Impact of anthropogenic stress on runoff changes exceeded natural factors in the Yihe River, a typical rocky mountain river in northern China
摘要
As an important component of global surface water resources, river runoff is crucial for guiding regional ecological construction and sustainable utilization. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the impact of anthropogenic stress, including the development and utilization of water resources, soil and water control projects, land-use changes, and the construction of water conservancy projects, on changes in runoff in rocky mountain rivers. This study focused on the runoff variation and influencing factors of the Yihe River (YHR), a typical rocky mountain river in northern China, from 1951 to 2020. The results showed that the YHR’s runoff has shown a significantly decreasing trend from 1951 to 2020 and the annual runoff of YHR varied from 0.62 × 108 to 62.10 × 108 m3 with an average value of 20.23 × 108 m3/a over the past 70 years. There were three runoff variation periodicities, 6a, 12a, and 24a, respectively. Precipitation was the primary source of runoff in the YHR, which contributed 48.38% to runoff reduction between 1966 and 2020, and the impact of anthropogenic stress (including the development and utilization of water resources, soil and water control projects, land-use changes, and the construction of water conservancy projects) on the YHR runoff reduction exceeded natural factors from 1966 to 2020, with an average contribution rate of 51.62%. Thus, the ecological environment and water resource management of the YHR will face more serious challenges owing to continuously increasing anthropogenic stress in the future.