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Knowles & Cayan 2002
Knowles, N. and Cayan, D.R. (2002). Potential effects of global warming on the Sacramento/San Joaquin watershed and the San Francisco estuary. Geophysical Research Letters 29: doi: 10.1029/2001GL014339. issn: 0094-8276.

California's primary hydrologic system, the San Francisco estuary and its upstream watershed, is vulnerable to the regional hydrologic consequences of projected global climate change. Projected temperature anomalies from a global climate model are used to drive a combined model of watershed hydrology and estuarine dynamics. By 2090, a projected temperature increase of 2.1¿C results in a loss of about half of the average April snowpack storage, with greatest losses in the northern headwaters. Consequently, spring runoff is reduced by 5.6 km3 (~20% of historical annual runoff), with associated increases in winter flood peaks. The smaller spring flows yield spring/summer salinity increases of up to 9 psu, with larger increases in wet years.

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Abstract

Keywords
Mathematical Geophysics, Modeling, Hydrology, Hydroclimatology, Global Change, Water cycles, Hydrology, Runoff and streamflow, Oceanography, General, Estuarine processes
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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