Hydrology articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Article |

    The ice volume of glaciers outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets totals about 158,000 km3, with about 27% less ice in High Mountain Asia than thought, according to multiple models that estimate ice thickness from surface characteristics.

    • Daniel Farinotti
    • , Matthias Huss
    •  & Ankur Pandit

  • Review Article |

    Stressors such as large-scale damming, hydrological change, pollution, the introduction of non-native species and sediment mining are challenging the integrity and future of large rivers, according to a synthesis of the literature on the 32 biggest rivers.

    • Jim Best

  • News & Views |

    Most of the net water transferred over the past 15 years from non-glaciated land to the oceans has originated from landlocked basins, according to satellite data. This source of sea-level rise is often overlooked.

    • Tamlin M. Pavelsky

  • News & Views |

    The Laurentide Ice Sheet sapped the strength of the North American monsoon during the last ice age, but the ice sheet’s grip on the monsoon weakened as it retreated northwards.

    • Sarah E. Metcalfe

  • Article |

    The intensity of the North American summer monsoon was modified by changes in the extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation, according to isotope records and numerical simulations.

    • Tripti Bhattacharya
    • , Jessica E. Tierney
    •  & James W. Murray

  • News & Views |

    Rainfall interception by vegetation is an underappreciated part of the terrestrial hydrological cycle. Numerical modelling shows that non-vascular plants, such as lichens, substantially increase the interception capacity of the land surface.

    • Hubert H. G. Savenije

  • Article |

    A 700-year-long flood of glacial meltwater, ice and sediment from the Mackenzie River preceded the freshening of the Beaufort Sea prior to the Younger Dryas climate event, according to sediment analyses.

    • L. D. Keigwin
    • , S. Klotsko
    •  & N. W. Driscoll

  • Review Article |

    The Cassini mission revealed the complex workings of Titan’s methane-based hydrologic cycle over a range of timescales, providing a potential window into the future of Earth and its water cycle.

    • Alexander G. Hayes
    • , Ralph D. Lorenz
    •  & Jonathan I. Lunine

  • Editorial |

    Whether the climate of early Mars was warm and wet or cold and dry remains unclear, but the debate is overheated. With a growing toolbox and increasing data to tackle the open questions, progress is possible if there is openness to bridging the divide.

  • Article |

    Depending on their connectivity to the river network, wetlands can be much more efficient at removing nitrate in a watershed than common nitrogen mitigation strategies according to an analysis of the Minnesota River basin.

    • Amy T. Hansen
    • , Christine L. Dolph
    •  & Jacques C. Finlay

  • Editorial |

    The world's inland waters are under siege. A system-level view of watersheds is needed to inform both our scientific understanding and management decisions for these precious resources.

  • News & Views |

    Satellite measurements indicate that Greenland's meltwater rivers are exporting one billion tons of sediment annually, a process that is controlled by the sliding rate of glaciers. This rate is nearly 10% of the fluvial sediment discharge to the ocean.

    • Matthew A. Charette

  • Commentary |

    Quality requirements for water differ by intended use. Sustainable management of water resources for different uses will not only need to account for demand in water quantity, but also for water temperature and salinity, nutrient levels and other pollutants.

    • Michelle T.H. van Vliet
    • , Martina Flörke
    •  & Yoshihide Wada

  • Perspective |

    Enhanced protection is needed for freshwater bodies in the United States — in particular impermanent streams and wetlands outside floodplains — according to an assessment of their value and vulnerability.

    • Irena F. Creed
    • , Charles R. Lane
    •  & Lora Smith

  • News & Views |

    Mass changes in High Mountain Asia's glaciers have been under dispute for almost a decade. An analysis of satellite data archives provides an observation-based mass budget for every single glacier in the region.

    • Daniel Farinotti

  • Review Article |

    River deltas are shaped by interactions between fluvial and tidal processes. Tides act to stabilize delta morphology, but sediment depletion due to human activities disrupts the balance and leads to erosion and scour.

    • A. J. F. Hoitink
    • , Z. B. Wang
    •  & K. Kästner

  • Commentary |

    The terrestrial water cycle is often assessed annually at catchment scale. But water stored in catchments is poorly mixed, and at timescales often well beyond the calculation of annual water balance.

    • Jeffrey J. McDonnell

  • Article |

    Understanding biosphere–atmosphere feedback loops can improve forecasts of climate and vegetation resilience. Analyses of satellite observations reveal that feedbacks are strong in regions that determine the net terrestrial carbon balance.

    • Julia K. Green
    • , Alexandra G. Konings
    •  & Pierre Gentine

  • Perspective |

    The atmosphere can hold more water in a warming climate, which may lead to more extreme rainfall events. An analysis suggests that links ofrainfall extremes with daily temperature variations do not provide a reliable basis for projections.

    • Xuebin Zhang
    • , Francis W. Zwiers
    •  & Alex J. Cannon

  • Article |

    Atmospheric rivers have been associated with extreme rainfall events. A global detection algorithm, applied to reanalysis data, suggests that they contribute substantially to extremes in wind as well as precipitation along coasts globally.

    • Duane Waliser
    •  & Bin Guan

  • News & Views |

    Groundwater resources are directly affected by climate variability via precipitation, evapotranspiration and recharge. Analyses of US and India trends reveal that climate-induced pumping indirectly influences groundwater depletion as well.

    • Jason J. Gurdak

  • Article |

    Soils have the capacity to store water at the land–atmosphere interface. Analysis of global satellite data suggests that significant precipitation can be retained by soils, leading to even less groundwater storage in water-starved regions.

    • Kaighin A. McColl
    • , Seyed Hamed Alemohammad
    •  & Dara Entekhabi

  • Article |

    Abrupt glacial climate changes were slowly communicated between hemispheres by oceanic heat transport. Ice core data point to more rapid atmospheric teleconnections linking the North Atlantic, tropics, and southern storm track.

    • Bradley R. Markle
    • , Eric J. Steig
    •  & Todd Sowers

  • News & Views |

    Increasing groundwater extraction supports hundreds of millions of people across the Indo-Gangetic Basin. Data suggests that despite the increase in withdrawals, groundwater depletion is localized and the most widespread threat is contamination.

    • Scott Fendorf
    •  & Shawn G. Benner

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