Science Source
Trends of the timing and volume of streamflow and their relationship with climate
- Analyzes changes in the triggering of snowmelt in winter/spring (January 1 to May 31) of the Kaidu River (KD) in China by the temporal centroid of streamflow or ‘center time’ (CT) for each year from the years 1972 to 2008
- States that CT is the flow-weighted timing which is a reflection of the climatic conditions and is generally sufficient for estimating the timing of snowmelt
- Finds that winter/spring center time (WSCT) data generally has a significant decreasing trend according to Mann–Kendall test (P<0.05)
- Finds that after 1989, there is a clear decreasing trend illustrating the change in timing of snowmelt which could be caused by earlier spring snowmelt
- Finds that from 1989 and on, the WSCT data ranged from 87 to 98 in Julian days, and it was observed that the timing of snowmelt is earlier by 11 days in KD basin
- Finds that WSCT data was sensitive to warmer temperature in March and earlier precipitation accumulation in February
- Finds that streamflow is sensitive to precipitation and temperature on an annual and seasonal scale in the KD basin. However, the timing of snowmelt in spring is generally controlled by warmer temperatures
