Hydrology articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Letter |

    River water circulates through river bed and bank sediments. Model simulations suggest that practically all of the river water that reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River network has circulated laterally through its banks.

    • Brian A. Kiel
    •  & M. Bayani Cardenas

  • News & Views |

    Record-breaking heatwaves in 2003 and 2010 surprised both the public and experts. Observations provide new insights into how temperatures escalated to unprecedented values through the interaction of boundary-layer dynamics and land surface drying.

    • Erich M. Fischer

  • Letter |

    Extreme heatwave events are expected to become increasingly common as a consequence of climate change. Analyses of the 2003 and 2010 mega-heatwaves in Europe suggest that atmospheric boundary-layer dynamics and feedbacks with the drying land surface lead to the build-up of heat in the atmosphere and extremely hot temperatures.

    • Diego G. Miralles
    • , Adriaan J. Teuling
    •  & Jordi Vilà-Guerau de Arellano

  • Letter |

    Dams have starved the lower Mississippi River of sediment over recent decades, suggesting that the drowning of the delta is inevitable. Analysis of the rivers suspended sediment load and morphodynamic modelling suggest that the amount of sand essential for land building has not significantly decreased since dam construction, with sand remaining available for several centuries.

    • Jeffrey A. Nittrouer
    •  & Enrica Viparelli

  • News & Views |

    A dense early atmosphere has been invoked to explain the strong greenhouse effect inferred for early Mars. Yet an analysis of the smallest impact craters suggests that the atmospheric pressure on Mars 3.6 billion years ago was surprisingly low.

    • Sanjoy M. Som

  • News & Views |

    Despite reports of no trends in snow- and rainfall, rivers in the northwest USA have run lower and lower in recent decades. A closer look at high- and low-altitude precipitation suggests that observational networks have missed a decline in mountain rain and snow that can explain the discrepancy.

    • Michael Dettinger

  • Research Highlights |

    • Tamara Goldin

  • News & Views |

    A slowing Atlantic overturning circulation during the last deglacial warming caused abrupt cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Lake sediment records suggest that hydrological change in Europe lagged the temperature drop by almost 200 years.

    • Ana Moreno

  • News & Views |

    Runoff estimates from the Greenland ice sheet carry uncertainty because the fate of surface melt in permanently snow-covered regions is unconstrained. In situ and airborne observations reveal large-scale liquid water storage in buried layers of aged and compacted snow.

    • Joel Harper

  • Letter |

    Surface melt water from the Greenland ice sheet can become trapped in firn, delaying its journey to the sea. Radar and ice-core observations provide direct evidence of a perennial aquifer in the firn layer in southern Greenland that represents a potentially significant contribution to the Greenland mass budget.

    • Richard R. Forster
    • , Jason E. Box
    •  & Joseph R. McConnell

  • Article |

    Dark streaks that appear on the surface of Mars during warm seasons have been observed at the mid-latitudes and tentatively attributed to the flow of briny water. Imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over multiple Mars years suggests that these seasonally active features are also present in equatorial regions, where liquid surface water is not expected.

    • Alfred S. McEwen
    • , Colin M. Dundas
    •  & Nicolas Thomas

  • News & Views |

    About 5,500 years ago, there was a shift from savannah to desert vegetation in the Sahara. Conceptual modelling suggests that the transition was controlled by a climate–vegetation feedback that was also influenced by plant diversity.

    • Stefan C. Dekker

  • Letter |

    Subglacial meltwater channels beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet have been reported, but the nature and distribution of these meltwater pathways are unclear. Remote sensing observations reveal persistent channelized features beneath the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, suggesting widespread channelized flow driven by melting.

    • Anne M. Le Brocq
    • , Neil Ross
    •  & Martin J. Siegert

  • Letter |

    Greater Himalayan glaciers are retreating and losing mass. A combination of the latest ensemble of climate models combined with a glacio-hydrological model suggests that in two contrasting watersheds in the Greater Himalaya, glaciers will recede but net glacier melt runoff is on a rising limb until at least 2050.

    • W. W. Immerzeel
    • , F. Pellicciotti
    •  & M. F. P. Bierkens

  • Letter |

    The brightness and lifetime of clouds is determined by cloud droplet number concentration, which is in turn dictated by the number of available seed particles. Model simulations suggest that condensation of semi-volatile organic compounds enhances the formation of cloud droplets, with consequences for cloud dynamics.

    • David Topping
    • , Paul Connolly
    •  & Gordon McFiggans

  • Letter |

    The response of tropical precipitation to global warming varies spatially and the factors controlling the spatial patterns of precipitation changes are unclear. An analysis of climate model simulations shows that warm regions are projected to become wetter in annual mean, whereas seasonally high rainfall anomalies are expected in regions that are currently wet.

    • Ping Huang
    • , Shang-Ping Xie
    •  & Ronghui Huang

  • Letter |

    The water vapour content of the atmosphere has increased as a result of global warming, strengthening the hydrological cycle. An analysis of observational data suggests that wet seasons have become wetter, and dry seasons drier, in recent decades.

    • Chia Chou
    • , John C. H. Chiang
    •  & Chia-Jung Lee

  • Letter |

    The intensity of extreme precipitation rises faster than the rate of increase in the atmosphere’s water-holding capacity. A combination of radar and rain gauge measurements over Germany with synoptic observations and temperature records reveals that convective precipitation, for example from thunderstorms, dominates events of extreme precipitation.

    • Peter Berg
    • , Christopher Moseley
    •  & Jan O. Haerter

  • Feature |

    A surprising fraction of Earth's element cycling takes place in inland waters. Jonathan Cole suggests that interactions between these water bodies and the terrestrial biosphere are more extensive and interesting than previously thought.

