5× and 2× increase in CO2 concentration, respectively (Fig. 5a and Table 5). The increase in streamflow due to physiological forcing selleck screening library agrees with other research. River runoff was observed to increase continentally during the 20th century, and continental runoff was predicted to increase by 6% globally from physiological forcing due to a 2× concentration in CO2 (Betts et al., 2007 and Gedney et al., 2006). Predicted reduced ET, increased soil water content, and increased total water yield eventually may lead to 3% and 8% increases in average annual groundwater recharge in response to a 1.5× and 2× increase
in CO2 concentration (Fig. 4d and Table 5). Changes in ET were more pronounced in response to 2 °C and 4 °C increases in temperature. The average annual ET was predicted to increase by 6% and 10%, respectively, with the maximum increase occurring during the spring months see more (Fig. 4g). The predicted increase in ET resulted in a decrease in soil water content, total water yield, and groundwater recharge (Fig. 4e, f, and h). The maximum 13% predicted relative decrease in soil water content was in May, following the peak predicted ET in April. The drier soil reduced the water yield and the groundwater recharge as it affected surface runoff, lateral flow, and baseflow (Table 5). Although the predicted average annual total water yield
decreased in response to temperature increase, it was predicted to increase for January and February. A similar pattern was also evident for the predicted streamflow in response to changes in temperature. While average annual streamflow was predicted to decrease by 3% and 5%, a noticeable increase of 4.7% and 17.5% in streamflow was predicted for the month of February in response to 2 °C and 4 °C increases in temperature, respectively (Fig. 5b). The predicted increase in winter months’ streamflow and total water yield signified the basin’s sensitivity to the effect of a decrease in snowpack level and successive increase in snowmelt runoff.
Precipitation is the key input to the hydrological cycle. Consistent linear increases in total water yield, soil water content, ET, streamflow, and groundwater recharge were predicted in CYTH4 response to 10% and 20% increases in precipitation (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5). With a 10% increase in precipitation, average annual streamflow was predicted to increase by 13%, and with a 20% increase in precipitation, average annual streamflow was predicted to increase by 27% (Table 5). The increase was more pronounced in the summer monsoon months of June through September (Fig. 5c). Changes in streamflow were the highest among all the hydrological components we studied. The standard deviation of the monthly streamflow was 2.5 for a 10% precipitation increase, and 5.3 for a 20% precipitation increase, which indicated that variability in streamflow increased with increasing precipitation.