Climate Change Study

Impacts of climate variability and change have far-reaching implications on water resources and aquatic ecosystems with possible effects including increased occurrences of floods and droughts, water quality degradation, and ecosystem impairments. The economic and environmental modeling strength at CARD, which includes integration of watershed models such as SWAT, econometric models, GIS based interfaces, and other supporting software and databases, was coupled with an array of climate models to evaluate the possible impacts of climate change on water resources both in terms of water quantity and quality.

Relevant Projects

  • 2008-10: NSF. National Science Foundation. Biofuels and the Hydrologic Cycle. Investigators: R. Anex, R.W. Arritt, B.K. Gelder, P.W. Gassman, M. Jha. Amount: $307,903.
  • 2006-08: NASA/USDA. Joint National Aeronautical and Space Agency - U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). Interactive Drivers of Land-use/land-cover Change in Agricultural Areas: Climate and Land Manager Choices. Investigators: C.L. Kling, E.S. Takle, P.W. Gassman, H. Feng. Amount: $465,900.

Journal Publications

  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, E. Lu, R.W. Arritt, W.J. Gutowski, Jr., and the NARCAP Team. Streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin as simulated by SWAT driven by 20C results of NARCCAP regional climate models. Meteorologische Zeitschift (revised, February 2010)
  • Lu, E., E.S. Takle, and M. Jha. 2009. The relationships between climatic and hydrological changes in the Upper Mississippi River Basin: A SWAT and multi-GCM study. Journal of Hydrometeorology (in press) doi:10.1175/2009JHM1150.1.
  • Jha, M., J.G. Arnold, P.W. Gassman, F. Giorgi, and R. Gu. 2006. Climate change sensitivity assessment on Upper Mississippi River Basin streamflows using SWAT. Journal of American Water Resources Association 42(4):997-1016.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, and C.J. Anderson. 2005. Hydrological cycle in the Upper Mississippi River Basin: 20th century simulations by multiple GCMs. Geophysical Research Letters 32, L18407, doi:10.1029/2005GL023630.
  • Jha, M., Z. Pan, E.S. Takle, and R. Gu. 2004. Impact of climate change on stream flow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin: A regional climate model perspective. Journal of Geophysical Research 109, D09102, doi:10.1029/2003JD003686.

Book Chapters

  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, and E. Lu. 2009. Climate Change and Streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. In: Understanding Climate Change: Climate Variability, Predictability & Change in the Midwestern United States (Eds. S.C. Pryor). Indiana University Press. Bloomington, IN, ISBN: 978-0-253-35344-3.
  • Takle, E.S., C. Anderson, M. Jha, and P.W. Gassman. 2006. Upper Mississippi River Basin modeling system part 4: Climate change impacts on flow and water quality. In: Coastal Hydrology and Processes (Eds. V.P. Singh and Y.J. Xu). Water Resources Publications, Highland Ranch, CO, ISBN: 1-887201-46-7.

