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Trends in flow intermittence for European Rivers
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  • Yves Tramblay,
  • Agnieszka Rutkowska,
  • Eric Sauquet,
  • Catherine Sefton,
  • Gregor Laaha,
  • Marzena Osuch,
  • Teresa Albuquerque,
  • Maria Helena Alves,
  • Kazimierz BANASIK,
  • Aurelien Beaufort,
  • Luca Brocca,
  • Stefania Camici,
  • Csabai Zoltán,
  • Hammouda Dakhlaoui,
  • ANNA MARIA DE GIROLAMO,
  • Gerald Dörflinger,
  • Francesc Gallart,
  • Tobias Gauster,
  • Lahoucine Hanich,
  • Silvia Kohnova,
  • Luis Mediero,
  • Ninov Plamen,
  • Simon Parry,
  • Pere Quintana-Seguí,
  • Ourania Tzoraki,
  • Thibault Datry
Yves Tramblay
HydroSciences Montpellier

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Agnieszka Rutkowska
University of Agriculture
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Eric Sauquet
INRAE
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Catherine Sefton
UKCEH
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Gregor Laaha
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU Vienna,
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Marzena Osuch
Institute of Geophysics PAS
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Teresa Albuquerque
University of Évora, Portugal
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Maria Helena Alves
Portuguese Environment Agency
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Kazimierz BANASIK
Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW
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Aurelien Beaufort
INRAE
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Luca Brocca
National Research Council
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Stefania Camici
National Research Council
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Csabai Zoltán
University of Pécs, Hungary
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Hammouda Dakhlaoui
Ecole Nationale des Ingénieurs de Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar
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ANNA MARIA DE GIROLAMO
Water Research Institute, National Research Council, Bari, Italy
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Gerald Dörflinger
Cyprus Ministry of Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment Water Development Department
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Francesc Gallart
CSIC
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Tobias Gauster
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU Vienna,
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Lahoucine Hanich
Faculté des Sciences et Techniques Guéliz, Université Cadi Ayyad
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Silvia Kohnova
Slovak University of Technology
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Luis Mediero
Polytechnic University of Madrid Superior Technical School of Agricultural Engineering Food Science and Biosystems
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Ninov Plamen
Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria
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Simon Parry
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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Pere Quintana-Seguí
Universitat Ramon Llull - CSIC
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Ourania Tzoraki
University of the Aegean, Greece
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Thibault Datry
National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture
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Abstract

Intermittent rivers are prevalent in many countries across Europe and in Mediterranean countries outside Europe, but little is known about the temporal evolution of intermittency characteristics and their relationships with climate variability. In this study, a trend analysis is performed on the annual and seasonal number of zero-flow days, the maximum duration of dry spells and the mean date of the zero-flow events, on a database of 452 rivers in European and in Mediterranean countries outside Europe, with varying degrees of intermittence. In addition, the relationships between flow intermittence and climate are investigated using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and six climate indices describing large scale atmospheric circulation. Results indicated a strong spatial variability of the seasonal patterns of intermittence and the annual and seasonal number of zero-flow days, which highlights the controls exerted by local catchment properties. Most of the detected trends indicate an increasing number of zero-flow days which also tend to occur earlier in the year, in particular in Southern Europe. The SPEI is found to be strongly related to the annual and seasonal zero-flow day occurrence in more than half of the stations for different accumulation times between 12 and 24 months. Conversely, there is a weak dependence of river intermittence with large-scale circulation indices. Overall, these results suggest increased water stress in intermittent rivers that may affect their biota and biochemistry and also reduce available water resources.