Title: Runoff threshold responses in continental Boreal catchments: Nexus of sub-humid climate, low-relief, surficial geology and land cover
Citation: Devito, K., O'Sullivan, A., Peters, D., Hokanson, K., Kettridge, N., & Mendoza, C. (2023). Runoff threshold responses in continental Boreal catchments: Nexus of sub-humid climate, low-relief, surficial geology and land cover [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8361601
Study Site: Central Mixedwood subregion of the Boreal Forest Natural Ecoregion of northern Alberta
Purpose: The overall objective of this paper is to identify and also quantify general relationships between landscape structure and R patterns over broad scales that vary in local climate regimes and landscape attributes. Here, we examine how P input signals are modified by the integration of heterogeneities in internal S and flow path connectivity in northern, low-relief, glaciated, heterogeneous catchments that are water limited. We examine annual R over a 25-year wet to dry weather pattern of 20 meso-scale catchments with ranges in proportions of the dominant landform and land-cover characteristic of the BP in western Canada. Our goal is to determine (a) the intracatchment and intercatchment range in magnitude of annual R; (b) the potential for annual R threshold responses to annual P inputs; (c) how the proportional cover of the dominant landform and land cover may influence catchment P–R relationships; and (d) the interaction between landscape characteristics and dynamic weather patterns on the spatial variability in temporal variations of catchment P–R relationships. Improving our understanding of how weather patterns interact with BP landscape characteristics, and thus potential water S and flow paths, to influence spatiotemporal variability in catchment P–R relationships will better inform management practices that require assessing climate and land use impacts on critical flows in the globally important BP.
Abstract: We examined annual runoff from 20 meso-scale catchments over 25 years, to elucidate how interactions between physiography and long-term weather patterns influence the magnitude of spatial-temporal thresholds in annual runoff responses in water-limited, low-relief, glaciated continental Boreal landscapes.
Supplemental Information Summary:
Research:
Further Info: Devito, K. J., O’Sullivan, A. M., Peters, D. L., Hokanson, K. J., Kettridge, N., & Mendoza, C. A. (2023). Runoff threshold responses in continental Boreal catchments: Nexus of subhumid climate, low-relief, surficial geology, and land cover. Water Resources Research, 59, e2023WR034752. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR034752
Status: Complete
Keywords:
hydrology,
meteorology,
Geographical coordinates: North: 57.68, South: 54.56 East: -110.08 West: -117.32
Bounding Temporal Extent: Start Date: 1986-01-01, End
Date: 2010-12-31
