环洱海地区气候变化特征研究

环洱海地区是云南省具有高原湖泊生态脆弱区、民族文化多元融合区和乡村经济发展活跃区等多重叠合特征的典型区域,是全球气候变化影响的敏感区和脆弱区。以环洱海地区1951~2014年6个基本站点的逐年平均气温、极端最高气温、极端最低气温、降水量、最大日降水量和日降水量≥0.1 mm日数资料为基础。采用线性倾向估计、Mann-Kendall趋势检验、Morlet小波分析和R/S分析等方法,研究了环洱海地区气候变化规律。结果发现:自1951年以来,环洱海地区年均气温和极端最低气温呈现出升高的趋势,而极端最高气温则呈现降低的趋势,变化速率分别为0.07℃/10 a、0.03℃/10 a和–0.14℃/10 a,对于年降水量、最大日降水量和降水日数而言,三者均为减少趋势,速率分别为–12.85 mm/10 a、–1.09mm/10 a和–1.73 d/10 a;环洱海地区年均气温、极端最高和极端最低气温均没有发生突变,年降水量和降水日数在2010年发生了一次减少突变,而最大日降水量则没有检测到突变的年份;环洱海地区年平均气温和年降水量在长时间尺度上的周期性变化最为显著,分别存在30 a和33 a左右的周期变化,并贯穿整个研究时段,而短时间尺度上的周期变化局域性特征突出;从未来演变趋势来看,年平均气温和极端最低气温将维持升温趋势,而极端最高气温则将持续降低趋势,年降水量继续减少的趋势未来将会逆转,但最大日降水量和降水日数两者将持续减少的概率更大。     

降水量时间序列变化的小波特征

利用小波变换对降水量时间序列的多时间尺度变化及突变特征进行了探讨。小波变换不仅能将降水量时间序列的频率特征在时间域上展现出来，清晰地给出各种时间尺度的强弱和分布情况以及早涝变化趋势和突变点，而且还能分析出其主要周期。以新安江流域黄山地区主汛期(5—7月)和年降水量为例，计算表明，其年际及年代际时间尺度在时域中分布不均匀，具有明显的局部化特征；同时分析出主汛期降水具有8年、19年左右的周期，年降水存在6年、19年左右的周期；研究还表明，主汛期降水与年降水的时间尺度变化比较接近。     

一种新的汛期降水集中期划分方法

汛期降水集中期是近期气象学者提出的表征汛期气候的一种新的特征量,它在气候研究中体现了较好的灵活性、客观性,通过对其分析,可为汛期气候的诊断和预测提供依据。但现在普遍使用的降水集中期在计算方法和时间长度上存在缺陷,特别是运用到时间跨度较长时段的气候分析时,特征量表征作用就有所缺失,而且计算方法较为复杂。为更好地使用降水集中期这一特征量,提出了以15天作为时长,用滑动统计来划定汛期降水集中期的新方法,并运用统计方法、天气气候学方法进行了论证,同时在长江下游主雨季降水集中期分析和金华地区汛期分析两个实例中进行了应用检验。结果表明,汛期降水集中期新方法划定的特征量与汛期降水总量存在时间上的相对独立性和总趋势上的显著相关性,且在汛期气候极端灾害事件上有较强的描述能力。因此认为,15天滑动统计新方法划定的汛期降水集中期使用便捷,天气气候意义明确,在实际应用中更为客观有效。     

Recent Changes in Stream Flashiness and Flooding,and Effects of Flood Management in North Carolina and Virginia

The southeastern United States has undergone anthropogenic changes in landscape structure, with the potential to increase (e.g., urbanization) and decrease (e.g., reservoir construction) stream flashiness and flooding. Assessment of the outcome of such change can provide insight into the efficacy of current strategies and policies to manage water resources. We (1) examined trends in precipitation, floods, and stream flashiness and (2) assessed the relative influence of land cover and flow‐regulating features (e.g., best management practices and artificial water bodies) on stream flashiness from 1991 to 2013. We found mean annual precipitation decreased, which coincided with decreasing trends in floods. In contrast, stream flashiness, overall, showed an increasing trend during the period of study. However, upon closer examination, 20 watersheds showed stable stream flashiness, whereas 5 increased and 6 decreased in flashiness. Urban watersheds were among those that increased or decreased in flashiness. Watersheds that increased in stream flashiness gained more urban cover, lost more forested cover and had fewer best management practices installed than urban watersheds that decreased in stream flashiness. We found best management practices are more effective than artificial water bodies in regulating flashy floods. Flashiness index is a valuable and straightforward metric to characterize changes in streamflow and help to assess the efficacy of management interventions.     

