Climate change disrupts many water supplies

Trends in snowpack, river runoff and air temperatures point to a decline in the Western United States’ water supply, according to the University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The research team focused on the Western United States because of its large and growing population in a generally dry region where battles over water are becoming more common.

The accuracy of the representation of past climate trends and their causes suggests the same models are a reliable predictor of future conditions in the West, said Tim Barnett, lead researcher. These models have forecast a serious water-supply problem for areas dependent on the Colorado River drainage. The models also project “substantial alterations to the hydrology of the Sacramento River delta.”

Hydroclimatic changes revealed in the study differ in length and strength from what the researchers expected from natural variability, changes in solar activity or large-scale precipitation changes. The observed changes point to impacts of human activity on the climate system.

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For more: Tim Barnett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, (858) 534-3223; http://sio.ucsd.edu.

April 2008