# Upper Missouri River Basin 1,200 Year Streamflow Reconstructions #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program # National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # Template Version 3.0 # Encoding: UTF-8 # NOTE: Please cite Publication, and Online_Resource and date accessed when using these data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigators, Title, and Online_Resource and date accessed. # # Online_Resource: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/26831 # Description: NOAA Landing Page # Online_Resource: https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/treering/reconstructions/northamerica/upper-missouri/readme-upper-missouri-streamflow.txt # Description: NOAA location of the template # # Original_Source_URL: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5cf6c197e4b0d63728b9b459 # Description: USGS ScienceBase Data Repository # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Archive: Climate Reconstructions # # Dataset DOI: # # Parameter_Keywords: streamflow #-------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2019-08-09 #-------------------- # File_Last_Modified_Date # Date: 2019-08-09 #-------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Upper Missouri River Basin 1,200 Year Streamflow Reconstructions #-------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Martin, J.T.; Pederson, G.T.; Woodhouse, C.A.; Cook, E.R.; McCabe, G.J.; Wise, E.K.; Erger, P.; Dolan, L.; McGuire, M.; Gangopadhyay, S.; Chase, K.; Littell, J.S.; Gray, S.T.; St. George, S.; Friedman, J.; Sauchyn, D.; St. Jacques, J.; King, J. #-------------------- # Description_Notes_and_Keywords # Description: Upper Missouri River instrumental and reconstructed streamflow data for 31 gage stations over the past 1,200 years. # Data are in the file "UMRB-Streamflow-Data.csv". Gage station IDs and locations are in the file "UMRB-Stream-Gage-Spatial-Data.csv". # Streamflow-Data file includes instrumental (observed_flow) and reconstructed (reconstructed_flow) streamflow data, # plus confidence intervals, defined by the "variable" column of the "UMRB-Streamflow-Data.csv" file. # The data were generated to provide annual water-year (Oct-Sep) streamflow values spanning years 800-1998 CE for a network of 31 # water manager selected stream gages in the Upper Missouri River Basin. The data was specifically developed to be used in water # management and drought planning work. For this project, reconstructed annual naturalized (i.e. the affect of human modifications, # irrigation, and diversions are accounted and adjusted for in the annual streamflow records) streamflow time series were # disaggregated to daily flow estimates and used to drive RiverWare operations models developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation # to test current operational rules under periods of severe drought or high flow variability. # # Paleohydrologic records provide a valuable perspective on the variability of streamflow and hydroclimate that is critical for # water resource planning and placing present day and future conditions into a long-term context. Until now, key insights gained # from streamflow reconstructions in the other river basins across the Western U.S. been lacking in the Upper Missouri River Basin # due to a lack of extended streamflow records. Here we utilize a new database of naturalized streamflow records for the Upper # Missouri and an expanded network of tree-ring records from the region to reconstruct streamflow at 31 gaging locations across # the major Mountain Headwaters of the United States' largest river basin. The database also includes an Upper Missouri Basin Basin # composite record of streamflow that is not specific to any streamgage location, but rather summarizes streamflow variability # across all the major gaging locations in the Upper Missouri River. The reconstructions explain an average of 68% of the variability # in the observed streamflow records and extend records of streamflow to C.E. 886 on average. The network of streamflow reconstructions # presented here fills a major geographical void in paleohydrologic understanding and provides important data resources to water # managers balancing increasing water demands for hydropower, irrigation, navigation, and ecological resources with increasing flood # risk in the basin. #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Justin T. Martin, Gregory T. Pederson, Connie A. Woodhouse, Edward R. Cook, Gregory J. McCabe, Erika K. Wise, Patrick Erger, Larry Dolan, Marketa McGuire, Subhrendu Gangopadhyay, Katherine Chase, Jeremy S. Littell, Stephen T. Gray, Scott St. George, Jonathan Friedman, Dave Sauchyn, Jeannine St. Jacques, John King # Published_Date_or_Year: 2019-11-15 # Published_Title: 1200 years of Upper Missouri River streamflow reconstructed from tree rings # Journal_Name: Quaternary Science Reviews # Volume: 224 # Edition: 105971 # Issue: # Pages: # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105971 # Online_Resource: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379119306985 # Full_Citation: # Abstract: Paleohydrologic records can provide unique, long-term perspectives on streamflow variability and hydroclimate for use in water resource planning. Such long-term records can also play a key role in placing both present day events and projected future conditions into a broader context than that offered by instrumental observations. However, relative to other major river basins across the western United States, a paucity of streamflow reconstructions has to date prevented the full application of such paleohydrologic information in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Here we utilize a set of naturalized streamflow records for the Upper Missouri and an expanded network of tree-ring records to reconstruct streamflow at thirty-one gaging locations across the major headwaters of the basin. The reconstructions explain an average of 68% of the variability in the observed streamflow records and extend available records of streamflow back to 886 CE on average. Basin-wide analyses suggest unprecedented hydroclimatic variability over the region during the Medieval period, similar to that observed in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and show considerable synchrony of persistent wet-dry phasing with the Colorado River over the last 1200 years. Streamflow estimates in individual sub-basins of the Upper Missouri demonstrate increased spatial variability in discharge during the Little Ice Age (~1400-1850 CE) compared with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (~800-1400 CE). The network of streamflow reconstructions presented here fills a major geographical void in paleohydrologic understanding and now allows for a long-term assessment of hydrological variability over the majority of the western U.S. #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: US Geological Survey # Grant: #------------------ # Site_Information # Site_Name: Upper Missouri River Basin # Location: North America # Country: # Northernmost_Latitude: 49.74 # Southernmost_Latitude: 37.09 # Easternmost_Longitude: -102.08 # Westernmost_Longitude: -113.94 # Elevation: #------------------ # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: UMRB2019streamflow # Earliest_Year: 800 # Most_Recent_Year: 2015 # Time_Unit: Year CE # Core_Length: # Notes: #------------------ # Chronology_Information # Chronology: # #---------------- # Variables # # Data variables follow are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Data line variables format: one per line, shortname-tab-variable components (what, material, error, units, seasonality, data type,detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data, free text) # ## age_CE age, , , year Common Era, , , , ,N, ## streamflow streamflow, , , cubic feet per second, ,climate reconstructions,,,N, # #---------------- # Data: # Data lines follow (have no #) # Data line format - tab-delimited text, variable short name as header # Missing Values: #