Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Wood Science and Technology

Committee Chair

Nicolas Zegre

Committee Co-Chair

Eungul Lee

Committee Member

Michael Strager

Abstract

Global air temperature has risen 0.74°C over the last 100 years, and is one of several factors influencing climate and streamflow variability at global, regional, and local scales. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is another important factor contributing to climate variability by influencing the intensity of storms entering the eastern US. The Southeastern US is receiving less precipitation and streamflow is decreasing while the northeastern US is receiving greater amounts of precipitation and increasing streamflows. West Virginia is typically overlooked being on the border of both of these regions; therefore the objective of this study is to fill knowledge gaps surrounding WV's historical hydroclimatological trends. Understanding West Virginia's climate and streamflow variability is important to inform governmental policy about future problems related to water availability, water withdraws, and pollution loading. To investigate variability related to climatic change in West Virginia, we analyzed long term streamflow records (1930-2011) using the non-parametric Mann Kendall trend tests. The non-parametric Mann Kendall trend test was selected to assess for systematic change over time within non-normally distributed streamflow data. In addition, NAO indices were correlated with modeled precipitation data and mean seasonal streamflow to investigate and characterize hydroclimatological variability. Results show that NAO is correlated with precipitation within West Virginia and that streamflow is increasing, however results show that streamflow is not correlated with NAO suggesting other controls not accounted for in this study.

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