show that these cycles yield strongly biased estimates of mean transit times in spatially heterogeneous catchments (and, by implication, in real-world catchments). However, I also show that these cycles can be used to reliably estimate the fraction of “young” water in streamflow, meaning water that fell as precipitation less than roughly 2–3 months ago.

Aggregation in environmental systems – Part 2: Catchment mean transit times and young water fractions under hydrologic nonstationarity

Here I show that seasonal tracer cycles yield strongly biased estimates of mean transit times in nonstationary catchments (and, by implication, in real-world catchments). However, they can be used to reliably estimate the fraction of “young” water in streamflow, meaning water that fell as precipitation less than roughly 2–3 months ago. This young water fraction varies systematically between high and low flows and may help in characterizing controls on stream chemistry.

Diagnosing hydrological limitations of a land surface model: application of JULES to a deep-groundwater chalk basin

This paper presents a strategy to diagnose hydrological limitations of a Land Surface Model. It includes the adaptation of the model for hydrological applications and highlights challenges faced while moving towards high resolution modelling.

JULES to a deep-groundwater chalk basin">Read more

Regional analysis of groundwater droughts using hydrograph classification

To improve the design of drought monitoring networks and water resource management during episodes of drought, there is a need for a better understanding of spatial variations in the response of aquifers to major meteorological droughts. This paper is the first to describe a suite of methods to quantify such variations. Using an analysis of groundwater level data for a case study from the UK, the influence of catchment characteristics on the varied response of groundwater to droughts is explored.

News & press Highlight articles

Highlight articles

Information for

External links