Modeling Ecohydrological Processes and Spatial Patterns in the Upper Heihe Basin in China

The Heihe River is the second largest inland basin in China; runoff in the upper reach greatly affects the socio-economic development in the downstream area. The relationship between spatial vegetation patterns and catchment hydrological processes in the upper Heihe basin has remained unclear to date. In this study, a distributed ecohydrological model is developed to simulate the hydrological processes with vegetation dynamics in the upper Heihe basin. The model is validated by hydrological observations at three locations and soil moisture observations at a watershed scale. Based on the simulated results, the basin water balance characteristics and their relationship with the vegetation patterns are analyzed. The mean annual precipitation and runoff increase with the elevation in a similar pattern. Spatial patterns of the actual evapotranspiration is mainly controlled by the precipitation and air temperature. At the same time, vegetation distribution enhances the spatial variability of the actual evapotranspiration. The highest actual evapotranspiration is around elevations of 3000–3600 m, where shrub and alpine meadow are the two dominant vegetation types. The results show the mutual interaction between vegetation dynamics and hydrological processes. Alpine sparse vegetation and alpine meadow dominate the high-altitude regions, which contribute most to the river runoff, and forests and shrub contribute relatively small amounts of water yield.

[1]  T. Jackson,et al.  Development of a distributed biosphere hydrological model and its evaluation with the Southern Great Plains Experiments (SGP97 and SGP99) , 2009 .

[2]  Baoyuan Liu,et al.  Development of a China Dataset of Soil Hydraulic Parameters Using Pedotransfer Functions for Land Surface Modeling , 2013 .

[3]  Dawen Yang,et al.  The regional variation in climate elasticity and climate contribution to runoff across China , 2014 .

[4]  Shiqiang Zhang,et al.  Glacier runoff variation and its influence on river runoff during 1961–2006 in the Tarim River Basin, China , 2010 .

[5]  E. Kang,et al.  Water balance change for a re-vegetated xerophyte shrub area/Changement du bilan hydrique d’une zone replantée d’arbustes xérophiles , 2004 .

[6]  Dawen Yang,et al.  Comparison of different distributed hydrological models for characterization of catchment spatial variability , 2000 .

[7]  Yan Shen,et al.  Validation and comparison of a new gauge‐based precipitation analysis over mainland China , 2016 .

[8]  T. Koike,et al.  Frozen soil parameterization in a distributed biosphere hydrological model , 2009 .

[9]  Luis Samaniego,et al.  Simulation of the impacts of land use/cover and climatic changes on the runoff characteristics at the mesoscale , 2006 .

[10]  Enrique R. Vivoni,et al.  Vegetation‐hydrology dynamics in complex terrain of semiarid areas: 1. A mechanistic approach to modeling dynamic feedbacks , 2008 .

[11]  Murray C. Peel,et al.  Hydrology: catchment vegetation and runoff , 2009 .

[12]  Junguo Liu,et al.  Trend analysis for the flows of green and blue water in the Heihe River basin, northwestern China , 2013 .

[13]  Junfeng Wei,et al.  Surface-area changes of glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau interior area since the 1970s using recent Landsat images and historical maps , 2014 .

[14]  Katumi Musiake,et al.  A hillslope-based hydrological model using catchment area and width functions , 2002 .

[15]  Rong-hui Huang,et al.  Response of water budget to recent climatic changes in the source region of the Yellow River , 2012 .

[16]  Katumi Musiake,et al.  Spatial resolution sensitivity of catchment geomorphologic properties and the effect on hydrological simulation , 2001 .

[17]  Christina L. Tague,et al.  RHESSys: Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System—An Object- Oriented Approach to Spatially Distributed Modeling of Carbon, Water, and Nutrient Cycling , 2004 .

[18]  Eric F. Wood,et al.  One-dimensional statistical dynamic representation of subgrid spatial variability of precipitation in the two-layer variable infiltration capacity model , 1996 .

[19]  Alfred Stein,et al.  Validation of ETWatch using field measurements at diverse landscapes: A case study in Hai Basin of China , 2012 .

[20]  P. Sellers.  Canopy reflectance, photosynthesis and transpiration , 1985 .

[21]  Yonghong Yi,et al.  Spatial and temporal variation of runoff in the Yangtze River basin during the past 40 years , 2008 .

[22]  Yongjian Ding,et al.  Observed degree-day factors and their spatial variation on glaciers in western China , 2006, Annals of Glaciology.

[23]  Dawen Yang,et al.  A distributed scheme developed for eco-hydrological modeling in the upper Heihe River , 2014, Science China Earth Sciences.

[24]  Marco P. Maneta,et al.  A Spatially Distributed Model to Simulate Water, Energy, and Vegetation Dynamics Using Information from Regional Climate Models , 2013 .

[25]  Dawen Yang,et al.  Impact of climate variability and human activity on streamflow decrease in the Miyun Reservoir catchment , 2010 .

[26]  G. Collatz,et al.  Physiological and environmental regulation of stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and transpiration: a model that includes a laminar boundary layer , 1991 .

[27]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  Water demand management: A case study of the Heihe River Basin in China , 2005 .

[28]  J. Randerson,et al.  Technical Description of version 4.0 of the Community Land Model (CLM) , 2010 .

[29]  T. Koike,et al.  COMPARISON OF A DISTRIBUTED BIOSPHERE HYDROLOGICAL MODEL WITH GBHM , 2009 .

[30]  Zhenxi Shen,et al.  Water‐Yield Reduction After Afforestation and Related Processes in the Semiarid Liupan Mountains, Northwest China 1 , 2008 .

[31]  Zhong-qin Li,et al.  Rapid shrinking of glaciers in the Middle Qilian Mountain region of Northwest China during the last ∼50 years , 2011 .