Robustness of Meteorological Droughts in Dynamically Downscaled Climate Simulations

We examine the robustness of a suite of regional climate models (RCMs) in simulating meteorological droughts and associated metrics in present‐day climate (1971‐2003) over the conterminous United States (U.S.). The RCMs that are part of North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) simulations are compared with multiple observations over the climatologically homogeneous regions of the U.S. The seasonal precipitation, climatology, drought attributes, and trends have been assessed. The reanalysis‐based multi‐model median RCM reasonably simulates observed statistical attributes of drought and the regional detail due to topographic forcing. However, models fail to simulate significant drying trend over the Southwest and West. Further, reanalysis‐based NARCCAP runs underestimate the observed drought frequency overall, with the exception of the Southwest; whereas they underestimate persistence in the drought‐affected areas over the Southwest and West‐North Central regions. However, global climate model‐driven NARCCAP ensembles tend to overestimate regional drought frequencies. Models exhibit considerable uncertainties while reproducing meteorological drought statistics, as evidenced by a general lack of agreement in the Hurst exponent, which in turn controls drought persistence. Water resources managers need to be aware of the limitations of current climate models, while regional climate modelers may want to fine‐tune their parameters to address impact‐relevant metrics.     

Impacts of Changes in Precipitation Amount and Distribution on Water Resources Studied Using a Model Rainwater Harvesting System

Water supply reliability is expected to be affected by both precipitation amount and distribution changes under recent and future climate change. We compare historical (1951‐2010) changes in annual‐mean and annual‐maximum daily precipitation in the global set of station observations from Global Historical Climatology Network and climate models from the Inter‐Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI‐MIP), and develop the study to 2011‐2099 for model projections under high radiative forcing scenario (RCP8.5). We develop a simple rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) model and drive it with observational and modeled precipitation. We study the changes in mean and maximum precipitation along with changes in the reliability of the model RWHS as tools to assess the impact of changes in precipitation amount and distribution on reliability of precipitation‐fed water supplies. Results show faster increase in observed maximum precipitation (10.14% per K global warming) than mean precipitation (7.64% per K), and increased reliability of the model RWHS driven by observed precipitation by an average of 0.2% per decade. The ISI‐MIP models show even faster increase in maximum precipitation compared to mean precipitation. However, they imply decreases in mean reliability, for an average 0.15% per decade. Compared to observations, climate models underestimate the increasing trends in mean and maximum precipitation and show the opposite direction of change in reliability of a model water supply system.     

Testing and Improving Temperature Thresholds for Snow and Rain Prediction in the Western United States

The phase of precipitation at the land surface is critical to determine the timing and amount of water available for hydrological and ecological systems. However, there are few techniques to directly observe the precipitation phase and many prediction tools apply a single temperature threshold (e.g., 0°C) to determine phase. In this paper, we asked two questions: (1) what is the accuracy of default and station optimized daily temperature thresholds for predicting precipitation phase and (2) what are the regions and conditions in which typical temperature‐based precipitation phase predictions are most suited. We developed a ground truth dataset of rain vs. snow using an expert decision‐making system based on precipitation, snow depth, and snow water equivalent observations. This dataset was used to evaluate the accuracy of three temperature‐threshold‐based techniques of phase classification. Optimizing the temperature threshold improved the prediction of precipitation phase by 34% compared to using 0°C threshold. Developing a temperature threshold based on station elevation improved the error by 12% compared with using the 0°C temperature threshold. We also found the probability of snow as a function of temperature differed among ecoregions, which suggests a varied response to future climate change. These results highlight a current weakness in our ability to predict the effects of regional warming that could have uneven impacts on water and ecological resources.     

