U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting Charleston South Carolina March 8-12,1999--Volume 2 of 3--Contamination of Hydrologic Systems and Related Ecosystems, Water-Resources Investigation Report 99-4018B

Forecasting Spring Discharge in the West: A Step towards Forecasting Stream Chemistry

By David H. Peterson, Richard E. Smith, Michael Dettinger,Daniel R. Cayan, Stephen W. Hager, and Laurence E. Schemel

This paper is available in pdf format: Peterson.pdf

ABSTRACT

By linking climate to hydrology, correlations emerge that may be overlooked when studying hydrology alone. Forecasting the spring snowmelt discharge of the Merced River, Happy Isles, Yosemite National Park, is a first step towards that linkage. Once climate and stream flow are linked, stream flow-chemistry relations will become clearer as, indeed, will climate-chemistry linkages. This approach looks promising for synthesis/interpretation of simple and complex chemical variations, including "pollutants", atmospheric or otherwise.