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Streamflow Input to Lake Athabasca, Canada

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Streamflow Input to Lake Athabasca, Canada EGU Journal Logos (RGB) Open Access Open Access Open Access Advances in Annales Nonlinear Processes Geosciences Geophysicae in Geophysics Open Access Open Access Natural Hazards Natural Hazards and Earth System and Earth System Sciences Sciences Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric Chemistry Chemistry and Physics and Physics Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric Measurement Measurement Techniques Techniques Discussions Open Access Open Access Biogeosciences Biogeosciences Discussions Open Access Open Access Climate Climate of the Past of the Past Discussions Open Access Open Access Earth System Earth System Dynamics Dynamics Discussions Open Access Geoscientific Geoscientific Open Access Instrumentation Instrumentation Methods and Methods and Data Systems Data Systems Discussions Open Access Open Access Geoscientific Geoscientific Model Development Model Development Discussions Open Access Open Access Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 1681–1691, 2013 Hydrology and Hydrology and www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/17/1681/2013/ doi:10.5194/hess-17-1681-2013 Earth System Earth System © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Sciences Sciences Discussions Open Access Open Access Ocean Science Ocean Science Discussions Streamflow input to Lake Athabasca, Canada Open Access Open Access K. Rasouli1, M. A. Hernandez-Henr´ ´ıquez2, and S. J. Dery´ 2 Solid Earth Solid Earth 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W., Waterloo, Discussions ON, N2L 3G1, Canada 2Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada Open Access Open Access Correspondence to: S. J. Dery´ ([email protected]) The Cryosphere The Cryosphere Discussions Received: 4 July 2012 – Published in Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.: 2 August 2012 Revised: 24 March 2013 – Accepted: 7 April 2013 – Published: 2 May 2013 Abstract. The Lake Athabasca drainage area in northern forms a large, natural reservoir of freshwater in the upper Canada encompasses ecologically rich and sensitive ecosys- reaches of the 1.8 × 106 km2 Mackenzie River basin, thus tems, vast forests, glacier-clad mountains, and abundant oil influencing the timing and amount of pan-Arctic river dis- reserves in the form of oil sands. The basin includes the charge (e.g., McClelland et al., 2006). It is the site of the Peace–Athabasca Delta, recognized internationally by UN- ecologically sensitive Peace–Athabasca Delta (PAD) that de- ESCO and the Ramsar Convention as a biologically rich in- pends on spring flood events for freshwater recharge (Peters land delta and wetland that are now under increasing pressure et al., 2006; Smith and Pavelsky, 2009; Wolfe et al., 2008a,b). from multiple stressors. In this study, streamflow variability The Athabasca River, the longest river entirely within Al- and trends for rivers feeding Lake Athabasca are investigated berta, is especially important for societal needs and economic over the last half century. Hydrological regimes and trends development such as for domestic water consumption and for are established using a robust regime shift detection method irrigation of agricultural lands. This waterway is also impor- and the Mann–Kendall (MK) test, respectively. Results show tant for the oil sands industry near Fort McMurray, Alberta, that the Athabasca River, which is the main contributor to as bitumen extraction requires significant amounts of water the total lake inflow, experienced marked declines in recent that are currently being sourced from the river itself. Thus decades impacting lake levels and its ecosystem. From 1960 the cumulative impacts of industrial and other anthropogenic to 2010 there was a significant reduction in lake inflow and a activities, in addition to climate change, are affecting the significant recession in the Lake Athabasca level. Our trend lake’s water balance and surrounding ecosystem (Schindler analysis corroborates a previous study using proxy data ob- and Donahue, 2006). tained from nearby sediment cores suggesting that the lake Previous studies on streamflow variability and trends in the level may drop 2 to 3 m by 2100. The lake recession may Lake Athabasca watershed have focused on the Athabasca threaten the flora and fauna of the Athabasca Lake basin and River itself. Summer streamflow in the headwaters of the negatively impact the ecological cycle of an inland freshwa- Athabasca River declined by about 0.2 % per year over the ter delta and wetland of global importance. 