[32]  L. Shiyin.  Spatial Variation of Degree-day Factors on the Observed Glaciers in Western China , 2006 .

[33]  B. Ye,et al.  Understanding the impact of mountain landscapes on water balance in the upper Heihe River watershed in northwestern China , 2013, Journal of Arid Land.

[34]  C. Field,et al.  A reanalysis using improved leaf models and a new canopy integration scheme , 1992 .

[35]  Katumi Musiake,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF A GEOMORPHOLOGY-BASED HYDROLOGICAL MODEL FOR LARGE CATCHMENTS , 1998 .

[36]  E. Maurer,et al.  Climate Change Impacts on Streamflow and Subbasin-Scale Hydrology in the Upper Colorado River Basin , 2013, PloS one.

[37]  A. Dalcher,et al.  A Simple Biosphere Model (SIB) for Use within General Circulation Models , 1986 .

[38]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  Testing the realism of a topography driven model (FLEX-Topo) in the nested catchments of the Upper Heihe, China , 2013 .

[39]  Patrick Willems,et al.  Assessment of climate change impact on hydrological extremes in two source regions of the Nile River Basin , 2010 .

[40]  Zhenliang Yin,et al.  Hydrological processes in the different landscape zones of alpine cold regions in the wet season, combining isotopic and hydrochemical tracers , 2012 .

[41]  Shirong Liu,et al.  How do climate and forest changes affect long‐term streamflow dynamics? A case study in the upper reach of Poyang River basin , 2015 .

[42]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Simulating cold regions hydrological processes using a modular model in the west of China , 2014 .

[43]  Baoping Yan,et al.  A Nested Ecohydrological Wireless Sensor Network for Capturing the Surface Heterogeneity in the Midstream Areas of the Heihe River Basin, China , 2014, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[44]  U. Herzschuh,et al.  Temperature variability and vertical vegetation belt shifts during the last ∼50,000 yr in the Qilian Mountains (NE margin of the Tibetan Plateau, China) , 2006, Quaternary Research.

[45]  Stephanie S. Day,et al.  Large shift in source of fine sediment in the upper Mississippi river. , 2011, Environmental science & technology.

[46]  D. Randall,et al.  A Revised Land Surface Parameterization (SiB2) for Atmospheric GCMS. Part I: Model Formulation , 1996 .

[47]  Dawen Yang,et al.  Optimal Dam Operation during Flood Season Using a Distributed Hydrological Model and a Heuristic Algorithm , 2010 .

[48]  Honglang Xiao,et al.  Integrated study of the water–ecosystem–economy in the Heihe River Basin , 2014 .

[49]  Xiaolin Zhu,et al.  Vegetation cover variation in the Qilian Mountains and its response to climate change in 2000–2011 , 2013, Journal of Mountain Science.

[50]  Q. Tang,et al.  Responses of natural runoff to recent climatic variations in the Yellow River basin, China , 2013 .

[51]  W. Gao,et al.  Rapid Shrinking of Glaciers in the Middle Qilian Mountain Region of Northwest China during the Last similar to 50 Years (SCI) , 2011 .

[52]  ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON THE MEGHNA RIVER BASIN USING GEOMORPHLOGY BASED HYDROLOGICAL MODEL ( GBHM ) , 2010 .

[53]  E. Rotenberg,et al.  Ecohydrology of a semi‐arid forest: partitioning among water balance components and its implications for predicted precipitation changes , 2010 .

[54]  Hu Liu,et al.  Effect of forest on annual water yield in the mountains of an arid inland river basin: a case study in the Pailugou catchment on northwestern China's Qilian Mountains , 2012 .

[55]  Dawen Yang,et al.  Assessing the impacts of climate variability and human activities on annual runoff in the Luan River basin, China , 2013 .

[56]  Dawen Yang,et al.  Hydrological trend analysis in the Yellow River basin using a distributed hydrological model , 2009 .

[57]  Qing Xiao,et al.  Heihe Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research (HiWATER): Scientific Objectives and Experimental Design , 2013 .

[58]  P. E. O'connell,et al.  An introduction to the European Hydrological System — Systeme Hydrologique Europeen, “SHE”, 2: Structure of a physically-based, distributed modelling system , 1986 .

[59]  X. Li,et al.  Coupling of a simultaneous heat and water model with a distributed hydrological model and evaluation of the combined model in a cold region watershed , 2013 .

[60]  Wang Yuha.  Impact of cryosphere hydrological processes on the river runoff in the upper reaches of Heihe River , 2015 .

[61]  Jinsong Guo,et al.  Impacts of climate and land-use changes on the migration of non-point source nitrogen and phosphorus during rainfall-runoff in the Jialing River Watershed, China , 2012 .

[62]  Guoyi Zhou,et al.  Forest recovery and river discharge at the regional scale of Guangdong Province, China , 2010 .

[63]  Timothy O. Randhir,et al.  Spatial modeling of land cover change and watershed response using Markovian cellular automata and simulation , 2008 .

[64]  G. Collatz,et al.  Coupled Photosynthesis-Stomatal Conductance Model for Leaves of C4 Plants , 1992 .

[65]  Toshio Koike,et al.  Application of a distributed hydrological model and weather radar observations for flood management in the upper Tone River of Japan , 2004 .

[66]  Heejun Chang,et al.  Spatial and temporal changes in runoff caused by climate change in a complex large river basin in Oregon. , 2010 .

[67]  Z. Hao,et al.  The impacts of climate change and land cover/use transition on the hydrology in the upper Yellow River Basin, China , 2013 .

[68]  Yan Deng-hua.  Distributed model of hydrological cycle system in Heihe River basin I.Model development and Verification , 2006 .