According to a new study, the Colorado River could end up losing even more water due to persistent climate change.
The study found that the groundwater losses of the river during dry seasons did not fully recover during wet seasons. The decline made streamflow become absorbed in the ground.
Colorado River Water Loss
For the past decades, the declining water levels of the Colorado River have been a grave concern.,
Across the Western US, life as it is known exists due to the river, which is the region's lifeblood. However, the climate-change-caused megadrought, accompanied by water overconsumption, has led the river to reach remarkably low water levels in the past years.
The Colorado River is typically fed through snowmelt from the mountains of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. For the past years, scientists have been puzzled by the cause of these low water levels, though climate change was known to contribute.
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Groundwater Losses in Colorado River
As part of the study, the researchers mainly focused on the East River. This is due to it being the Colorado River's headwaters and having great water and weather monitoring systems.
With data taken from 1987 to 2022, the researchers were able to make a computer model that used a four-degree Celsius warming in two different ways. It did so constantly and seasonally as time passed.
Such warming is based on the expected temperature by the end of the century.
The study model showed that higher warming triggered severe groundwater decreases that did not recover when wet periods came. Moreover, seasonal warming revealed that hotter summers led to higher evaporation, soil drying, and plant water use.
The most significant groundwater declines were observed to happen in conifer forests that were dense.
Such findings were included in the "Declining groundwater storage expected to amplify mountain streamflow reductions in a warmer world" study. The researchers found that amidst temperature rises, the rapid depletion of groundwater storage in dry periods did not recover fully when wet periods arrived.
Because of this, streamflow gets absorbed in the ground and does not flow through the River. This resultantly exacerbates the water crisis.
Rosemary Carroll, a hydrology research professor from Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the lead author of the study, says that they discovered the grave importance of groundwater.
Carroll expresses interest on how groundwater contributions are associated with streamflow. Though there are several studies that show that short-term groundwater releases could help buffer the impacts of drought, they did not know how this could impact things in the long run.
The hydrology research professor also explains thinking of groundwater as one's savings account, while a snowpack could be similar to one's checking account.
The study authors said that this study encourages more management of groundwater in the Upper Colorado River Basin. It also shows how significant groundwater is for Western life.
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