The interactions between catchment vegetation and runoff continue to be a staple area of hydrological research. Drawing mainly upon material published since 2002, this report briefly reviews progress in this area with specific reference to: (1) paired and single catchment studies; (2) top-down models; and (3) the likely impact of climate change. Results from a wider range of paired and single catchments studies are revealing the complex relationship between catchment vegetation and runoff and prompting a reassessment of the methodologies used to generalize this relationship. Vegetation appears to have a significant influence on runoff at small scales, which reduces to a second-order influence, relative to aridity, at larger scales. Top-down models of catchment behaviour generally reflect this second-order influence at the large scale. As vegetation responds to CO2 enrichment under climate change, the magnitude and direction of associated changes in runoff remains uncertain. A key element in quantifying the hydrological impact of climate change is the relationship between catchment vegetation and runoff, which continues to be a productive area of research within hydrology.
Adams, K.N. and Fowler, A.M.2006: Improving empirical relationships for predicting the effect of vegetation change on annual water yield. Journal of Hydrology321, 90-115.
2.
Ainsworth, E.A. and Long, S.P.2005: What have we learned from 15 years of free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE)? A meta-analytic review of the responses of photosynthesis, canopy properties and plant production to rising CO2. New Phytologist165, 351-72.
3.
Andréassian, V.2004: Waters and forests: from historical controversy to scientific debate. Journal of Hydrology291, 1-27.
4.
Arora, V.2002a: The use of the aridity index to assess climate change effect on annual runoff. Journal of Hydrology265, 164-77.
5.
Arora, V.2002b: Modelling vegetation as a dynamic component in soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer schemes and hydrological models. Reviews of Geophysics40(2), 1006, DOI: 10.1029/2001RG000103.
6.
Baveye, P.C., Charlet, L., Georgakakos, K.P. and Syme, G.2009: Ensuring that reviewers’ time and effort are used efficiently . Journal of Hydrology365, 1-3.
7.
Betts, R.A., Boucher, O., Collins, M., Cox, P.M., Falloon, P.D., Gedney, N., Hemming, D.L., Huntingford, C., Jones, C.D., Sexton, D.M.H. and Webb, M.J.2007: Projected increase in continental runoff due to plant responses to increasing carbon dioxide. Nature448, 1037-41.
8.
Bosch, J.M. and Hewlett, J.D.1982: A review of catchment experiments to determine the effect of vegetation changes on water yield and evapotranspiration. Journal of Hydrology55, 3-23.
9.
Brown, A.E., Zhang, L., McMahon, T.A., Western, A.W. and Vertessy, R.A.2005: A review of paired catchment studies for determining changes in water yield resulting from alterations in vegetation. Journal of Hydrology310, 28-61.
10.
Calder, I.R.2007: Forests and water - ensuring forest benefits outweigh water costs. Forest Ecology and Management251, 110-20.
11.
Clifford, N.J. 2002: Hydrology: the changing paradigm. Progress in Physical Geography 26, 290-301. Cosandey, C., Andréassian, V., Martin, C., Didon-Lescot, J.F., Lavabre, J., Folton, N., Mathys, N. and Richard, D. 2005: The hydrological impact of the mediterranean forest: a review of French research. Journal of Hydrology 301, 235-49.
12.
Costa, M.H., Botta, A. and Cardille, J.A.2003: Effects of large-scale changes in land cover on the discharge of the Tocantins River, Southeastern Amazonia. Journal of Hydrology283, 206-17.
13.
Dai, A., Qian, T., Trenberth, K.E. and Milliman, J.D.2009: Changes in continental freshwater discharge from 1948 to 2004. Journal of Climate22, 2773-92.
14.
Donohue, R.J., Roderick, M.L. and McVicar, T.R.2007: On the importance of including vegetation dynamics in Budyko’s hydrological model. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences11, 983-95.
15.
Farley, K.A., Jobbágy, E.G. and Jackson, R.B.2005: Effects of afforestation on water yield: a global synthesis with implications for policy. Global Change Biology11, 1565-76.
16.
Field, C.B., Jackson, R.B. and Mooney, H.A.1995: Stomatal responses to increased CO2: implications from the plant to the global scale. Plant, Cell and Environment18, 1214-25.
17.
Gedney, N., Cox, P.M., Betts, R.A., Boucher, O., Huntingford, C. and Stott, P.A.2006: Detection of a direct carbon dioxide effect in continental river runoff records. Nature439, 835-38.
18.
Gerten, D., Rost, S., von Bloh, W. and Lucht, W.2008: Causes of change in 20th century global river discharge . Geophysical Research Letters35, L20405, DOI: 10.1029/2008GL035258.
19.
Hibbert, A.R.1967: Forest treatment effects on water yield. In Sopper, W.E. and Lull, H.W., editors, International symposium on forest hydrology , Oxford: Pergamon, 527-43.
20.
Hickel, K. and Zhang, L.2006: Estimating the impact of rainfall seasonality on mean annual water balance using a top-down approach. Journal of Hydrology331, 409-24.
21.
Körner, C.2006: Plant CO2 responses: an issue of definition, time and resource supply. New Phytologist172, 393-411.
22.
Koster, R.D. and Suarez, M.J.1999: A simple framework for examining the interannual variability of land surface moisture fluxes. Journal of Climate12, 1911-17.
