New Mexico EPSCoR RII3: Climate Change Impacts on New Mexico's Mountain Sources of Water

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Goals: This Research Infrastructure Improvement award seeks to improve observational modeling and analysis of high elevation hydroclimatology by strengthening the instrumentation and modeling infrastructure. A second goal is to address a critical state problem with global significance ? understanding and forecasting the effects of climate change on water supply and water quality in arid regions. Climate changes are affecting natural environments around the world. In New Mexico, climate changes are altering processes associated with water supply, which sustains New Mexico?s economy and determines, to a large extent, the quality of life. This multidisciplinary effort will transform climate change science and policymaking in New Mexico by providing the tools required for quantitative, science-driven discussion of difficult water policy options facing the state, and will create a citizenry that is informed about climate change and its impact on natural resources. Project Major Foci: The research will address the influence of large scale atmospheric circulations on regional and local atmospheric processes and explore how hydrometeorological fluctuations propagate into changes in surface flows downstream. Given the uncertainties associated with global coupled model projections across southwestern North America, the research will examine the covariability of precipitation and land anomalies in these projections as they relate to the Southwest. Land-atmosphere feedbacks associated with snowpack at high elevation may be of first-order importance in modulating the transition from winter to summer precipitation in the current climate. Thus, characterizing and properly simulating the full seasonal hydrological cycle in regions with winter snowpack is critical for process-based analysis and for projections of stream flows in New Mexico, motivating the proposal?s focus on the upstream portion of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico. Intellectual Merit The impacts of climate change on New Mexico are profound and are altering processes associated with the water supply for the region. Proposed research infrastructure improvements will enable scientists to observe processes at the watershed scale and to understand the effects of climate change on water supply, water sources, and water quality in arid regions. New Mexico EPSCoR proposes to strategically invest in building a robust hydrologic infrastructure to develop a better understanding of the relationship of high elevation events to downstream water supplies. This capability is needed for meaningful forecasting and decision support. New cyberinfrastructure will support multi-scale modeling and rapid delivery of climate change data and information to scientists, educators, decision-makers, and the public. Broader Impacts New Mexico EPSCoR research foci are of global scientific and societal importance. The investment in research, cyberinfrastructure and human infrastructure will establish New Mexico as a laboratory for climate change and a model for science-based public policy that can serve science and society. Education, outreach and diversity programs will create a citizenry that is informed about climate change and its impact on natural resources.