Davidson et al. (2025) Ephemeral Channel Expansion: Predicting Shifts Toward Intermittency in Vulnerable Streams Across Semi-Arid CONUS

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-04
• Authors: Lea Davidson, A. Milewski
• DOI: 10.3390/w17233445

Research Groups

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Short Summary

This research identifies significant trends toward novel stream intermittency across semi-arid regions of the Conterminous United States (CONUS) from 1980 to 2024, finding that over half of analyzed stream gages show increased flow cessation, primarily controlled by December and January precipitation.

Objective

• To identify significant trends toward novel intermittency across semi-arid regions of CONUS from 1980 to 2024.
• To explore the relationship between flow intermittency and physical, hydrologic, climatic, and agricultural variables to determine the primary factors controlling stream vulnerability to intermittency.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Semi-arid regions of the Conterminous United States (CONUS), Western United States.
• Temporal Scale: 1980 to 2024.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Discriminant function analysis (DFA).
• Data sources: 483 stream gages (observation data), physical, hydrologic, climatic, and agricultural variables.

Main Results

• Significant trends toward novel intermittency were identified across semi-arid regions of CONUS from 1980 to 2024.
• More than half of the 483 stream gages analyzed demonstrated reductions in discharge and increases in the frequency and duration of flow cessation.
• The timing of wet-season moisture, specifically December and January precipitation, was identified as the primary factor controlling the development of intermittency in semi-arid zones.
• Many currently perennial systems are vulnerable to developing intermittency with forecasted reductions in precipitation across CONUS.
• Intermittent flow regimes are projected to expand further into previously perennial streams and exacerbate dry-down across vulnerable channels.

Contributions

• Quantifies significant, multi-decadal trends (1980-2024) of increasing stream intermittency and flow cessation across semi-arid regions of CONUS.
• Identifies the critical role of wet-season precipitation timing (December and January) as the primary climatic driver for intermittency development in these vulnerable regions.
• Highlights the future vulnerability of currently perennial stream systems to developing intermittency due to projected precipitation changes.

Funding

Not explicitly stated in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Davidson2025Ephemeral,
  author = {Davidson, Lea and Milewski, A.},
  title = {Ephemeral Channel Expansion: Predicting Shifts Toward Intermittency in Vulnerable Streams Across Semi-Arid CONUS},
  journal = {Water},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/w17233445},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/w17233445}
}