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The Changing Character of the California Sierra Nevada as a Natural Reservoir

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080308· OSTI ID:1515778
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
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The mountains of the Western United States provide a vital natural service through the storage and release of mountain snowpack, lessening impacts of seasonal aridity and satiating summer water demand. Yet, climate change continues to undermine these important processes. To understand how snowpack may change in the headwaters of California's major reservoirs, the North American Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment is analyzed to assess peak water volume, peak timing, accumulation rate, melt rate, and snow season length across both latitudinal and elevational gradients. Under a high-emissions scenario, end-of-century peak snowpack timing occurs 4 weeks earlier and peak water volume is 79.3% lower. The greatest reductions are above Shasta, Oroville, and Folsom and between 0- and 2,000-m elevations. Regional climate model and global forcing data set choice is important in determining historical snowpack character, yet by end century all models show a significant and similar decline in mountain snowpack.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA). National Inst. of Food and Agriculture; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) (SC-21); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23). Climate and Environmental Sciences Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0016605
OSTI ID:
1515778
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1484311
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 45; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (4)

Snow and Climate: Feedbacks, Drivers, and Indices of Change journal August 2019
Projected Changes in Interannual Variability of Peak Snowpack Amount and Timing in the Western United States journal August 2019
Can Convection‐Permitting Modeling Provide Decent Precipitation for Offline High‐Resolution Snowpack Simulations Over Mountains? journal December 2019
A quantitative method to decompose SWE differences between regional climate models and reanalysis datasets journal November 2019

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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