Abstract
Stream discharge of a watershed is affected and altered by climate and landcover changes. These effects vary depending on the magnitude and interaction of the changes, and need to be understood so that local water resource availability can be evaluated and socioeconomic development within a watershed be pursued and managed in a way sustainable with the local water resources. In this study, the landcover and climate change effects on stream discharge from the Jacks Fork River basin in the Ozark Highlands of the south-central United States were examined in three phases: site observation and data collection, model calibration and simulation, and model experiment and analysis. Major results of the study show that climate fluctuations between wet and dry extremes resulted in the same change of the basin discharge regardless of the landcover condition in the basin. On the other hand, under a specified climate condition landcover change from a grassland basin to a fully forested basin only resulted in about one half of the discharge change caused by the climate variation. Furthermore, when landcover change occurred simultaneously with climate variation, the basin discharge change amplified significantly and became larger than the combined discharge changes caused by the climate and landcover change alone, a result indicating a synergistic effect of landcover and climate change on basin discharge variability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
R. McKenney, R.B. Jacobson and R.C. Wertheimer, Woody vegetation and channel morphogenesis in low-gradient, gravel-bed streams in the Ozark Plateaus, Missouri and Arkansas, Geomorphology 13 (1995) 175–198.
B.J. Shutter and J.R. Post, Climate, population variability and the zoogeography of temperate fishes, Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 119 (1990) 314–336.
G.M. Woodwell and coauthors, Global deforestation: Contribution to atmospheric carbon dioxide, Science 222 (1983) 1081–1086.
S.G. McNulty, J.M. Vose and W.T. Swank, Potential climate change effects on loblolly pine forest productivity and drainage across the southern United States’, Ambio 25 (1996) 449–453.
T.E. Johnson and D.R. DeWalle, A model of flow pathways in a forested headwater catchment based on 3-component source-water mixing, Water Resour. Res. 34 (1997) 1665–1679.
R. McKenney and R.B. Jacobson, Erosion and deposition at the riffle-pool scale in gravel-bed streams, Ozark Plateau, Missouri and Arkansas, 1990–95, in US Geological Survey open file report 96-655A (1996) pp. 171.
C.F. Rabeni and R.B. Jacobson, The relation of fluvial hydraulics to fish habitat in low gradient alluvial streams, Freshwater Biology 29 (1993) 211–220.
M.S. Wigmosta, L.W. Vail and D.P. Lettenmaier, A distributed hydrology–vegetation model for complex terrain, Water Resour. Res. 30 (1994) 1665–1679.
T. Aley and C. Aley, Groundwater study: Ozark national scenic riverways’, in: Ozark Underground Laboratory Report to Ozark National Scenic Riverways (US National Park Service, 1987) pp. 186.
C.M. Wicks, Origins of groundwater in a fluviokarst basin: Bonne Femme basin in central Missouri, USA, Hydrogeol. J. 5 (1997) 89–96.
D. Ford and P. Williams, Karst Geomorphology and Hydrology (Unwin Hyman Publishers, London, 1989).
W.H. McNab and P.E. Avers, Ecological subregions of the United States: Section descriptions, USDA-FS WO-WSA-5, Washington, DC (1994) pp. 267.
T.A. Nigh, Missouri natural features inventory: Carter, Oregon, Ripley and Shannon Counties, Missouri Department of Conservation (1988) pp. 286.
USDA Soil Conservation Service, State Soil Geographic Data Base (STATSGO) (1993).
W.J. Rawls and D.L. Brakensiek, Estimation of Soil Water Retention and Hydraulic Properties. Unsaturated Flow in Hydrologic Modeling: Theory and Practice, ed. H.J. Morel-Seytoux (1989) pp. 275–300.
Q. Hu, C.M. Woodruff and S.E. Mudrick, Interdecadal variations of annual precipitation in the central United States, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 79 (1998) 221–229.
Q. Hu and G.D. Wilson, Temperature effects on the Palmer Drought Severity Index, Int. J. Climatol. 20 (2000) 1899–1911.
R.E. Dickinson, A. Henderson-Sellers, C. Rosenzweig and P.J. Sellers, Evapotranspiration models with canopy resistance for use in climate models: A review, Agric. For. Meteor. 54 (1991) 378–388.
K.J. Beven and M.J. Kirkby, A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology, Hydrol. Sci. Bull. 24 (1979) 43–69.
J.S. Lee, Slow timescale variations of temperature in the central United States, M.S. thesis, available from Department of Soil and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (1998) pp. 75.
T.R. Karl, R.K. Knight, D.R. Easterling and R.G. Quayle, Indices of climate change for the United States, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 77 (1996) 279–292.
E.R. Cook, D.M. Meko and C.W. Stockton, A new assessment of possible solar and luner forcing of bidecadal drought rhythm in the western United States, J. Climate 10 (1997) 1343–1356.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Agricultural Research Division, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Contribution Number 13437.
Qi Hu: Corresponding author: Dr. Qi Hu, Climate and Bio-Atmospheric Sciences Group, School of Natural Resource Sciences, 237 L.W. Chase Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0728, USA. E-mail: qhu2@unl.edu.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hu, Q., Willson, G.D., Chen, X. et al. Effects of climate and landcover change on stream discharge in the Ozark Highlands, USA. Environ Model Assess 10, 9–19 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-004-4266-0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-004-4266-0