Conference/Workshop Proceedings/Presentation

  • Jha, M., S. Rabotyagov, C.L. Kling, P.W. Gassman, and E.S. Takle. Effect of potential future climate change on the cost-effective nonpoint source pollution reduction strategies in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. International SWAT User’s Conference. August 5-7, 2009. Boulder, Colorado.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, E. Lu, R.W. Arritt, W.J. Gutowski, Jr., and the NARCCAP Team. Streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin as simulated by SWAT driven by 20C results of the NARCCAP regional climate models. 21st Century Challenges in Regional-scale Climate Modeling Workshop. May 4-8, 2009. Lund, Sweden.
  • Lu, E., E.S. Takle, M. Jha, and NARCCAP Team. Changes of climate and hydrological cycle in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. American Meteorological Society 89th Annual Meeting. January 11-15, 2009, Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, C.J. Anderson, and P.W. Gassman. Climate change impacts on the hydrology of the Upper Mississippi River Basin as determined by an ensemble of GCMs. American Meteorological Society 86th Annual Meeting. January 29-February 2, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, P.W. Gassman, C.J. Anderson, and S. Secchi. Climate change impacts on the hydrology and water quality of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. 3rd International SWAT User’s Conference. July 11-15, 2005, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, Z. Pan, and R. Gu. Climate change and uncertainty of stream flow scenarios of the Upper Mississippi River Basin by use of a regional climate model. American Meteorological Society 85th Annual Meeting. January 9-13, 2005, San Diego, California.
  • Gassman, P.W., E.S. Takle, C. Anderson, M. Jha, and R.M. Cruse. Climate Change Projection Impact on Soil Carbon and other Environmental Indicators for the Upper Mississippi River Basin. 3rd USDA Symposium on Greenhouse Gases & Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture and Forestry. March 21-24, 2005, Baltimore, Maryland.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, Z. Pan, and R. Gu. Impacts of climate change on flow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Regional-scale Climate Modeling Workshop, World Climate Research Program (WCRP), World Meteorological Organization (WMO). March 29-April 2, 2004, Lund, Sweden.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, and C.J. Anderson. Changes in stream flow due to increase in greenhouse gas forcing. International Workshop on IPCC Model Analysis. March 1-4, 2005, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Posters

  • M. Jha, E.S. Takle, P.W. Gassman, and C.L. Kling. Effect of potential future climate change on the hydrology and water quality in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. SWCS Science to Solutions Conference. December 9-11, 2009, Des Moines, Iowa.
  • Jha, M., S. Rabotyagov, E.S. Takle, E. Lu, P.W. Gassman, and C.L. Kling. Interactive Drivers and Impacts of Land Use Changes: Climate and Conservation Policy. NASA Land Use Land Cover Science Team Meeting. March 31-April 2, 2009, Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Jha, M., S. Rabotyagov, C.L. Kling, P.W. Gassman, and E.S. Takle. Effect of potential future climate change on the cost-effective nonpoint source pollution reduction strategies in the UMRB. International Scientific Congress on Climate Change. March 10-12, 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Jha, M., E.S. Takle, E. Lu, P.W. Gassman, and C.L. Kling. Interactive Drivers of Land Cover and Land Use Change in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (Part III). NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop. May 1-2, 2008, Adelphi, Maryland.
  • Kling, C.L., E.S. Takle, H. Feng, M. Jha, S. Rabotyagov, E. Lu, P.W. Gassman, J. Parcel, and T. Campbell. Interactive Drivers of Land Cover and Land Use Change in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (Part II). NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Science Team Meeting. April 4-6, 2007, Adelphi, Maryland.
  • Feng, H., P.W. Gassman, M. Jha, C.L. Kling, S. Secchi, E.S. Takle, and L. Kurkalova. Interactive Drivers of Land Cover and Land Use Change in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (Part I). NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Science Team Meeting. October 10-12, 2006, Adelphi, Maryland.
  • Takle, E.S., M. Jha, and C.J. Anderson. Changes in Stream Flow due to Increase in Greenhouse Gas Forcing. International Workshop on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Model Analysis. International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, March 1-4, 2005, Honolulu, Hawaii.
  • Takle, E.S., C.L. Kling, H. Asbjornsen, P.W. Gassman, M. Jha, R.W. Arritt, W.J. Gutowski, Jr., S. Secchi, H. Feng, and L. Kurkalova. Forecasting environmental change: policy guidance from fully coupled and interactive human behavior and physically based models. National Council for Science and Environment (NCSE) Conference. Washington, D.C., February 3-4, 2005.
  • Jha, M., Z. Pan, E.S. Takle, and R. Gu. Climate Change Induced Streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. 14th Symposium of American Meteorological Society on Global Change and Climate Variations. Long Beach, California, February 9-13, 2003.
  • Pan, Z., M. Jha, E.S. Takle, and R. Gu. Regional Climate Model Based Water Quality Assessment for Climate Change in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. 2nd ICTP Conference on Detection and Modeling of Regional Climate Change. Trieste, Italy, September 30-October 4, 2002.