20th century, reducing riparian groundwater recharge and imposing water deficit stress on floodplain forests (Rood et al., 2008). Further downstream, May to August streamflow declined by 33.3 % from 1970 to 2003 on the Athabasca 1 Introduction River near Fort McMurray in response to receding Rocky Mountain glaciers and lower snowpack levels (Schindler and Lake Athabasca, straddling the provinces of Alberta and Donahue, 2006). Abdul Aziz and Burn (2006) found strong Saskatchewan, forms the third largest lake (by area) in north- increasing trends in the December to April flows, as well ern Canada. It receives direct runoff from a large catchment 2 as in the annual minimum flow, in the Athabasca River sys- area spanning 271 000 km including the Athabasca, Fond tem. They also reported weak decreasing trends in the early du Lac, and other small river catchments. Lake Athabasca Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1682 K. Rasouli et al.: Streamflow input to Lake Athabasca, Canada summer and late fall flows as well as in the annual mean includes the Peace–Athabasca Delta (PAD), which is a wet- flow for the Athabasca River. Woo and Thorne (2003) re- land of international importance recognized by the Ramsar ported increasing variability in annual streamflow of the Convention and UNESCO for its biologically rich delta now Athabasca River near Fort McMurray in the late 20th cen- subject to multiple stressors (Wolfe et al., 2012). The PAD tury. Recent sediment cores extracted from a pond adjacent is also an important bird migration staging point and forms to Lake Athabasca place the recent hydrological variability part of the habitat for the largest bison herd in North America of the Athabasca River into a 5200 yr context (Wolfe et al., (Bennett et al., 1973). 2011). Their proxy record of water levels of Lake Athabasca The Fond du Lac River flows from Wollaston Lake to shows drops between 2–4 m below the 20th century mean in Black Lake, and there are twenty-eight rapids or falls along the mid-Holocene that may reoccur by 2100 with continued the river. Up to 86 % of the Athabasca–Fond du Lac river climate change. drainage area has been gauged for at least 20 yr in the last Despite some of these recent advances in our knowledge few decades. The two largest rivers by contributing area are of the hydrology of the Lake Athabasca basin, little informa- the Athabasca River (∼ 150 000 km2) and the Fond du Lac tion exists on total streamflow input to Lake Athabasca. Pre- River (∼ 50 000 km2). There is also a number of smaller vious studies have focused on the Athabasca River itself but rivers draining into Lake Athabasca, mainly on its south- have not investigated lake inflows from other main contrib- ern shore including the MacFarlane, Douglas, Grease, Oth- utors such as the Fond du Lac River and other small rivers erside, Richardson and William rivers. The lower reaches of that collectively contribute ∼ 43 % of its total input. In the the Athabasca River begin at Fort McMurray, where the river current research, we investigate quantitative changes through is joined by the Clearwater River. During ice-jam floods, the analysis of hydrological regime variability and trends across Peace River may overflow into Lake Athabasca and act as the Lake Athabasca basin using an observational data set of a hydraulic barrier to lake outflow when the river level is streamflow. The total streamflow input to Lake Athabasca higher than the lake level. Lake Athabasca covers an area and the gauge contribution of different tributaries from 1960 of 7800 km2 and its mean depth is about 20 m (Peters and to 2010 are also examined. Furthermore, the reasons and pe- Buttle, 2010). The lake basin has long, cold winters and rel- riods of decline in lake level, as well as the prospects for the atively short summers. No less than 50 % of the total lake in- future, are investigated and compared with the results found flow occurs over May–August (Muzik, 1991). Mean annual from the nearby sediment core studies. Thus the main objec- air temperature at the nearby Fort Chipewyan meteorologi- tive of this study is to assess the changes in streamflow input cal station is −1.9 ◦C and 59 % of the annual precipitation to Lake Athabasca and to compare these results with recent occurs during May–September (Wolfe et al., 2008b). sediment core studies in the area. In the next sections, the study area and data are introduced. Next, the methodology and hydrological regime variability and trend detection tools 3 Data and methods are explained. The results follow and the paper ends with a discussion of the implications of our work. 3.1 Data sources A list of the 14 gauges on the rivers and lake shore for mea- 2 Study site suring the lake level used in the present study along with their identification numbers and geographical information is The Lake Athabasca basin is located between 52◦100 N summarized in Table 1. The source of the data is the Water and 60◦100 N and 100◦ W and 120◦ W, covering an area Survey of Canada. Daily streamflow data (in m3 s−1) are ex- of 271 000 km2 in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan tracted and compiled to form annual time series. Streamflow and Alberta as well as the Northwest Territories (Fig. 1). variability between two immediate gauges on the Athabasca The catchment elevation varies between 3747 m at Mount River, hereafter referred to as “gauge contribution”, is deter- Columbia and 205 m near the lake shore.
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