Forest Impacts on Peak Runoff Revealed by Accounting for the Effects of Climate

Journal article

Plain Language Summary: It is often challenging to identify how land cover affects peak river flows across many catchments because climate differences among catchments often mask land‐cover effects. Here we quantify the runoff response per unit of rainfall in 252 U.S. catchments and minimize climate‐driven differences by grouping runoff responses according to antecedent wetness at the time of rainfall. For similar antecedent wetness conditions, peak runoff response decreases as forest cover increases. Peak runoff response is 16%–63% lower in forested catchments than in catchments dominated by cropland and grassland. This indicates that forest impacts on peak river flows emerge after accounting for the effects of climate.

Authors: Liu, S; Kirchner, JW; Slater, LJ; Floriancic, MG; van Meerveld, I

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 6
• Article number: e2025GL121139
• Publication date: 2026-03-16
• Acceptance date: 2026-03-04
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl121139
• EISSN: 1944-8007
• ISSN: 0094-8276
• Language: English