近50年鄱阳湖五大流域降水变化特征研究

基于鄱阳湖流域在江西省内部分对应的79县市气象站1960～2006年逐日降水观测资料,采用线性回归的方法分别研究五大流域的年降水量、降水日数、暴雨日数等3要素的变化趋势,并用Mann法进行了变化趋势的显著性检验,用距平与均方差之比达到15和20作为气候异常检验指标,对各流域的各时间序列进行了异常检验,采用了Mann Kendall法对各时间序列进行突变检测。结果表明：（1）各流域的年降水量变化趋势基本一致,年降水量与年暴雨日数密切相关;饶河流域强降水事件较多,降水强度大,赣江中游流域降水时间分布相对较均匀,强降水事件较少;（2）各流域年降水量、暴雨日数总体呈波动上升趋势,20世纪90年代以来暴雨日数异常偏多的概率最大;（3）年降水日数以20世纪80年代中期为界,之前呈波动上升趋势,之后呈波动下降趋势,2002年至今各流域降雨日数明显偏少;（4）各流域的年降水量、降水日数、暴雨日数均未出现趋势性的突变;（5）近50年来鄱阳湖流域降水时间分布不均的情况加剧,旱涝灾害风险增加。     

Determination of direct and fugitive PM emissions in a Mediterranean harbour by means of classic and novel tracer methods

Remodelling works are frequent in harbour areas, given that they must adapt to rapidly changing market requirements. Depending on their nature (construction, demolition, etc.), these works may be carried out during long periods of time and thus exert a significant impact on the air quality at the harbours and their surroundings. The air quality at the Valencia harbour was studied during an enlargement project. Four sampling stations aimed to cover the major dust-emitting activities in the harbour. In addition, a sampling campaign was carried out to collect dust materials at their emission sources (e.g., loading and unloading of clinker and petroleum coke, as well as the enlargement works). Differences obtained between PM levels at the monitoring sites were correlated with the distance between sampling stations and enlargement works and/or harbour operations, as well as with the preferential wind direction. In all cases, the days with the highest PM_10 levels were linked to wind directions coinciding with the location of the enlargement works or the clinker and petroleum coke stocks. Classic source apportionment methodologies (PCA and CMB) were applied to the data, but their interpretation was complex due to the similar chemical signatures of PM originating from direct and fugitive emissions from stocked materials (e.g., clinker), and the enlargement works. To overcome this difficulty, a novel non-statistical approach was used to obtain quantitative estimations of the contributions from sources (petroleum coke and clinker), based on the correlation between specific PM components (e.g., carbonaceous species) and source tracers (e.g., V). Finally, a qualitative test using phenolphthalein was devised to identify the presence of clinker on the filters, which provided positive results. This novel tracer approach is thus recommended for harbour authorities.     

Sensitivity and Uncertainty of Ground‐Water Discharge Estimates for Semiarid Shrublands1

Abstract: We proposed a step‐by‐step approach to quantify the sensitivity of ground‐water discharge by evapotranspiration (ET) to three categories of independent input variables. To illustrate the approach, we adopt a basic ground‐water discharge estimation model, in which the volume of ground water lost to ET was computed as the product of the ground‐water discharge rate and the associated area. The ground‐water discharge rate was assumed to equal the ET rate minus local precipitation. The objective of this study is to outline a step‐by‐step procedure to quantify the contributions from individual independent variable uncertainties to the uncertainty of total ground‐water discharge estimates; the independent variables include ET rates of individual ET units, areas associated with the ET units, and precipitation in each subbasin. The specific goal is to guide future characterization efforts by better targeting data collection for those variables most responsible for uncertainty in ground‐water discharge estimates. The influential independent variables to be included in the sensitivity analysis are first selected based on the physical characteristics and model structure. Both regression coefficients and standardized regression coefficients for the selected independent variables are calculated using the results from sampling‐based Monte Carlo simulations. Results illustrate that, while as many as 630 independent variables potentially contribute to the calculation of the total annual ground‐water discharge for the case study area, a selection of seven independent variables could be used to develop an accurate regression model, accounting for more than 96% of the total variance in ground‐water discharge. Results indicate that the variability of ET rate for moderately dense desert shrubland contributes to about 75% of the variance in the total ground‐water discharge estimates. These results point to a need to better quantify ET rates for moderately dense shrubland to reduce overall uncertainty in estimates of ground‐water discharge. While the approach proposed here uses a basic ground‐water discharge model taken from an earlier study, the procedure of quantifying uncertainty and sensitivity can be generalized to handle other types of environmental models involving large numbers of independent variables.