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Climate change and consequences on the water cycle in the humid Xiangjiang River Basin, China

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Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have altered the climate and led to changes in the water cycle. Understanding the climate change and hydrological responses is critical to derive adaptive strategies for sustainable water resources management. In this study, we diagnosed the trends of primary climate elements and hydrological components during the past half century (1960–2009) for the humid Xiangjiang River Basin in central-south China at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The air temperature trend demonstrated an overall warming climate but with a quicker pace in recent years; however, the wind speed reduced significantly in the early period, and this downtrend had largely disappeared after the mid-1990s. Under such a shifting climate, the hydrological responses were not monotonic during the past 50 years: the evapotranspiration behaved in a decreasing trend in the early 35 years (1960–1994), followed by an uptrend in the later period (1995–2009). The stepwise analysis of soil water content and baseflow demonstrated a wetting trend followed by a drying one but with a steeper slope, indicating an accelerated drying trend which may cause a concern in stream water availability especially in the dry season. Spatial trend analysis showed that some areas experienced a downtrend (drying) in the dry season, but most areas had an uptrend (wetting) in the wet season for the whole study period. Overall, the analyses of temporal and spatial changes are useful for decision makers to deal with the continuing changes in climate and hydrology. This study also highlighted the necessity of climate change studies at multiple temporal and spatial scales.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Chinese Forestry Specific Research Grant for Public Benefits (201404316), Science Foundation of Hunan Province ([2013]7), Hunan Province Key Laboratory Project for Forest Ecology in Urban Areas, and Hunan Province Lutou Forest Ecosystem Research Station Project. The authors declared no conflict of interest exists. Y. Wu is currently affiliated with ASRC Federal, contractor to USGS EROS Center, Sioux Falls, USA. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Editorial comments from Adam Case and Ramesh Singh are greatly appreciated. We also thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in South China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, 410004, Hunan, China

    Yiping Wu, Shuguang Liu & Wende Yan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Jiangzhou Xia & Wenping Yuan

  3. Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, 410004, China

    Wenhua Xiang

  4. Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China

    Kelin Wang, Qiao Luo & Wei Fu

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  1. Yiping Wu
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Correspondence to Shuguang Liu or Wende Yan.

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Wu, Y., Liu, S., Yan, W. et al. Climate change and consequences on the water cycle in the humid Xiangjiang River Basin, China. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 30, 225–235 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-015-1073-x

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