Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

T. Ewen, I. Lehner, J. Seibert and S.I. Seneviratne:

Climate patterns in the long-term hydrometeorological data series of the Rietholzbach catchment

Summary

Long-term time series of the Swiss Rietholzbach catchment are analysed in this study. Except for temperature (+0.09 K/yr) no significant linear trend was found in wind, precipitation, evapotranspiration or discharge. A wavelet analysis of temperature, precipitation, and runoff, which allows snowmelt and evapotranspiration events to be identified, showed evapotranspiration events peak in August and contribute < 5% to the decrease in runoff during the summer months. Snowmelt events add to runoff from November to May, with the highest contribution in March (~8%). Overall, we find considerable variability in both the number of diurnal events and the contribution from these events to runoff in the catchment over the 1976–2006 period. Key words: Pre-alpine catchment; climate trends; snowmelt; evapotranspiration; diurnal cycles.