23.
Kundzewicz, Z.W., Mata, L.J., Arnell, N.W., Döll, P., Jimenez, B., Miller, K., Oki, T., Şen, Z. and Shiklomanov, I.2008: The implications of projected climate change for freshwater resources and their management. Hydrological Sciences Journal53, 3-10.
24.
Kurz, W.A., Dymond, C.C., Stinson, G., Rampley, G.J., Neilson, E.T., Carroll, A.L., Ebata, T. and Safranyik, L.2008: Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change. Nature452, 987-90.
25.
Legates, D.R., Lins, H.F. and McCabe, G.J.2005: Comments on ‘Evidence for global runoff increase related to climate warming’ by Labat et al. Advances in Water Resources28, 1310-15.
26.
McCulloch, J.2007: All our yesterdays: a hydrological retrospective. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences11, 3-11.
27.
Millard, P., Sommerkorn, M. and Grelet, G.-A.2007: Environmental change and carbon limitation in trees: a biochemical, ecophysiological and ecosystem appraisal. New Phytologist175, 11-28.
28.
Milliman, J.D., Farnsworth, K.L., Jones, P.D., Xu, K.H. and Smith, L.C.2008: Climatic and anthropogenic factors affecting river discharge to the global ocean, 1951-2000. Global and Planetary Change62, 187-94.
29.
Milly, P.C.D. and Dunne, K.A.2002: Macroscale water fluxes 2. Water and energy supply control of their interannual variability. Water Resources Research38(10), 1206, DOI: 10.1029/2001WR000760.
30.
Oudin, L., Andréassian, V., Lerat, J. and Michel, C.2008: Has land cover a significant impact on mean annual streamflow? An international assessment using 1508 catchments. Journal of Hydrology357, 303-16.
31.
Peel, M.C. and McMahon, T.A.2006: Continental runoff: a quality-controlled global runoff data set. Nature444, E14.
32.
Peel, M.C., Finlayson, B.L. and McMahon, T.A.2007: Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification . Hydrology and Earth System Sciences11, 1633-44.
33.
Piao, S., Friedlingstein, P., Ciais, P., de Noblet-Ducoudré, N., Labat, D. and Zaehle, S.2007: Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA104, 15,242-47.
34.
Potter, N.J. and Zhang, L.2009: Interannual variability of catchment water balance in Australia. Journal of Hydrology369, 120-29.
35.
Sahin, V. and Hall, M.J.1996: The effects of afforestation and deforestation on water yields. Journal of Hydrology178, 293-309.
36.
Sankarasubramanian, A. and Vogel, R.M.2002: Annual hydroclimatology of the United States. Water Resources Research38(6), 1083, DOI: 10.1029/2001WR000619.
37.
Silveira, L. and Alonso, J.2009: Runoff modifications due to the conversion of natural grasslands to forests in a large basin in Uruguay. Hydrological Processes23, 320-29.
38.
Siriwardena, L., Finlayson, B.L. and McMahon, T.A.2006: The impact of land use change on catchment hydrology in large catchments: the Comet River, Central Queensland, Australia. Journal of Hydrology326, 199-214.
39.
Sivapalan, M., Blöschl, G., Zhang, L. and Vertessy, R.2003: Downward approach to hydrological prediction. Hydrological Processes17, 2101-11.
40.
van Dijk, A.I.J.M. and Keenan, R.J.2007: Planted forests and water in perspective. Forest Ecology and Management251, 1-9.
41.
Vertessy, R.A., Watson, F.G.R. and O’Sullivan, S.K.2001: Factors determining relations between stand age and catchment water balance in mountain ash forests. Forest Ecology and Management143, 13-26.
42.
Westerling, A.L., Hidalgo, H.G., Cayan, D.R. and Swetnam, T.W.2006: Warming and earlier spring increase western USA forest wildfire activity. Science313, 940-43.
43.
Whitehead, D. and Beadle, C.L.2004: Physiological regulation of productivity and water use in Eucalyptus: a review. Forest Ecology and Management193, 113-40.
44.
Wood, S.A., Beringer, J., Hutley, L.B., McGuire, A.D., van Dijk, A. and Kilinc, M.2008: Impacts of fire on forest age and runoff in mountain ash forests. Functional Plant Biology35, 483-92.
45.
Woodward, F.I. and Lomas, M.R.2004: Vegetation dynamics - simulating responses to climatic change. Biological Reviews79, 643-70.
46.
Zhang, L., Dawes, W.R. and Walker, G.R.2001: Response of mean annual evapotranspiration to vegetation changes at catchment scale. Water Resources Research37, 701-708.
47.
Zhang, L., Hickel, K., Dawes, W.R., Chiew, F.H.S., Western, A.W. and Briggs, P.R.2004: A rational function approach for estimating mean annual evapotranspiration. Water Resources Research40, W02502, DOI: 10.1029/2003WR002710.
48.
Zhang, L., Potter, N., Hickel, K., Zhang, Y. and Shao, Q.2008: Water balance modeling over variable time scales based on the Budyko framework - model development and testing. Journal of Hydrology360, 117-31.
49.
Zhang, Y.-K. and Schilling, K.E.2006: Increasing streamflow and baseflow in Mississippi River since the 1940 s: Effect of land use change. Journal of Hydrology324, 412-22.
