CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Fleming, S.W.; and Clarke, G.K.C.
Date : 2003.
Title : Glacial moderation of streamflow variability: results from spectral and nonparametric statistical analyses.
Publication : Canadian Geophysical Union. Annual Meeting, May 10 -14, 2003. Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Discharge data from five glacier-fed and four nival rivers in southwest Yukon and northwestern British Columbia were assessed for glacial dampening of streamflow fluctuations. The annual hydrograph here is dominated by summer snow- and ice-melt. Applying nonparametric statistical analysis to a suite of annual streamflow-derived time series, we find that interannual variabilities in robust measures of freshet magnitude and timing scale inversely with degree of watershed glacial cover (P =0.05), but the coefficients of variation in winter baseflow measures do not. In addition, daily discharge time series from each of the nine study rivers were subjected to spectral analysis, which decomposes total dataset variance into its constituent timescales of variability. Apparent contrasts in the red noise power spectra of glacial and nival systems are broadly consistent with the rank-based coefficient of variation analysis, and may suggest that catchment glacierization primarily moderates streamflow variability occurring at timescales of about two years and less in this region.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology