Groundwater inputs to streams, or baseflow, can potentially modulate discharge response to climate extremes, thereby protecting ecosystem health and water supply to downstream users.� Baseflow also serves as a metric of watershed support for groundwater dependent ecosystems; such as springs, mountain meadows and riparian zones, that sustain much of the ecologic biodiversity in the Great Basin.� Large portions of the Great Basin lack a robust stream and meteorological station network making it difficult to assess how sensitive baseflow is to shifts in climate. To address data scarcity we applied a nested-multiple regression approach to nearly 1500 HUC12-sized, perennial watersheds across seven sub-regions in the Great Basin: Central, Eastern Humboldt, Lava Plains, Lahontan, South East Idaho and Utah. Baseflow was calculated using a low pass, automated filter to both active and inactive stream gauges that contained at least 10 years of daily discharge data and were coincident with selected watersheds (n = 34). Monthly historical climate for water years 1896 to 2015 was obtained from the Parameter-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM), aggregated by water year and processed for watershed mean values based on total and seasonal precipitation and associated mean daily temperatures.� Climate variables were regressed against baseflow over each observed streamflow period of record, and these climate coefficients were then modeled as functions of watershed characteristics defining shape, topography, stream-network configuration and geology.� The subsequent approach allows baseflow to be calculated solely as a function of PRISM and watershed characteristics and is thereby transferable to ungauged basins. We review baseflow as a function of total annual flow over the historic record and present individual sub-regional models of the Great Basin that allow a comparison of physical attributes that promote baseflow resilience to changes in precipitation and temperature.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.