EGU24-1256, updated on 08 Mar 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-1256
EGU General Assembly 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Runoff variation and progressive aridity during drought in catchments in southern-central Chile

Guillermo Barrientos1,2,3, Rafael Rubilar2,3,4, Efrain Duarte3,5, and Alberto Paredes6
Guillermo Barrientos et al.
  • 1Universidad Catolica del Maule, Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingeniería , Departamento de Obras Civiles, Chile (gbarrientos@ucm.cl)
  • 2Centro Nacional de Excelencia para la Industria de la Madera (CENAMAD), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  • 3Cooperativa de Productividad Forestal, Departamento de Silvicultura, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile
  • 4Laboratorio de Investigación de Suelos, Aguas y Bosques (LISAB), Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile
  • 5Laboratorio de Conservación y Dinámica de Suelos Volcánicos, Departamento de Ciencias Químicas y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias. Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile
  • 6Escuela de Graduados, Doctorado en Ecosistemas Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

Persistent drought events frequently intensify the aridity of ecosystems and cause catchments runoff depletion. Here, using large and long-term data sets of meteorological and hydrologic variables (precipitation, runoff, temperature and potential evapotranspiration) investigated the major causes that modulated catchment runoff depletion between years 1980 and 2020 in southern central Chile. We identify the hydrological years where aridity index intensified and analyzed its relationship with annual runoff, and evaluated the effect of annual evaporation index and annual aridity index on water balance of 44 catchments with different precipitation regimes located between 35° and 40°S. Our results showed that observed precipitation and runoff significantly decreased between 1980 and 2020 in 64% of the catchments in the study area. Potential evapotranspiration increased significantly in 39% of the catchments. The runoff value decreased as the aridity index increased from 0.3 to 6.7, and the Budyko curve captured 98.5% of the annual variability of all catchments. Furthermore, for an extreme aridity index (e.g. 6.5), potential evapotranspiration far exceeds mean annual runoff and precipitation. Catchment runoff is modulated by the aridity index, which is a key indicator of insufficient precipitation. As expected, for any type of drought, precipitation and evapotranspiration are key factors modulating catchment runoff response. Hydrological years in which precipitation decreased, showed a decreased runoff trend. This result suggest that meteorological droughts tend to significantly decrease observed runoff. However, our results suggest that runoff in catchments, under consecutive years of water stress, will suffer from an even more severe water deficit in today’s rapidly changing global climate with negative impacts on ecosystem services and human activities.

How to cite: Barrientos, G., Rubilar, R., Duarte, E., and Paredes, A.: Runoff variation and progressive aridity during drought in catchments in southern-central Chile, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-1256, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-1256, 2024.