    • Jonathan Cole

  • Letter |

    Changes in continental water storage have been difficult to constrain from space-borne gravity data in regions experiencing both ice melting and glacial isostatic adjustment. Separation of the hydrologic and isostatic signals reveals increases in water storage in both North America and Scandinavia over the past decade.

    • Hansheng Wang
    • , Lulu Jia
    •  & Bo Hu

  • Editorial |

    Freshwater availability is likely to change in many regions. Humans must adapt — or move.

  • Commentary |

    River regulation and sea-level rise have damaged deltaic ecosystems as well as the sedimentological processes that support them. More scientific effort needs to be directed towards restoring land-building processes in our vanishing deltas.

    • Douglas A. Edmonds

  • Editorial |

    Rivers run through nearly every landscape on Earth. Ascertaining the influence of this flux on carbon dynamics is necessary for a full understanding of the climate system.

  • Progress Article |

    Climate change is governed by changes to the global energy balance. A synthesis of the latest observations suggests that more longwave radiation is received at the Earth's surface than previously thought, and that more precipitation is generated.

    • Graeme L. Stephens
    • , Juilin Li
    •  & Timothy Andrews

  • Letter |

    The North Atlantic Oscillation influences climate in the Arctic region and northern Europe. Reconstructions of circulation patterns associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation from a 5,200-year-long lake sediment record suggest that the atmospheric circulation responded to significant transitions in Northern Hemisphere climate.

    • Jesper Olsen
    • , N. John Anderson
    •  & Mads F. Knudsen

  • News & Views |

    Climate model projections of future precipitation extremes in the tropics are highly uncertain. Observations of year-to-year variations in extremes of present-day climate help to narrow down these projections to a rise in extreme rainfall by 6–14% per °C of warming.

    • Geert Lenderink

  • Letter |

    Global warmth 20–15 million years ago allowed vegetation to grow on formerly ice-covered areas of Antarctica. Leaf wax and pollen data show that this growth was supported by increased hydrologic activity over the Antarctic coast, derived from a local moisture source.

    • Sarah J. Feakins
    • , Sophie Warny
    •  & Jung-Eun Lee

  • Letter |

    The mass balance of Hindu-Kush–Karakoram–Himalaya glaciers has been debated, partly because of a severe lack of observations from the region. An analysis of the regional mass balance of Karakoram glaciers by comparison of digital elevation models from 1999 to 2008 reveals a small glacier mass gain in the area.

    • Julie Gardelle
    • , Etienne Berthier
    •  & Yves Arnaud

  • News & Views |

    The Arctic Ocean has become less saline, perhaps in response to climate change. Satellite and in situ observations reveal changes in the regional wind patterns that have re-routed freshwater and prevented it from leaving the Arctic Ocean in the past decades.

    • Cecilie Mauritzen

  • Letter |

    Atmospheric aerosols affect cloud properties, and thereby the radiative balance of the planet and the water cycle. An analysis of satellite data suggests that increases in aerosol abundance are associated with local intensification of rain rates over land and ocean.

    • Ilan Koren
    • , Orit Altaratz
    •  & Reuven H. Heiblum

  • News & Views |

    Rivers draining the Himalaya provide vital resources for almost half of the world's population. A combined model–data analysis suggests that the contribution of groundwater to the annual water budget in the central Himalaya may be substantial.

    • Bodo Bookhagen

  • Article |

    The largest dense-water plume feeding the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from the Nordic seas comes from Denmark Strait overflow water. Measurements of hydrography and water velocity north of Iceland and ocean model simulations indicate that a significant part of this water is supplied by the North Icelandic Jet.

    • Kjetil Våge
    • , Robert S. Pickart
    •  & Tor Eldevik

  • Letter |

    The hydrological balance of the Black Sea is governed by riverine input and by the exchange with the Mediterranean Sea. A speleothem record from a cave in northern Turkey that tracks the isotopic signature of Black Sea surface water suggests an open connection to the Mediterranean Sea in at least twelve periods in the past 670,000 years.

    • S. Badertscher
    • , D. Fleitmann
    •  & O. Tüysüz

  • News & Views |

    Climate models suggest that deficits in soil moisture can lead to more frequent and severe hot summer temperatures. Observations confirm this effect, but only for relatively dry regions, where evaporation is limited by available moisture.

    • Lisa Alexander

  • Letter |

    Modelling studies have postulated a possible impact of soil-moisture deficit and drought on hot extremes. An analysis of observational indices from central and southeastern Europe confirms that summer hot extremes are linked to soil-moisture deficits in southeastern Europe but does not detect a similar effect in central Europe.

    • Martin Hirschi
    • , Sonia I. Seneviratne
    •  & Petr Stepanek

  • Letter |

    In the American west, operational forecasts for spring–summer streamflow rely heavily on snow-water storage. Simulations with a suite of land-modelling systems suggest that snow-water storage generally contributes most to forecasting skill, but that the contribution of soil moisture is often significant, too.

    • Randal D. Koster
    • , Sarith P. P. Mahanama
    •  & Rolf H. Reichle

  • Article |

    Stratospheric water vapour affects Earth’s radiation budget. A 19-month record of the hydrogen isotopic composition of water in the tropical stratosphere, collected through remote sensing measurements, shows a clear seasonal cycle in the isotopic composition that propagates upwards in this region, and is most likely created in the tropical tropopause layer.

    • Jörg Steinwagner
    • , Stephan Fueglistaler
    •  & Thomas Röckmann

Browse broader subjects

Browse Hydrology across other nature.com journals