Abstract
AbstractClimate change, combined with industrial growth and increasing demand, could result in serious future water shortages and related water quality and temperature issues, especially for upland and humid areas. The extreme 2018 drought that prevailed throughout Europe provided an opportunity to investigate conditions likely to become more frequent in the future. For an upland rural catchment utilised by the distilling industry in North‐East Scotland, a tracer‐based survey combined discharge, electrical conductivity, stable water isotopes and temperature measurements to understand the impacts of drought on dominant stream water and industry water sources, both in terms of water quantity and quality (temperature). Results showed that water types (groundwater, ephemeral stream water, perennial stream water and water from small dams) were spatially distinct and varied more in space than time. With regards to the drought conditions we found that streams were largely maintained by groundwater during low flows. This also buffered stream water temperatures. Water types with high young water fractions were less resilient, resulting in streams with an ephemeral nature. Although our results demonstrated the importance of groundwater for drought resilience, water balance data revealed these storage reserves were being depleted and only recovered towards the end of the following year because of above average rainfall in 2019. Increased storage depletion under continued trends of extreme drought and water abstraction could be addressed via informed (nature based) management strategies which focus on increasing recharge. This may improve resilience to droughts as well as floods, but site specific testing and modelling are required to understand their potential. Results could have implications for management of water volumes and temperature, particularly for the sustainability of an historic industry, balancing requirements of rural communities and the environment.
Highlights
Climate projections for regions across the world, including the UK, indicate more frequent periods of hydrological extremes, and relatively lower snow cover in winter (Chan, Falkner, Goldberg, & van Asselt, 2018; Kay, Crooks, Davies, & Reynard, 2014)
We found that groundwater buffered stream flows and moderated water temperatures, projected trends to drier and warmer summers in Scotland may result in depletions of catchment storage becoming more common (Afzal & Ragab, 2019; Cuthbert et al, 2019; Gosling, 2014; Spinoni et al, 2018)
Drought conditions in summer 2018 had a significant impact on the quantity and quality of water supplies to the Glenlivet distillery
Summary
Climate projections for regions across the world, including the UK, indicate more frequent periods of hydrological extremes, and relatively lower snow cover in winter (Chan, Falkner, Goldberg, & van Asselt, 2018; Kay, Crooks, Davies, & Reynard, 2014). Abstractions from both surface and groundwater source types are usually regulated to ensure ecological standards are met and the stability of resources is maintained (Scottish Executive Environment Group, 2005), but these regulations often lack catchment-based long-term data and understanding (SEPA, 2019) To ensure both future production and appropriate abstraction legislation under climate change projections, there is a need to understand (a) the relative role of different water sources (Isokangas et al, 2019), both in terms of water quantity and quality (temperature) (b) the resilience of these sources under different climatological conditions (Floriancic et al, 2018), and (c) the role of landscape properties such as geology, soils and land-use (Geris, Tetzlaff, & Soulsby, 2015; Zimmer, Bailey, McGuire, & Bullen, 2013; Zomlot, Verbeiren, Huysmans, & Batelaan, 2015). Use tracers to evaluate variation in catchment water sources and the impacts of drought
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