Human-induced changes in the hydrology of the western United States |
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Authors: | Barnett Tim P Pierce David W Hidalgo Hugo G Bonfils Celine Santer Benjamin D Das Tapash Bala Govindasamy Wood Andrew W Nozawa Toru Mirin Arthur A Cayan Daniel R Dettinger Michael D |
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Institution: | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. tbarnett-ul@ucsd.edu |
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Abstract: | Observations have shown that the hydrological cycle of the western United States changed significantly over the last half of the 20th century. We present a regional, multivariable climate change detection and attribution study, using a high-resolution hydrologic model forced by global climate models, focusing on the changes that have already affected this primarily arid region with a large and growing population. The results show that up to 60% of the climate-related trends of river flow, winter air temperature, and snow pack between 1950 and 1999 are human-induced. These results are robust to perturbation of study variates and methods. They portend, in conjunction with previous work, a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States. |
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