Impacts of Climate Change in Snowmelt-Dominated Alpine Catchments: Development and Assessment of Comparative Methods to Quantify the Role of Dynamic Storage and Subsurface Hydrologic Processes

TL;DRAbstract

Snowmelt-dominated systems are a significant source of water supply for the Western United States. Changes in timing and duration of snowmelt are predicted to continue under climate change; however, the impact this change will have on water resources is not well understood. The ability to compare hydrologic processes across space and time is critical to accurately assess the physical and chemical response of headwater systems to climate change. This dissertation builds upon previous work by using long-term data from two snowmelt dominated catchments to investigate the response of hydrologic processes at different temporal and spatial scales. First, results from an hourly spatially-distributed energy balance snowmelt model were spatially and temporally aggregated to provide daily, catchment-wide snowmelt estimates, which, along with measured discharge and hydrochemical data were used to assess and compare hydrologic processes which occur on an annual scale in two headwater catchments fo

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