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Climatic water deficit and surplus between the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester River (1961–2012)

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 189, Article number: 545 (2017) Cite this article

Abstract

The study addresses the climatic water deficit (WD) and surplus (WE) in the area located between the heights of the Eastern Carpathians (Romania) and the Dniester River (Moldova). The objective of this study is to discover the trend of WD/WE (past and future) and its variation in space. WD and WE were calculated as the difference between the amounts of precipitation (P) and the reference evapotranspiration (ET0). The P-ET0 trend, analyzed through Mann-Kendall and t tests, was negative for 83 and 80% of the analyzed stations and the Sen’s slope had values between − 0.05 mm year−1 (t test) and − 6.73 mm year−1 (Mann-Kendall test). Seasonally, the slope values of P-ET0 trends were negative during winter, spring, and summer and positive in autumn. The P-ET0 index is positive (WE) only in the Carpathian and Eastern Subcarpathian areas, whereas for the rest of the investigated territory, we found negative values (WD). WD is more pronounced as we depart from the Carpathians towards the east, but also on a north to south direction, reaching the maximum in the southeastern part of the territory. In what concerns seasonal distribution, WE is identified everywhere only in winter, whereas, in spring, summer, and autumn, WD characterizes most of the territory, with the exception of the Carpathian and Subcarpathian areas. The increasing WD will have a growing negative influence on the agriculture of the studied area. For the year 2030, we anticipate a reduction in the climate water availability with 46 mm m−2 (reference period: 1961–2012).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Meteorological Administration in Romania and the State Hydrometeorological Service of the Republic of Moldova for making the climate datasets available.

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  1. Department of Geography, Ștefan cel Mare University, 13 Universitaţii Street, 720229, Suceava, Romania

    Dumitru Mihăilă, Petruț-Ionel Bistricean, Liliana Gina Lazurca & Andrei-Emil Briciu

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  1. Dumitru Mihăilă
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Mihăilă, D., Bistricean, PI., Lazurca, L.G. et al. Climatic water deficit and surplus between the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester River (1961–2012). Environ Monit Assess 189, 545 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-6253-3

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Keywords

  • Water deficit and surplus
  • Trend analysis
  • Aridization