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30 Apr (CLIM) Hsu, Hydrology in a Warming Climate

Apr 30, 2025, 1:30 - 2:30 PM

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30 Apr (CLIM) Hsu, Hydrology in a Warming Climate

Apr 30, 2025, 1:30 - 2:30 PM

Hsin Hsu, Princeton U 

Terrestrial Hydrology Changes Under a Warming Climate: Insights from Daily Data 

Wed, 23 Apr, 1:30pm 

Innovation 134 and via Zoom (for link, email bklinger@gmu.edu)  

Host: Paul Dirmeyer 

 

Changes in terrestrial hydrology in a warming climate have important implications for freshwater availability, climate regulation, and societal risks. Much of our understanding has relied on monthly data, but daily variations in intermittent water fluxes can be important. For instance, in modern climate models (CMIP6), warming dries soils despite increasing precipitation. I use daily hydrologic data to find an alternative explanation for this divergence: increasing unevenness in daily precipitation enhances surface runoff, thereby reducing total soil moisture. Next, I identify two main pathways driving changes in evapotranspiration: (1) the moisture-redistribution pathway, based on daily soil moisture, and (2) the energy-demand pathway, based on altered energy availability under climate change. I highlight numerous regions where the pathways driving evapotranspiration changes in CMIP6 diverge from those in reanalysis. 

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